After an interview on Marc Riley’s BBC 6music radio show in which former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce claimed that he was facing a difficult financial situation due to legal battles over royalties with Morrissey and Johnny Marr over the last 15 year and would start selling rare Smiths material to make ends meet, Morrissey has hit back angrily.

In statement released to to true-to-you.net, a Morrissey fansite, the singer said, “Joyce is not poor, unless, living as he does in the Cheshire green-belt, he lives beyond his means. Somehow, he appears to believe that he should have equal financial status to both myself and to Johnny Marr, even though Joyce has done dramatically less than Johnny and I to attain the positions we now have.”

The document lists in detail the ongoing legal battle between the Morrissey and Joyce, which began in 1989 after the drummer claimed he was owed more than the 10% royalty he was then receiving. Morrissey estimates that since then Joyce has cost him approximately £1,515,000 (including £600,000 in legal fees) and that he himself, Johnny Marr, Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and producers John Porter, Stephen Street, Grant Showbiz and Steve Lillywhite have not received any royalties for Smiths recordings since 2001 as Joyce has taken them all.

On the subject of the rare Smiths items Joyce is planning to sell, which includes at least one unreleased instrumental track, Morrissey says, “[He] does not have the legal right to sell unreleased Smiths material - it belongs to Warner Music. [He] did not pay for the recording time under which any demo material was recorded. Furthermore, [he] cannot sell any unreleased work by Johnny Marr or Andy Rourke without, at very least, their permission.”

Click here to read the statement in full.