Former Smiths singer Steven Patrick Morrissey was one of the leading lights of the 1980s boom of Manchester post-punk rock, sensationalizing critics with his witty, sensitive lyricism, uniquely prissy stage presence, and obsession with being the only person in the band allowed to talk, but he had better move over!
A Seattle man named Trevor Murray Hammond is getting increasingly and worryingly conservative in his political and social opinions as he ages, and he loves the Moz almost as much as the singer does himself.
Both Morrissey and Hammond are vegetarian, but while Hammond originally adopted a lacto-ovo diet in order to reduce his cholesterol and maybe stop having a stomach ache all the time, he has now taken to describing the way he immediately demands a restaurant server tell him what on the menu is plant-based without even bothering to look as a “fundamental right.” Morrissey may call off entire concerts just because the venue once sold hot dogs, but Hammond is really stepping up his game, plus he claims to have read every letter that the singer sent Melody Maker as a teen to tell them how all their reviews were completely wrong.
And get this, even though Hammond is not actually British, he loves wearing a Union Jack t-shirt and claiming that the atrocities of colonialism under the British Empire need to be taken into “historical context,” whatever the fuck that means. Just like his hero Morrissey, he is becoming more and more of a staunch defender of “traditional values” (though not when it comes to his own sexual preferences or background) and also rarely acknowledges how most of the unacknowledged support in his life comes from Mexican-Americans.
In fact, much like his musical and outdated hairstyle idol, Hammond has frequently referred to people of color as “subhuman!”
Although this particular Last of the Famous International Playboys does not have the musical talents of Morrissey, he more than makes up for it with an ideology of cultural isolationism and resentment that is alienating pretty much everyone that has ever loved him
Just like Moz!