Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marris an English musician, songwriter and singer. Between 1982 and 1987 he was the guitarist and – with Morrissey – co-songwriter of The Smiths, an English rock band formed in Manchester. Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. Q magazine's Simon Goddard argued in 2007 that the Smiths were "the most influential British guitar group of the decade" and the "first indie outsiders to achieve...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth31 October 1963
I played guitar from the age of four or five. Every year there would be a slightly larger triangular box under the Christmas tree, until finally I got one that was big enough to make a proper sound.
Navigating with a partner makes it half as difficult. We keep each other in check. It's not like she [Angie Marr] was ever a quiet little wifey wife behind the scenes. She's exactly like me. She's very smart. We're very lucky that we've always wanted the same things. She loves guitar music, she loves important records, and our lives are about records and shows and great bands.
I met my manager when I was 17, when I didn't have enough money to buy a set of guitar strings. There are not very many people who are looking out for you and being in business with you when you're at that stage. And it's not in my nature to think that success as a musician makes you any different from anybody else.
I don't really care what music's made on - I love guitars, but I'm fine with great electronic music.
I explored rock culture and what the guitar can do though people like Jimmy Page and John McLaughlin, and the music moves away from pop.
Guitars have been the obsession of my life. I first picked one up at the age of four and Ive been a guitar junkie ever since.
As a youngster, I used to try to pick up any bits of wisdom about the guitar I could. Its not like now where you have books and books about every aspect of anything. Any little pearl of wisdom was welcome back then.
Andy Rourke and I had been playing together from 14 or 15, and we had a very great musical chemistry. Andy's just a very respected and unusual musician.
Festivals are great because you get to just walk around the corner and see a new band that you've heard but not had the chance to check out.
I've almost never played the 'Smiths' records, once they've gone out. I was always like that and probably always will be.
I would join a band, learn from that band and be committed and passionate and bring my thing to the band. Then, when I felt like we were going to repeat ourselves, and I needed to learn more, I would go somewhere else.
You can grow up without having to conform, stop going to shows, stop having a record collection, start being politically iffy.
I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.
Nick Zinner has been one of my favorite guitar players for a long time.