Johnny Marr on being straight edge: “If I thought boozing and doing blow or taking any other drugs would make me a better writer, I would do it”

In a new interview, The Smiths guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr takes a deep dive into his creative philosophy and shares how he embraces being sober as a key part of his craft.

The rocker was speaking with The Creative Independent, where he details the changes quitting drinking has made to his writing process.

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For starters, “my critical faculties were reliable. I spent less time writing words when I’d had a few drinks that I thought were good but weren’t,” says Marr, who’d grown up in Manchester at a time where “it was the law for young musicians to smoke pot until it came out of your ears”.

“And I produced a lot of work. I was young when the Smiths were making records,” he adds. “But in terms of taking drugs and drinking, I always honoured the work and what was coming out of the speakers. I never got fucked up when I was recording and writing.”

“Sometimes, though, just the right amount of hash on an afternoon was enough to make me get into detail on a bass overdub or some technical thing. But everything was about what was good for the track and good for the band.”

As Marr explains, “When I’m asked about being teetotal, I always say, ‘Listen, if I thought boozing and doing blow or taking any other drugs would make me a better writer, I would do it.’ I would, because everything for me is about making me better, feeling more energised, being more reliable, and all of that.”

The key about getting “kind of straight-edge”, says the guitarist, boils down to the idea that “Inspiration has to find you working.”

“The gifts of ideas that you get when you weren’t expecting them, whether you’ve been for a run, or you’ve been working on something for three hours, or you pick up a book or whatever, they still come,” Marr says, adding, “The good thing when you’re straight is that when they’re good, they’re good.”

“You don’t come back to them two days later and go, ‘Wow, why did I think that was good? That sucks.’ When something’s good, when you get excited about something when you’re clean, it’s reliable. I’m very enthusiastic about that.”