Morrissey claims Capitol Records chose Sam Smith’s “satanism” over his new album
Indie rocker Morrissey has criticised former label Capitol Records once more for allegedly shelving his album Bonfire of Teenagers, which followed his departure from the label late last year.
In a new statement posted on his website, the former Smiths vocalist compared Capitol’s decision not to release Bonfire of Teenagers with the promotion campaign around Sam Smith. Notably, Smith has released all four of their albums on the label.
“Capitol Records (Los Angeles) proudly promotes Sam Smith’s ‘satanism’; yet they consider the honest truth of Morrissey’s factual ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ to be their biggest threat and they will not release it despite their contractual obligation and promise to do so,” the statement reads.
The “satanism” Morrissey is referring to has been taken as Smith’s recent appearance at the Grammy Awards 2023. Performing the track ‘Unholy’ alongside Kim Petras, during the performance, Smith wore a hat with devil horns attached and was backed by red lighting, dancers in metal cages and pyrotechnics.
The performance caused outrage on the night, with some politicians, pundits and even conspiracy theorists accusing Smith and Petras of including Satanic elements. Conservative personality Liz Wheeler wrote: “Demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan”.
In October last year, Morrissey announced that his new album Bonfire of Teenagers would be released in 2023 via Capitol. However, in late December, he said he had “voluntarily withdrawn from any association with Capitol Records”. At the time, he also revealed that Miley Cyrus, who had “volunteered” to record the backing tracks for the album track ‘I Am Veronica’ back in 2020, had then asked to be removed from it.
Earlier this month, Morrissey released a statement suggesting that Capitol might be sabotaging his album. The statement read: “Although Morrissey officially signed to Capitol Records Los Angeles, there has been no mention of Morrissey on Capitol’s website or on their Artists roster. Morrissey has said that although he does not believe that Capitol Records in Los Angeles signed ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ in order to sabotage it, he is quickly coming around to that belief.”
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