Marr: 'the Smiths Split Could Have Been Avoided'.... the Smiths split could have been avoided if the group had a proper manager, according to guitarist Johnny Marr.The cult four-piece split in 1987 and have spent much of the past two decades fighting among themselves and turning down lucrative offers to reform.And now Marr reveals the hostility could have been avoided if the group had a full-time svengali helping the individuals come together after a fight.The guitarist explains he quit over bandmate Morrissey's decision to cover a Cilla Black song, but a full-on split could have been avoided.He tells Mojo magazine, "Had I had a holiday, had we not done a Cilla Black cover, had we had a manager... those things weren't gonna happen."The last couple of weeks of the band were f**king torture and horrible, with distrust and suspicion and disloyalty and bad behaviour."Why couldn't we get a manager? We could have. But... for some reason, they would become persona non grata. That's fine. I accept it. I accept that we couldn't. So, therefore, we're managerless and we cannot continue."Marr has few regrets about walking away from The Smiths, but he'd love to put the past behind him and patch up his differences with Morrissey.
He adds, "It is a shame that we can't be friends... he slags me off too much.
"I'd definitely prefer to be on nice terms with everyone. Why waste all that energy."
Tagged in The Smiths