Morrissey ''officially died'' for ''nine minutes'' in 2013.

The former Smiths frontman has revealed a bout of food poisoning while touring South America proved to be almost fatal, causing his heart to stop beating for nine minutes before he was revived.

Speaking about what he's looking forward to on his upcoming tour, he told Alternative Nation rock website: ''I'm also always excited to be in South America, even though the last visit to Peru gave me food poisoning and I officially died for nine minutes. That was fun.''

The terrifying incident hasn't been the only health scare for the 56-year-old singer/songwriter - who is currently on tour across the US - in recent years though, previously admitting to having undergone a series of cancer treatments in recent years.

He said: ''They have scraped cancerous tissues four times already, but whatever. If I die, then I die. And if I don't, then I don't.''

However, the 'Suedehead' singer showed he has other worries apart from his health, criticising American politics by accusing President Barack Obama of seeming ''white inside''.

He ranted: ''Obama has mystified me because he doesn't appear to support black people when they need it most.

''Obama seems to be white inside. There is an obvious racial division in America and it's exploding and Obama doesn't ever support the innocent black people who are murdered by white police officers who are never held accountable. You would expect him to be more understanding of what it means to be black. But so far, he hasn't been. There's no point in continually saying that we must support the police when it is obvious to the entire world that the police in America are out of control.''