Johnny Marr says he’s more sentimental about clothes than he is about guitars: “I’d actually find it harder to get rid of some of my jackets”
Johnny Marr has a confession to make: he finds it harder to part with some of his clothes than he does with his guitars.
You might find that utterly bizarre, but Marr has only proven so with his recent guitar auction via Christie’s. Over 100 guitars went under the hammer across the five-hour event in September, fetching over £3.6 million and more than tripling the total estimate made prior to the event.
A key highlight was Marr’s 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, used across his time in The Smiths, including on their second single This Charming Man and extensively on the band’s self-titled debut album. It sold for £358,400, far exceeding its £60,000-£80,000 estimate.
READ MORE: “I thought it went better with the guitar!”: Johnny Marr reveals he chose his famous hairstyle to compliment this specific guitar
And yet, in an interview with Mr Porter, he says, “I’d actually find it harder to get rid of some of my jackets than I would some of my guitars. Oh man, I’m getting a visceral reaction even thinking about it.”
He goes on to explain, “Growing up in the inner city in the 1970s, me and my sister were clothes freaks. It’s like the way some families like football. It’s part of the culture. Before the Smiths, the only job [I’d] ever had was working in a clothes shop.
“I was a sales assistant then. But the reason I got that job was that me and my girlfriend [now his wife, Angie] would make what bits of money we could by jibbing on the train from Manchester to London, coming down to King’s Road and buying shirts and jackets, bringing them back up to Manchester. That’s how I made enough to buy my guitar and amp.”
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Even now, Marr is particular about how he dresses on stage. In fact, there’s a fair bit of thought that goes into his style in an effort to serve the significance of his guitar: “I know what works for me and I have some strong, strong feelings about what you really can’t wear while you’re playing the guitar: anything that makes the guitar look like a fucking banjo. That’s the problem with baggy stuff. It makes your guitar look too small,” he states.
Johnny Marr’s new album, The Age Of Everything, was released this October. You can order it via his official website.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
