Music producer Tony Visconti was forced to leave the studio and eat lunch in solitude while working on Morrissey's 2006 album because of the vegetarian's strict eating policies.

Visconti frequently clashed with the British star over his desire to eat meat while recording Ringleader of the Tormentors, and the 68 year old admits he ended up dining alone at his hotel every day to avoid getting into arguments about his diet.

He tells The New York Times Magazine, "I'm diabetic. Every day at lunchtime, a vegetarian meal would be waiting, sometimes as bland as linguine and tomato sauce. I told him, 'I'll probably go into a coma if I eat that.' It was delicate. I might have been fired.

"He said, 'You'll have to sort that out by yourself.' So I ate meat well away from the studio, like miles away, at my hotel. He's got an incredible sense of smell. He smells meat."

This isn't the first time Morrissey has refused to perform in a place where meat is close by - in March (13) he famously attempted to turn the Los Angeles' Staples Center into a vegetarian venue ahead of his concert. He did not succeed.