Rocker Johnny Marr was stunned when his comment about British Prime Minister David Cameron became headline news, insisting it was a light-hearted remark and his critics had suffered a "sense of humour bypass".
The former The Smiths guitarist provoked a storm of debate in his native country in December 2010 when he wrote on Twitter.com that he "forbid" the Conservative Party leader from liking his music.
The statement was a reaction to Cameron's announcement that he's a fan of the cult '80s group, but Marr was shocked by the level of attention his off-the-cuff reaction online generated.
In an interview with music website AskMeAskMeAsk.me, he says, "It just came to my mind. I wasn't too bothered about David Cameron. I thought it was silly what he was saying about being a fan of The Smiths, so I just said it and then I went to bed.
"I woke up about noon, phone ringing like crazy. My manager was asking me what he should do about all of these requests from TV news programs (sic). I looked at my iPhone and I had about 20,000 more followers (on Twitter) in five hours. I didn't know what was going on.
"What I learned from that experience was that there are a lot of fundamentalist people out there. So many people were saying things like, 'Johnny Marr, where do you get off telling people they can't like your music?! Everyone can be a fan of your music! You can't just tell people that they can't be a fan of your music!' And 'You've got to get your politics sorted out!' I was like, whoa!
"So many people just like to complain. They've had a sense of humour bypass. I was just being glib, as I often am."