KulBritania - Johnny Marr receives Boss Lifetime Achievement Award at NAMM Believe in Music Week

The Smiths legend and CE-2 Chorus pedal devotee is honored for “inspiring a generation to pick up a guitar”.

The Boss Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals for their contributions to the music industry while using Boss gear throughout their careers.

Opening the awards presentation, Roland Europe Head of Artist Relations Jamie Franklin said, “In terms of inspiring a generation to pick up a guitar and think differently about tone, melody, and life changing music, no one comes to mind more than Johnny Marr.”

Boss President Yoshi Ikegami presented Marr with the award, and during his acceptance Marr thanked Ikegami and Boss for the CE-2 Chorus, explaining how the pedal was “such a big part” of his sound in the Smiths.

He also recalled getting his first pedal in 1980, a purple Boss BF-2 Flanger.

“I got it because, and I was 16 or 17, the guitar sounds were changing,” Marr said. “It was a shift in the way new musicians were playing, and a big part of it was that Boss Flanger pedal.

“Musicians like John McGeoch, who was playing with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Magazine, he was a big flanger guy, and the Cure as well. Bands like that were coming out. We were changing the approach of guitar.”