From this interview, Morrissey, yet again, displays wit, immense mindfulness and fortifies his reputation as the #1 interviewee in the world, Loving or dead:

Billboard: Hi Morrissey. Thanks for taking some time for us. Where are you right now?

Morrissey: I'm in France recording a new album. But surely you'd rather discuss the Smiths?

Well, since you mentioned it… Feb. 20 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Smiths album. How did you mark the occasion?

Is it only 30 years? It feels like 60.

It’s been nearly five years since your last album. How are the trials and triumphs of the last few years influencing your new music?

The good and the bad must be documented. Life is a serious business, so why pretend it isn't? I'm amused by modern pop artists who can only sing about s.e.x ... as if nothing else mattered on the planet.

Last year, you got the Staples Center in Los Angeles to go vegetarian when you performed there. Are you looking to strike similar deals with venues during your next Stateside visit?

It's a standard requirement now when booking venues. It's not as unusual as you might think, and the halls are very understanding. I think it's generally accepted these days that meat is murder for the animals, murder for the planet, and eventually murders the consumer. Soon eating a cheeseburger will be as outlawed as smoking in church, and that will be a great day for civilisation.

Recently on the True to You website, you likened eating animals to pedophilia, a comparison some may find … extreme. Care to defend your point of view?

I don't need to defend my own point of view. When you eat an animal you subject it to spiritual and physical rape, you eats its breasts ... its rump ... you cut off its genitals ... whichever way you care to look at it, eating animals is violence at its most extreme.

You’re no stranger to controversial viewpoints. Is there anything you’ve said in the press that you’ve regretted?

I'm not controversial at all, and whatever I've said I meant. Amongst all of the people around me, my views are not special. They are only controversial if your brain is stuck in 1957.

What did you wake up worrying about today?

Ukraine. Why do news reporters call the people 'protestors'? They are the people! It's the government who are the rebels. Silly world, isn't it?

Lastly, what's one piece of advice you wish someone had given you in 1984?

You should always judge a book by its cover.

For more Morrissey interview stuff, do check out Len Brown's "Meeting With Morrissey" and this page.