When Morrissey played five consecutive shows in Los Angeles during the start of his big “comeback” in April 2004, about a quarter of the people in the front row left the venue halfway through the encore each night and headed right back outside to secure a spot in line for the following night’s gig. Some had rented nearby hotel rooms so they could leave the queue to shower, brush their teeth or take short naps. But mostly, they spent the better part of a week camped out on the street to ensure that when the beloved Brit-pop icon took the stage, they’d be within arms reach.

Devotion? Insanity? Welcome to a Morrissey concert. Now 48, there’s still something about the former Smiths frontman that drives fans crazy—crazy enough to follow him around for weeks, even months on the road. And his current American tour, which comes to Madison Square Garden on June 30, is no exception.

Kimie, a 30-year-old Manhattan resident who, like each of the fans interviewed for this article, asked to be identified only by her first name, has hit 20 shows (mostly in Europe) since Morrissey began touring in support of his latest album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, in March 2006. The number of Morrissey shows she’s been to since first seeing

him live in 1997 is now in the triple digits.

“I’ve made best friends, enemies and crushes from 20 different countries. I’ve been battered and bruised, had religious-scale epiphanies. I’ve seen grown men reduced to tears by four bars of a song,” she recalls of her tour experiences.

Winnie, a 33-year-old who works in asset management, is another longtime fan from Manhattan who estimates she’s seen about 150 Morrissey shows since 1991, including all of the roughly 60 shows on his 1992 Your Arsenal tour. It was an experience she “wouldn’t trade for anything,” and one from which she’s forged lifelong friendships.

“Each show I go to feels like my 10- or 20-year high school reunion—which is great. So now I go for that aspect,” she says, noting there are plenty of normal, functioning adults “going to many shows and doing it with a reasonably sane mind. They do it because they genuinely love going to gigs.”

What makes the gigs so special? For Greg, a 30-year-old Los Angeles fan whose show count recently hit 105, it’s “seeing him interact with the audience and how that is different in various places around the world.” Downtown Manhattan photographer Ryan McGinley captured this sort of interaction in his recent solo exhibit, Irregular Regulars, named for phrase Morrissey uses to describe the people he sees at shows night after night. The exhibit includes colorful images of fans in awe of their idol at the dozens of Morrissey concerts he’s attended over the past three years in the U.S., Mexico and Europe.

McGinley couldn’t be reached for comment, but in January he described the experience of a Morrissey concert to V Magazine: “When you are in the front he always makes eye contact with you at some point during the show. If you’re lucky he might sing to you or touch your hand. It’s nice to be noticed by someone that you really admire.”

But then there are the downfalls: the long drives, the airports, the grueling 12-hour queues and, of course, the credit card bills. Depending on how many shows one goes to, concert tickets alone can cost thousands of dollars, and that’s not counting hotels, rental cars, airfare and food. Most of the fans I talked to admit they’d rather not know how much money they’ve spent on Morrissey shows over the years, but they all say it’s been worth it.

“I have never come across another artist who says so much that means so much to me,” says Mike, a 41-year-old computer consultant from London who’s been to 96 shows since his first Smiths concert in 1983. “There are people who spend huge amounts of money seeing their favorite sports team time and time again. I guess Morrissey is my team.”

June 30, Madison Square Garden, 4 Pennsylvania Plaza (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-307-7171; 8, $35-$75.