Johnny Marr
One of the most influential guitar players on the indie scene his distinct ‘jangly’ sound set the standards for indie guitar players everywhere. I remember the first time I heard The Smiths, the song was William It Was Really Nothing and I thought “how the hell is the guitar player playing like that” I’d never heard someone play like that before and to be honest I haven’t since. He’s the reason I started playing guitar I remember hearing the opening riff to What Difference Does It Make? and thinking "that’s it, that’s what I wanna do".
Johnny Marr rose to fame in the 80’s as the guitarist and songwriter of The Smiths. Together he and singer & lyricist Morrissey formed the most important songwriting partnership of the 80’s. The Smiths throughout their career released a slew of successful and memorable singles such as Panic, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, William It Was Really Nothing, This Charming Man, and How Soon is Now along with 4 very successful studio albums three of them reaching the top 5 in the UK albums charts and one reaching #1. After the breakup of The Smiths in 1987 Marr went on to be a brief member of The Pretenders then forming a supergroup with New Order’s Bernard Sumner where they received critical and commercial success. Marr also fronted his own band Johnny Marr and The Healers who released their debut album Boomslang in 2003 to mixed reviews. In 2006 he joined indie band Modest Mouse as lead guitarist and in 2008 also joined The Cribs. Marr is often imitated but never matched. Noel Gallagher of Oasis cites him as a major inspiration for his guitar playing, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead and John Squire of The Stone Roses do as well along with countless other guitarists.