After battling illness for the better part of the last week and pulling himself together for a critically acclaimed performance in Boston over the weekend, Morrissey has announced that he will not be finishing his current US tour due to ongoing respiratory infection.

Last night, our friends at Vanyaland received a message alerting them to the news Morrissey was canceling the remaining dates of his current tour. The letter was written by the PR team for the former Smiths’ frontman and can be read in full below:

It is with great sadness that the remainder of the US Tour has been cancelled. The respiratory infection Morrissey contracted in Miami has worsened, and in the interest of making a full recovery, all further touring plans have been halted. Morrissey thanks his fans for their compassion, understanding, and well-wishes during this difficult period as he recuperates.

You can view the cities impacted by this decision at the end of this post.

With most tour cancellations, this would be where the story ends. Fans would be upset, the artist would recover, and in a few months another tour would be announced. But this is Morrissey, after all, and not long after news broke about the cancellation a post on Morrissey fan site True To You alleged that the person responsible for causing Moz’s sickness was none other than opener Kristeen Young. That post, which also outlined what the band supporting Morrissey believed to be the best shows of the tour, reads:

Morrissey announces the close down of the present U.S. tour with “unimaginable sorrow”.

On Saturday, June 7th, following the show at Boston Opera House, Morrissey collapsed and was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors treated Morrissey for “acute fever”. Difficulties had arisen on May 31st following Kristeen Young’s opening set at the Miami Knight Concert Hall, after which Kristeen confessed to “a horrendous cold”, the symptoms of which were passed on to Morrissey resulting in the cancellation of the next show in Atlanta.

For the good of all, Kristeen was asked to step down from the immediate upcoming shows, but instead she decided to leave the tour entirely. Morrissey and the band wish her well and hope she is now in good health.

Morrissey received medical attention in Miami, and once again in Boston, but it was not enough to shake off the virus, the recovery time for which is too lengthy to meet the final 9 shows of the tour.

Morrissey and the band are otherwise delighted and very grateful for their experiences on the U.S. tour, some shows of which they considered to be their best-ever, most notably:

1 BOSTON Opera House
2 LOS ANGELES Sports Arena
3 BEAUMONT Julie Rogers Theater
4 NASHVILLE Ryman Auditorium
5 MEMPHIS Orpheum Theater

Shortly after the above post went live and Moz supporters brought out their digital pitchforks to assault Kristeen Young, the artist everyone suddenly blamed for canceling Morrissey’s tour decided to speak for herself. Writing an open letter to anyone willing to listen, Ms. Young wrote:

Ok. Regarding the recent True-to-you statement from Morrissey: I did not “confess to a horrendous cold”. On Monday, June 2nd, I had an allergy attack that was over within 16 hours. I went to a doctor (on Monday, June 2nd), an allergy specialist, who gave me drugs for allergies…and they worked. I explained this (early on Tuesday, June 3rd) and offered this doctor’s phone number to Morrissey personally, via email, and the tour manager, Donnie Knutson (for proof….since they seemed to doubt me).

But, they NEVER followed up with me or said doctor. Also….it is incorrect that I “decided to leave the tour completely”. I was asked to leave. Was called (in the presence of my band as witnesses) by Morrissey’s booking agent, Dave Tamaroff, and told that there would be a new support band in Boston.

I am very sorry that Morrissey is not feeling well. But I will not tolerate these lies….particularly about my health. This is really too much and bizarre.

For the moment, this is where the story ends. No further comments have been released by Morrissey, his team, the band, or Ms. Young. If anything changes, we will be sure to let you know.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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