When I was 13 my brothers got a terrible electric guitar from a catalogue but they got bored of it. So I took it and sat down with a chord book and tried to work it out. Then I heard Johnny Marr playing with The Smiths and that was it. From then on, every record I got I listened to once then worked out the guitar parts. To this day I can play every Smiths song, something of which I am very proud…
Johnny Marr gave me one of his own guitars, and it’s my pride and joy. It’s a 12-string Gibson 335 that he played on most of Strangeways Here We Come, and a few records before that. I remember watching the Smiths on The Tube playing Sheila Take a Bow, admiring Johnny’s 12-string. Fast-forward 10 years: I became friends with him and he gave that guitar to me. I almost died. He knows I’m a huge fan and wouldn’t have even made a record if it wasn’t for him.
Bernard Butler – The Guardian, 2006
