But the guy on vocals? He was definitely a bit weird. Steven [Morrissey] barely acknowledged my presence. He stalked up and down, back and forth, at the edge of the room like some pasty, skinny caged animal in a long trench coat, not saying a word. He looked up every now and again but as soon as I tried to make eye contact or shot a glance in his direction he would look down at the floor. Yep, weird.<\/p>\n
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It is easy to retrofit the significance of all of this \u2014 that first rehearsal freighted with all the weight of the band\u2019s subsequent history, good and bad. But, truth be told, I didn\u2019t think much more about it; it was just some awkward guy I\u2019d just met, a singer who didn\u2019t really say much. And a bass player [Dale Hibbert, quickly replaced by Andy Rourke] who couldn\u2019t really play that well, but at least he talked. <\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t the Smiths. This wasn\u2019t Morrissey \u2014 we all called him Steve or Steven back then \u2014 and this wasn\u2019t Johnny Marr. This was just these three lads. <\/p>\n
Johnny had met the half-Irish, half-English Andy [Rourke] at St Augustine\u2019s Catholic grammar school [in Manchester], where the two became best friends and started playing in bands together at the age of 13, most recently in the short-lived funk band Freak Party. With Johnny\u2019s Irish Catholic roots and Morrissey\u2019s immigrant family from Dublin, it seemed to me that these guys were the same as the kids I had known all my life. Despite often being unspoken, it was comforting. But it became increasingly apparent that Steven operated with a certain otherness to most people I had met. He could be shy and self-contained; I was, conversely, a loudmouth, talking to anyone, curious about their lives and loves. But he was just unusual. And he certainly didn\u2019t display any interest in what Andy or I were doing. <\/p>\n
When encountering new people he did not find it necessary to engage with anyone outside of the few individuals he deemed worthy. He would not let anyone into his world unless he specifically wanted them in it, and I did not want to pry or try to induce him to open up to me, as it was obvious that wasn\u2019t what he wanted. It seemed the best way to conduct our relationship was for him to provide the boundaries. And the door was not open to us having a close relationship. He was barely talking to me through the letterbox.<\/p>\n
In short, we just didn\u2019t have that connection in those early days. I was the drummer; he was the singer. That\u2019s it. I was comfortable with that. Andy had similar experiences with Morrissey. In the early days of the band, at the end of rehearsals Andy and Morrissey would get the bus home together. On one occasion they sat next to each other in near silence. Andy actually counted the lampposts that he saw out of the window. He just couldn\u2019t crack Morrissey. For all of our shared ancestral heritage, it\u2019s a miracle the band made it out of 1982, such were our apparent differences, the sense of total social dislocation from our singer and lyricist.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Morrissey says Johnny Marr rejected \u2018lucrative\u2019 2025 Smiths reunion offer<\/a><\/p>\n The dynamics changed gradually over the years. Maybe Morrissey just felt more comfortable in my presence, maybe just a bit more tolerant of our differences. But also the speed at which we found such success \u2014 and all of the trials and tribulations that go with it \u2014 deepened that bond between us. Nobody else knew what it was like. <\/p>\n The birth of Morrissey<\/p>\n We never talked about who was going to be responsible for designing the album covers. With Johnny as the main songwriter and Morrissey doing lyrics, those two had the most creative input into the band by default. We just assumed Morrissey\u2019s role would also include the band\u2019s visual identity. He embraced it with open arms, working alongside [the record label] Rough Trade\u2019s art co-ordinator, Jo Slee, to create some of the most distinctive record sleeves of the decade, of all time. You can identify a Smiths album at a glance: the font, the duotone colour palette, the long-forgotten cover star. There are very few bands whose albums have that same sense of instant identity.<\/p>\n \u2022 The best albums of 2025 so far, from Bar Italia to Tame Impala<\/a><\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember the first time I saw the sleeve art for the Hand in Glove single. It may not have been until I was holding the finished thing in my hands. But I certainly wasn\u2019t expecting it to feature an image of a man\u2019s arse. I mean, it is beautiful. It\u2019s absolutely gorgeous \u2014 the silver and blue tones are stunning. Like Michelangelo\u2019s David, you don\u2019t think, \u201cOh, he\u2019s got no strides on.