Johnny Marr would have used drugs and alcohol if he thought they would make him “more interesting".

The 58-year-old musician hasn’t drunk booze since the mid-2000s and admitted that things would be “tougher” if he did, comparing his thoughts to the late teetotal singer Bob Marley.

He said: “It’s worth saying that if I thought that drugs and booze would make me a more interesting musician I would do it.

“I don’t go around skipping through cornfields, by any means; I have my issues just like anybody else. But it’d be tougher if I was a boozer, that’s for sure. I just don’t think it’s a particularly happening drug. I don’t think Bob Marley thought that either.”

The 'No Time To Die' guitarist – who shot to fame as a member of The Smiths and has since released a string of solo albums – went on to claim that giving up alcohol has played a “massive part” in his life today.

Responding to a reader’s question in The Guardian, he said: “Giving up alcohol has played a massive part in the last 20-odd years of my life, from day one. Without getting judgy, because people get very touchy about this s***, I can really recommend it. I’m not coming from a place of abstinence or a place of “my drink and drugs hell”, but for me, I just thought it was a shit drug, and other drugs were better. No, seriously, if anyone gave me a pill that would make me feel that s***** the next day and say such stupid things then I just wouldn’t be taking it.”