As announced last week, famed singer and former Smiths frontman Morrissey is set to return to Nashville this summer, July 2, for a performance at the Grand Ole Opry House– his first show at the venue since ’92 (though he just played Nashville for the first time in a decade last summer at The Ryman).
Last year took an especially dramatic turn for the singer. Riding high on the success of his Autobiography, and after several years in musical limbo, he inked a deal with Harvest Records to release his latest album, World Peace Is None of Your Business. Soon after, and following a strange string of spoken word videos, Moz and the label had a falling out, where it was reveled that his contract was anything but ironclad, resulting in the album being pulled from digital distributors and effectively leaving the singer without a label home once more.
The lack of a proper music video budget was, apparently, a huge point of contention between the Pope of Mope and Harvest, and now, without any sort of backing, the singer has apparently taken matters into his own hands, teaming up with director Sam Esty Rayner to release a video for World Peace track “Kiss Me a Lot.” The result is, um, interesting. While we’re huge fans of the track (and, obviously, of the man himself), the video, which features strange head on live footage of Morrissey and his band (pretty cool) in between shots of models in lingerie (uh, we guess Moz ok’d this?) feels a bit rushed and low budget. Don’t let that deter you from anticipation over the Opry show though; Morrissey is a phenomenal live performer and the concert is sure to be legendary. Grab your tickets beginning Friday, April 10 at 10 a.m. CDT (or snag pre-sales one day prior through the LiveNation mobile app or website with the password ‘Performer’). Watch “Kiss Me a Lot” below.