Merriweather Threatened Over Smiths Track

5 months ago 17th Jun 06:30

Australian singer Daniel Merriweather was left fearing for his life afterreceiving death threats for covering a song by British band The Smiths.

The Red hitmaker collaborated with producer Mark Ronson on his 2007 album Version to remake classic 1987 track Stop Me If You Think You've HeardThis One Before.

It was like 'I will stab you', 'I will hurt you'Daniel Merriweather on the death threats

But obsessed fans of The Smiths were not impressed - and threatened to kill Merriweather for covering the track.

He says, "I wasn't really a big Smiths fan and I think that's why I sort of didn't realise how dangerous it was to cover a Smiths song. "Mark was making an album, getting all his friends to sing his favourite songs, and he said 'Do you want to sing this?' I said yes and it did really well, and we received death threats.

"In true Smiths fan style, it would always be via the internet, never face to face. It was like 'I will stab you', 'I will hurt you'. It's fair enough, it's sacred ground, isn't it? The only thing that mattered to me was if Morrissey hated it. But he said he liked it".