Johnny Marr: ‘I meditate. I run. That is more radical than sitting around in a bar telling stories about the 1980s’
The guitarist on the catharsis his new book brought, life in The Smiths, his Irish roots and his clean-living regime
Musician Johnny Marr, 2018. Photo: Getty
Ireland has always represented a kind of homecoming for Johnny Marr. This summer he will take to the stage twice here, first at the Dreamland Ballroom in Athy, where his Kildare-born parents met in the early 1960s, and then, the following night he will be back onstage at the National Concert Hall where, in conversation with Phil Taggart, he will discuss Marr’s Guitars, a new book which delves into the lore of his storied instruments.
It’s an extraordinary tome, equal parts memoir, compendium of rock and roll artefacts, and wizard’s spellbook. And he tells of the incredible afterlife that some of the guitars had, turning up everywhere from Radiohead and Modest Mouse records to stage performances with R.E.M.
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