Morrissey Tells BBC Show He Considered Suicide

Morrissey appeared on the long-running BBC radio programme 'Desert Island Discs' on Sunday (Nov. 29), where he picked a playlist of 1970s songs and said he found the idea of suicide "honourable."

The BBC Radio 4 show's host Kirsty Young asked the former Smiths frontman, "Have you thought about being in control of your death? Have you thought about shuffling off this mortal coil at a time of your choosing?"

Morrissey replied: "Yes I have. Yes I have, and I think self-destruction is honourable. I always thought was. It's an act of great control and I understand people who do it."

The singer, 50, had touched on the subject of death earlier in the show. "I'm fascinated by the brevity of life and how people use their time, because we all know the actual fall. It's as inevitable as you and I sitting here now, that the Tuesday will arrive when you, Kirsty, are not here," Morrissey explained. "So we all know this fact, and with that in the forefront of our mind in everything we do, I find it fascinating how people spend their time."

The show asks notable figures to choose eight pieces of music, one book and one luxury they would take with them if cast away on the show's mythical desert island.

Morrissey's songs were:

New York Dolls -- '(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown'
Marianne Faithfull -- 'Come And Stay With Me'
The Ramones -- 'Loudmouth'
The Velvet Underground -- 'The Black Angel's Death Song'
Klaus Nomi -- 'Der Nussbaum -- The Walnut Tree'
Nico -- 'I'm Not Saying'
Iggy and the Stooges -- 'Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell'
Mott the Hoople -- 'Sea Diver'

He chose the New York Dolls track as his favourite song.

Marianne Faithful's 1965 hit, 'Come and Stay with Me' is the only one of the songs which could be described as upbeat. Morrissey said he performed the song as a six-year-old standing on a table in the council house he grew up in Manchester. This was, he said, "quite perverted of me if you listen to the lyrics".

James Foley, music editor of Record of the Day, told the Guardian, "It was a narrow choice, almost to the point of being belligerent. If an alien wanted to be introduced to 70s punk, that's the kind of playlist you would give them. It was narrow, unsurprising but completely what Morrissey is about."