Johnny Marr continues his promo tour in support of his forthcoming album Call The Comet. This afternoon Marr answered fan questions as part of a live video interview event with Yahoo.
The interesting part the interview was when host Lyndsey Parker asked Marr his thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It hasn't gone unnoticed by alternative music fans that The Smiths, along with The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Joy Division/New Order, made such a mark on modern music, yet these influential artists from the 80s have all been overlooked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Marr responded that he doesn't relate at all to the Hall of Fame but acknowledged that something isn't right about these bands being ignored. He went on say he's proud of The Smiths and their peers for helping change the jock mentality so prevalent in the 1980s.
Fans of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, and New Order will truly savor Marr's comments to the fullest, because he nails exactly how things were in the 80s. Dig in:
"I don't really relate to it, I get it, but it doesn't really relate to my tastes or to my career to my band, or any of the bands I've been in. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I'm not, but it's never been a thing for me ever. To me, I think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is about Roy Orbison maybe or Tom Petty. If it means something to those people to have that accolade, that's fantastic, it's all well and good.
My opinion on the bands The Cure and Depeche Mode and The Smiths, having gone through that, when we arrived in the United States in 1985 to do those big tours, we played big venues...and it was reflected on me and my band that we were good news for a generation of kids -- boys and girls -- but let's say boys for example, who wanted to be not macho, wanted to be a new type of guy without having the label of being gay, being straight...all they knew is that they didn't want to be a jock. And they thought that they felt that jock culture, as it was called back then -- this was all news to me that I was picking up from the audience and younger journalists -- that this sort of culture of of macho aggressive...it was very old fashioned. And we were these young men from the UK who it didn't matter if we were wearing makeup, say, in the case of Depeche Mode...I guess it was just a new way of being, and there was a lot of projection on young British bands.
And I think I'm proud of New Order and The Smiths and The Cure and Depeche Mode and being part of that movement of bands, because we did that. If we helped to wipe out a certain kind of mentality in colleges around in the 1980s I think that's good that we were sort of part of wiping that stuff out and it's sort of unusual to me that a band like The Cure or Depeche Mode aren't considered to be as important in the culture because those bands were huge; Violator was a a really important modern rock record I think...those guys were wiping out audiences and rocking huge stadiums when I guess some people in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame couldn't put a few chords together, so there's something not right about that"
Stream the full interview with Marr over at Yahoo.
Published June 6th, 2018
