$50 Million For a Smiths Reunion?

Aidin Vaziri | 07.02.2009

During an interview with Britain’s XFM radio station over the weekend, guitarist Johnny Marr claimed the Smiths have been offered upwards of $50 million to get back together – but added that even that wasn’t enough to get the iconic Manchester indie rock band to reunite.

“It's absolutely nothing to do with money," he said. "It's really abstract, it's pretty random.”

The offer was most likely made in 2006 when the organizers of the Coachella festival attempted to land the group whose members have clashed since breaking up in 1987. Drummer Mike Joyce filed a suit over unpaid royalties against Marr and frontman Morrissey in 1996, deepening the wounds.

In the past few years, Marr has kept busy as a member of Modest Mouse and the Cribs. He attempted to swat away the reunion talk during the radio interview, worried that whatever he said “would be all over the Internet.”

“I think we were offered 50 million dollars for three ... possibly five shows,” he said. “It's pretty obscene, it's pretty gross.”

Morrissey, meanwhile, has said he would “rather eat his own testicles” than revive the band. “Too much has happened really, and in actual truth, we don't actually like each other,” he said.

So that should put the rumors to rest for at least another week or two.