Joe Moss, Manager of the Smiths and Johnny Marr, Has Died

Photo by Rachel Moss

Joe Moss, manager of the Smiths and, recently, Johnny Marr, died yesterday following a struggle with bone cancer. The news was announced in a statement posted on Marr’s website. He was 72.

Moss, who met Marr in the early 1980s, managed the Smiths until 1983, shortly before their first trip to America. After returning to the Manchester scene in the 1990s, he became Marr’s manager in 1999, a role he kept until his death.

“Joe was a one off, an amazing person and totally unique,” Marr said in the statement. “He started looking after me when I was seventeen; it was Joe who put the idea in my head to go and knock on Morrissey’s door. He invested his time and money in us when no one else wanted to know, and his belief in us kept us going. Without him there wouldn’t have been any Smiths. He was an original beatnik and a true bohemian, respected by all. Everyone who met him loved him; he can never be replaced.”

He is survived by his wife Sarah and his children David, Rachel, Ivan, Stella, and Edie.

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