Amanda Palmer Has Just The Idea For Morrissey

“I’ve bought tickets to see you lots of times. You shaped my head and my heart as a teenager, and to this day continue to impact my various artistic forays,” Palmer wrote in the open letter published on Salon.com.

When she had the chance to meet the singer eight years ago at a festival in Germany that both he and The Dresden Dolls were playing, she declined an invitation because she “couldn’t stomach the idea” of Morrissey meeting her and not liking her.

But now she’s been inspired to write Morrissey the open letter after reading an article online about how he hasn’t been able to find a label to put out his new music.

A Guardian article Palmer linked to referenced an interview Morrissey did with a Mexico radio station in March in which he once again talked about his troubles securing a label.

“Yes, I have a lot of songs,” Morrissey said. “A great deal. We could record three studio albums immediately, very easily. But none of the majors (labels) are interested. And I’ve approached a few and they’ve said no, and I think it’s a question of age really.”

Palmer’s fans raised nearly $1.2 million for her 2012 LP, Theatre Is Evil, through her Kickstarter campaign – so why couldn’t something like that work for Morrissey?

She says she’s already checked with her own fans, explaining that she asked her Twitter followers if they would pay $5 to crowdfund/pre-order a digital-only Morrissey album. Within a few hours, more than 1,400 tweets were sent saying yes.

But of course, Palmer says Moz could expect many more of his own fans to chip in because he’s “actually Morrissey” and has “some of the most fanatical fans in the world.” She did the math for him, estimating that if 500,000 people backed his album at $5 each, once he paid management and a digital team and subtracted the cost of making the album, he’d earn about $1.5 million.

Pretty good deal, huh? And Palmer said she knows people who can help him with “the small headache of getting the digital information to a bunch of people” and could even help out herself by sharing all of the things she’s personally learned.

Only problem is that Palmer acknowledges that Morrissey “almost definitely won’t do this” and may think she’s “a bothersome asshole for writing” the open letter.

But Palmer had to offer her help. After all, she’s practically like one of his kids.

She told Moz that “you may be the end of a family line, but you have spawned a lot of singing, songwriting children, whether you like it or not, and I proudly count myself as one of them.”

Well, Palmer is right about one thing – Morrissey almost definitely won’t crowdfund his next album.

In the interview with the Mexican radio station Moz had this to say in response to a question about recording on a DIY basis:

“It doesn’t interest me, it doesn’t interest me really. It wasn’t the way I was raised. I’ve never had any interest in doing it yourself. It’s not the instinct I have. I was always interested in major labels and being a part of major labels, and being a part of the machinery and I began on an independent label so it’s not something I want to relive twice.”