Mike Joyce is best known for being the drummer for the Smiths, who are regarded as one of the most important acts to come out of the British independent music scene of the ‘80s.
The group broke up in 1987 due to some internal tensions between the members, which led to several public lawsuits over royalties. The members have said multiple times before that they will never work together again as the Smiths.
While speaking to Far Out Magazine, Joyce talked about Johnny Marr, the guitarist and composer of The Smiths who achieved fame from performing for the band from 1982 to 1987.
Speaking about how things turned sour between Morrissey and Marr during the final days of The Smiths, Joyce said as far as he and Rourke knew, everything seemed fine until Marr left. He even went as far as to say that 99.0% of the whole thing was in Johnny and Morrissey’s minds. It was also so shocking that, apparently, nobody had foreseen the move coming.
“I think 99.9 per cent of it was kind of generated in the minds of Johnny and Morrissey. It was such a shock when Johnny said that he wanted to leave the band. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody.”
According to Joyce, things seemed so cordial between the two bandmates that no one suspected that there could be any bad blood between them.
“And then, if there would have been some fighting in the studio or sounds checks, or in hotels or gigs, then I think it wouldn’t have been such a shock. It might have been a bit easier for me to swallow that pill.”
