THE SMITHS - MARR IMPRESSED MODEST MOUSE WITH PIPE-LAYING STORIES

Former THE SMITHS and THE PRETENDERS guitarist JOHNNY MARR impressed his new bandmates in cult U.S. act MODEST MOUSE by recalling his days as a gas pipe fitter. The group, led by Isaac Brock, were fascinated to hear stories from Marr's pre-fame years in his native England and preferred chatter about those days to anecdotes about his years as Morrissey's sidekick in The Smiths. He says, "Isaac found out that my dad took me out laying gas pipes in the pouring rain in Liverpool one time when I was 15 or 14. "This he finds more interesting than anything to do with 1982 or 1987 (his years in The Smiths). He might be onto something."