Biography

Andy Rourke was born on January 17, 1964 in Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for The Wrong Guy (2022), The Smiths: This Charming Man (1983) and The Smiths: Panic (B&W Version) (1986). He was married to Francesca Mor and Unknown. He died on May 19, 2023 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Bass player for The Smiths.

After The Smiths broke up, Andy played bass for Sinéad O'Connor.

Intimate partner of Sinead O'Connor whilst playing in her rhythm section after The Smiths called it a day.

I trained classically from the age of eight, and I think all those scales did me a lot of good.

When you learn an instrument when you're young, you try and take it to the limit, don't you? I started off going down the funk route because funk's the limit with the bass - it's all about how many notes you can play within three seconds. There was even some slapping involved, I'm afraid. The older I get, though, the less is more theory sits a lot better with me.

[on The Smiths] I'm really proud of our stuff. No matter what's gone on in court rooms, people can't take that away from us. We were all great players and really good at what we did. That's something I can always be proud of.

At least our records didn't use any gimmicky sounds and so the tunes stand the test of time. I think that's why there's still the big interest in The Smiths.

It was hilarious when he [Morrissey] did get pissed because he'd always want a ciggie. He'd be slurring, 'Gurv me a shigarette'. We'd be like, 'What? You don't smoke!'. He'd be, 'No, gurvusa shigarette!' That's when you knew he'd had too much. Time for bed, Mozzer.