Cranford Township Meeting Interrupted by Unsanctioned Morrissey and Lizzo Covers

A Cranford, New Jersey township council meeting became an unlikely venue for Morrissey and Lizzo covers this week, after two residents used their public comment time for unscheduled musical statements. The July 7th session, broadcast on public access and later uploaded to YouTube, showed the latest spectacle from 52-year-old William Thilly, a local known for turning the podium into a stage.

Thilly placed a “Refuse Govt. Abuse” sign in front of him, criticized government transparency, then produced a small speaker and began singing Morrissey’s 1994 single “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get.” He continued even as his time expired and officers approached. Police eventually handcuffed him and charged him with disrupting a meeting. Thilly had gone viral last year for breakdancing at a similar meeting.

The night’s second act was stranger. A man in a purple bong costume, introducing himself as “Bongholeo” and holding a fake baby named “Bongholito,” delivered a version of Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” with lyrics altered to promote marijuana use. The dual interruptions turned a routine municipal proceeding into a low-stakes collision of protest theater and public-access absurdism. Morrissey’s song, at least, was cancelled before its natural end.