Nile Rodgers reflects on his close friendship with Johnny Marr
Nile revealed the fellow guitarist is like a "brother" to him
Last updated 24th Jan 2022
Music legend Nile Rodgers has become known as an incredible musician, songwriter and producer over the past 50 years. During this time he has also formed numerous celebrity friendships, and has now revealed just how important his friendship with The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr is.
In a recent interview with Uncut, Nile spoke about his relationship with Johnny and explained that the fellow guitarist is like a "brother" to him. He spoke about his experience meeting and playing with Johnny for the first time: "Johnny is fearless. If it sounds like a good idea? He’ll try it. When we first met and we wanted to play together, we were going to play either South African Man or Footstompin’ Music by Hamilton Bohannon.
"If you were to look at Johnny’s big start with The Smiths, you would never think that his desire is to go out on stage and play Footstompin’ Music?!"
The musicians first met backstage at a gig in Manchester in 2011, and got on so well they played together on stage the next night. Since then, they have built up a strong friendship, and Nile commented: "I feel just as cool with Johnny if we are together in the same place at the same time. We don’t even have to pick up instruments, we could just talk and hang out."
Watch Chic and Johnny Marr play 'Le Freak':
The Chic co-founder also revealed just how deep their connection runs: "I can bring anything to him, no matter what the topic is, I don’t feel that anything is taboo. That is when you realise that someone is like your family. He’s like my brother. If I were having a really bad day – which I don’t do, by the way – I could call up Johnny and get into it with him.
"That’s nothing to do with music, it has something to do with being a human being. That’s brotherhood. He’s one of my favourite people and favourite musicians in the world."
Check some of the incredible artists Nile Rodgers has worked with:
Sister Sledge - 'We Are Family'
Nile Rodgers teamed up with the four siblings who made up Sister Sledge at the end of the 1970s.
Alongside CHIC collaborator Bernard Edwards, the pair worked on the band's breakthrough album 'We Are Family', with the track of the same name becoming the group's signature song.
It was the first track Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote for anyone other than their own band CHIC. They also worked on Sister Sledge tracks 'He's The Greatest Dancer' and 'Lost In Music', featured on the same album.
Daft Punk - 'Get Lucky'
Released in 2013, 'Get Lucky' was co-written by Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams and electronic music duo Daft Punk.
Nile also plays guitar on the track, which became one of the best-selling songs of all time, topping charts all over the world and picking up two Grammy Awards.
Diana Ross - 'I'm Coming Out'
The incredibly talented Diana Ross enlisted CHIC's Nile and Bernard to write, produce and play on her 1980 album 'Diana' after she went to see the band in concert with her daughter.
'I'm Coming Out' became one of the biggest-selling records of Diana Ross' entire career.
Madonna - 'Like A Virgin'
The Queen of Pop chose Nile Rodgers as producer for her second studio album 'Like A Virgin', after her record label wouldn't allow her to have full artistic control.
The album produced two of Madonna's most iconic songs, 'Like A Virgin' and 'Material Girl'.
David Bowie - 'Lets Dance'
Truly a meeting of two music geniuses, David Bowie teamed up with Nile Rodgers for his 1983 album 'Let's Dance'.
The title track was released as the lead single from the album and became one of Bowie's best-selling songs.
Duran Duran - 'Notorious'
You may not be aware that Nile Rodgers had a huge part to play in the career of pop favourites Duran Duran. He produced their 1986 album 'Notorious' and it's title track.
During a 1986 performance, the band's frontman Simon Le Bon introduced Nile Rodgers on stage, saying: "This band went through a difficult time and it might not have made it if it weren't for this gentleman."
Nile also explained what it was like when the pair did play together: "Once we were in a dressing room somewhere for a half hour or so, he played my guitar and I played his guitar. It was so cool, man… I was doing my best Johnny Marr stuff and he was doing his best Nile Rodgers stuff, we had a blast."
It turns out the admiration goes both ways, as Johnny claims that Nile's music was a huge influence on him as he was getting into playing guitar in the late 70s. In fact, he was such a huge fan that when his son was born in 1992 he named him after Nile.
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