When two of indie music’s gobbiest stars take a disliking to each other, you know you’re going to get fireworks. And back in the ’80s, you didn’t get people more outspoken and opinionated than The Cure’s Robert Smith and The Smiths’ Morrissey, whose comments about each other would come to light up the music press for years.

In many ways, their animosity was based on a highly competitive rivalry. The two were made some of the best music of their generation, with a similar blend of gushing romanticism and caustic social comment that meant they were always bound to find themselves compared to one another.

According to Far Out magazine, the source of the feud can be traced to a rather edgy question posed to Morrissey in an interview with The Face, whose journalist asked him: “If I put you in a room with Robert Smith, Mark E. Smith [lead singer of The Fall], and a loaded Smith & Wesson, who would bite the bullet first?”

Morrissey claimed he would attempt to dispatch them both simultaneously, and stated: “Robert Smith is a whingebag. It’s rather curious that he began wearing beads at the emergence of the Smiths and had been photographed with flowers. I expect he’s quite supportive of what we do, but I’ve never liked the Cure… not even ‘The Caterpillar.'”

The Cure frontman later responded: “Morrissey’s so depressing if he doesn’t [kill] himself soon, I probably will.”

A war of words and a reconciliation

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