Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith

Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith

Johnny Marr: "We were called 'Irish pigs' quite a lot."

Part two of my mammoth two-day interview with The Smiths' founding member.

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Tony Fletcher
Oct 15, 2025
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Following on from my most recent post, titled “Manchester: The Early Years,” I am continuing with the transcript from my two-day mammoth Johnny Marr interview for the book A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths, published in 2012 (UK) and 2013 (USA) by Random House and still available via the usual outlets. In this section of what will inevitably become a multi-part series, Johnny talks in depth about his Irish background, and his extended family’s obsession with music, and how this all fed into his pursuit of music, and how the Irish influence later circled back round in his songwriting, especially the ballads. As with the first extract, and those I published previously around the subject of Meat Is Murder (as per below), it’s a great read. I do hope you’ll take the journey with me…

"Me And Morrissey... we were exactly on the same page."

"Me And Morrissey... we were exactly on the same page."

Tony Fletcher
·
Jun 1
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As with almost all my other interview transcripts, this post (and attendant series) is for those who support Wordsmith financially, with either a monthly subscription at $6 (less than £5 at current rates) or an annual subscription with a 20% discount. That subscription gets you the exclusive posts/interview archives (which already include Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, Tim Booth and many more), access to all the archives all the time, and the Crossed Channels podcast I cohost with

Dan Epstein
and which is now up to Episode 21. (Episode 17 was on the subject of The Smiths.) As much as anything, paid subscribers keep this page going, quite literally. Thank you all.

How Soon Was Now? The Smiths Take Britain and Break America

How Soon Was Now? The Smiths Take Britain and Break America

Tony Fletcher and Dan Epstein
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Jun 12
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