Official Statement

ANDREW MICHAEL ROURKE
“ANDY ROURKE”
Passed away at age 59
January 17, 1964 – May 19, 2023

MAY 19, 2023 (New York, NY) — It is with deep sadness that we announce that Andy Rourke has passed away in the early hours today at age 59 in New York City at Memorial Sloan Kettering after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer.

Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans.

We request privacy at this sad time.

The news of Andy Rourke’s death came to me suddenly on Friday. I had no idea the former The Smiths bassist was dying… but on retrospect, I should have seen it coming. Especially since I wrote about how Rourke and Johnny Marr came together to produce “Strong Forever” in Jan 2023. The two were friends since the age of 13, before joining The Smiths, and it was likely a dying man’s last request.

I’ve met Rourke before, at the first The Smiths Convention in Los Angeles in 1997. I have photos of Rourke and I, but this was before digital cameras, so the photos are in a photo album somewhere in my storage. I’ll have to dig for them at a later time and digitalize them for easier access.

What I can tell you is that they were nice when we met as fans, getting our albums and singles signed by them. I had them sign my “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”, one of the last official releases in the UK and Japan (The Smiths’ singles were rarely released in America). I would later meet Johnny Marr and had them sign the same single. One day I hope to see Morrissey and have him sign the sleeve…

So, here’s a trivia, Rourke continued to work with Morrissey after the Smiths broke up. He wrote two of my favorite B-Sides, “Get Off the Stage” and “Girl Least Likely To”… but he also wrote my least favorite Morrissey song, “Yes I Am Blind” (and deaf too apparently after hearing that song). You can’t blame Rourke entirely, as with these collaborations, he would compose the music and then Morrissey would then add his lyrics to it.

The two biggest “bass” songs in The Smiths library are “This Charming Man” (New York Mix) and “Barbarism Begins At Home” (especially hearing a live version). The former is a rare remix. You see, DJ François Kevorkian remixed the song in 1983 for the nightclubbers and was pressed for NY club DJs. Morrissey hated the song, and had the song pulled out of circulation, according to the Peepholism book by Jo Slee.

The remix, which featured really heavy emphasis on Andy Rourke’s bassline, was lost to obscurity. I actually didn’t discover the remix until the 1992 re-issue of “This Charming Man” single… and it was a song unlike any Smiths song! Again, it’s a very bass-y mix, and it was almost laughable that it’s the bassist’s song of choice when he DJed, live in person, at the 14th Anniversary of Transmission in 2015.

It’s sad to see that with Rourke’s death, there will never, truly be a Smiths reunion. Everyone knew it would never happen, but now with one of the band member dead, perhaps it’s time for the remaining three to bury the hatchet.

In the meantime, we’ll always have The Smiths’ music… and go ahead and put on that New York remix of “This Charming Man”, in honor of the great Andy Rourke.

Note: Tomorrow, May 22, is Morrissey’s birthday… “I’ve come to wish you an unhappy birthday.”

Mike Joyce’s statement:

I don’t think Andy realised just how good a bass player he was. I don’t think Andy ever really embraced just how momentous his contribution towards music is. I don’t think he ever grasped that and realised that. He was such a self-effacing character, he never saw himself as a great bass player because it was so effortless for him and so easy for him. He just put the bass on and magic would happen.

Johnny Marr’s statement:

Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans.

Morrissey’s statement:

Sometimes one of the most radical things you can do is to speak clearly. When someone dies, out come the usual blandishments … as if their death is there to be used. I’m not prepared to do this with Andy. I just hope … wherever Andy has gone … that he’s OK. He will never die as long as his music is heard. He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity – never any manufactured moves. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that.