Morrissey hits out at Capitol Records for promoting Sam Smith’s ‘satanism’

Morrissey has launched his latest furious tirade at former label Capitol Records for apparently shelving his unreleased album Bonfire of Teenagers when he exited the label at the end of 2022.

In a statement shared on his website, the singer compared Capitol’s decision not to release Bonfire of Teenagers with its continued release of Smith’s records. The latter has released all four of their albums – starting with 2014’s In the Lonely Hour – 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,” Morrissey’s statement reads.

It’s thought that Morrissey’s reference to Satanism reflects the criticism Smith faced when they recently appeared at the Grammy Awards alongside Kim Petras to perform their award-winning collab ‘Unholy’. During the performance, Smith wore a hat fashioned with devil horns, while performing against a backdrop of red lighting and dancers writhing in metal cages.

It immediately prompted hysterical reactions from right-wing pundits who said Smith and Petras were teaching children to ‘worship Satan’.

Morrissey first announced the album’s arrival via Capitol in October 2022, but said in December that he had ‘voluntarily withdrawn’ from any association with the label.

A subsequent statement earlier this month saw him claim that the label maintained ownership of the record, but refused to release it.

“Although [Morrissey] 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,” the statement read.