Johnny Marr insists that The Smiths would have only signed to Factory Records over his "dead body."

The guitarist claims rumors they were refused a deal by Tony Wilson's famous label in the 1980s were a "crock of sh*t" and the band preferred being signed to London's Rough Trade.

"If you were a musician in Manchester at that time, it was almost the law that you went on your hands and knees and begged Tony Wilson for his papal blessing to stick you in the studio, and I wasn't about to do that. So much has been made of Factory apparently turning The Smiths down, but that's a crock of sh*t. The Smiths would have signed to Factory over my dead body ... I didn't want to be assimilated into the Factory aesthetic. Before we knew it, we would've had side-partings and khaki shorts, with bongos round our necks ... No disrespect to A Certain Ratio," he told NME.

The musician also said The Smiths - including Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce - looked like a band "all the f***ing time" and their jeans were specially manufactured by their manager, Joe Moss.

"Literally no-one else on the planet had those jeans. Mine had little V's in the side, as a tribute to the Perry Boys and Stuart Sutcliffe. Morrissey had his made with the big baggy seams at the back, so they were almost falling off him. But we didn't have to dress up for Top Of The Pops, because we lived offstage what we lived onstage," Johnny, 50, said.