By April Richardson
I moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta a little over three years ago, and in that time some pretty awesome stuff has happened — but nothing as awesome as what happened Sunday, when I ran into legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr on the street. (The Smiths were Morrissey's band during the 1980s, for anyone who doesn't know!)
I was just walking out of my neighborhood pizza place on an average Sunday afternoon when I looked over and thought to myself, "Weird, that guy looks a lot like Johnny Marr. ... Uh, wait a minute, that IS Johnny Marr!" Being a HUGE Smiths fan (that's the understatement of the century, by the way), I just had to go up and talk to him — and, lucky for me, he was charming and incredibly nice. We chatted for a while and he revealed that he was in L.A. for a bit because he was recording an album with the Cribs, and after photos and handshakes I left him to continue on with his shopping.
Now, look — sure, the Smiths are one of the greatest bands of all time, but Johnny Marr is responsible for so much more than the sweet riffs dancing under Morrissey's genius lyrics. Many of you may know him as being a part of Modest Mouse's latest album, but he was also one-half of Electronic (with New Order's Bernard Sumner) and has worked with and written songs for or with Billy Bragg, the Pet Shop Boys, The The, the Pretenders and Talking Heads, just to name a few.
To put it simply, if one man could be held responsible for a large percentage of my all-time favorite songs, it would be Johnny Marr — and chances are the guitarists in many of your favorite bands were influenced by him too.
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