Steven Patrick Morrissey , who goes by his surname Morrissey, is a British born writer, singer and lyricist of Irish descent from Greater Manchester, England. After a short stint in the punk rock band The Nosebleeds in the late 1970s, he rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths (with whom he was declared the "most influential artist ever" by the NME). When the band broke up in 1987, Morrissey began a solo career, in which he continued the jangle pop sound of The Smiths. His solo albums have garnered ten Top 10 singles in the United Kingdom.   Wikipedia