Cliff Richard has said that he will not go vegetarian when he supports Morrissey in America later this year.
As reported on Thursday (February 13), Morrissey has announced two major US arena shows with support from Sir Tom Jones and Sir Cliff Richard. In a statement, Morrissey said he was “honoured and thrilled” to have Jones and Richard on the bills.
Speaking to BBC News about his upcoming US date, Cliff Richard said he was happy to be on the bill but would not follow the same dietary regime as the headliner: “I like to think he might eat some meat when I arrive, but I wouldn’t expect him to. So I don’t think he’d expect me to be vegetarian,” he said. Adding: “If I found he was offended by people eating meat then I won’t eat it in front of him. But I’ll have a chicken curry afterwards.”
Speaking about Morrissey himself, Richards admitted that he is not completely au fait with Morrissey’s back catalogue: “I checked on the internet and saw a couple of shots of him live, and his audiences look really – I don’t know how to say this – they look really nice,” he said. “They were swaying in the crowd and mouthing lyrics and I was thinking, ‘Oh, my audiences do that’. So maybe his audience will be kind to me.”
“I like to move and shake and leap around the stage and sing a variety of pop-rock songs like ‘Ocean Deep’ and ‘Miss You Nights’. Of course I’m going to do them,” said Richard of his stage show. “I’m just going to make it really difficult for Morrissey to follow me.”