\u201d You\u2019re just drawn to the beauty of the male form. <\/p>\n Morrissey on stage in 1984, waving his customary bunch of flowers<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Over the years there has been a certain amount of historical revisionism when it comes to who and what the Smiths were \u2014 or, more specifically, Morrissey. I did an interview not long ago with the BBC. One line of inquiry probed my opinions as to what it was like to have such an overtly gay frontman on stage. It was a daft question. I didn\u2019t think Morrissey was overtly homosexual in anything that he did. The Smiths spoke to all outsiders, whoever you were, whatever your sexual or social persuasion. It was our great strength and great attraction. And the fact I was being asked such inane questions 40 years later was tiresome and insulting and, more significantly, based on completely incorrect assumptions.<\/p>\n The \u201cthreat\u201d some felt from Morrissey wasn\u2019t down to his perceived homosexuality but rather that articulacy that came to define him, for good or bad. But from the outset and during our pomp you could never deny he knew how to give great copy. This became apparent just after our first interview in i-D magazine, a promotion for Hand in Glove, which was released in May 1983. When the journalist came to do the interview, it wasn\u2019t with Morrissey, it was with Steven and John, Andy and Mike \u2014 just four lads from Manchester. As we were reading the story after it had been published, Johnny and Morrissey saw that the quotes we had given were attributed to the wrong people in the band. From there on in Moz requested he do any subsequent interviews on his own, which was fine by me. And next time he would be ready. He had opinions on everything and put-downs for anyone or anything who he felt had slighted him \u2014 or might do so at some point in the future. But nothing was ever off the cuff. He had spent his whole life preparing for this moment, writing his own personal manifesto, just waiting for the time and the medium to be able to share it with the world. <\/p>\n In June 1983, we were excited to play in Birmingham for the first time. On the drive over we were all sitting in the van. At this time we all still called our lead singer Steve, even if, professionally at least, his surname was already being more prominently used. During a lull in conversation, Steve told us, \u201cI don\u2019t want any of you to call me Steven any more.\u201d He paused and looked at each of us, then continued, \u201cFrom now on I just want to be called Morrissey.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Smiths bassist Andy Rourke dies aged 59<\/a><\/p>\n If it had been me asking for a sudden change in what my mates called me, I might have been a bit more forthcoming. You know, something like, \u201cI have always hated the name Michael and I would much rather just be called Joyce. Let\u2019s just try that, lads.\u201d But Morrissey didn\u2019t give any explanation; I don\u2019t think he ever felt he had to give an explanation about anything if he didn\u2019t want to. It was probably always part of that manifesto of his. But ultimately we just carried on smoking and listening to music.<\/p>\n The Smiths\u2019 debut single, Hand in Glove (1983)<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n The fallout <\/p>\n A few months after we finished recording Meat Is Murder in early 1985, I got a phone call out of the blue from Martha Defoe at Rough Trade. \u201cI\u2019ve been speaking to Morrissey,\u201d she said, \u201cand we think that your percentage should go down from a quarter share to 15 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n I was dumbfounded. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor a start, you\u2019re not doing any interviews,\u201d she stated. \u201cMorrissey\u2019s writing the words to the songs . . . And he\u2019s doing all the sleeves.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll do some of the interviews then.\u201d There was silence on the other end of the phone.<\/p>\n I put the phone down, called Morrissey straight away and told him clearly, \u201cThere\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to accept that idea. Are you mad?\u201d<\/p>\n Not a sound. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to talk about this or even discuss it, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n There was no reply, so there was nothing else to say. I decided to draw a line under it. The subject was never revisited and, as such, I assumed my percentage remained the same.<\/p>\n![\"Morrissey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/03aafdb4-44cc-46c1-93d6-c884038c8e02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Picture](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/12f1fee2-d2e5-4278-a432-9ef3da8bb012.jpg\")
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![\"Book](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/c011951d-b302-419e-859b-6a1c78672a94.jpg\")
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