Rourke recorded with Sinéad O'Connor and the Pretenders in the early 1990s, and was a member of the supergroup Freebass and the band D.A.R.K., and later Blitz Vega with Kav Sandhu.

At the age of 11, he befriended a young John Maher (soon to be Johnny Marr) with whom he shared an interest in music: both attended St Augustine's Grammar School in Sharston.

Rourke joined the band after its first gig in 1982, when Marr fired original bass player Dale Hibbert, and remained through the rest of its existence.

[14][16] Suffering from heroin addiction,[17] Rourke was arrested for drug possession and sacked from the band in early 1986, via a handwritten note left on his car windscreen by Morrissey.

[19] Marr described Rourke's contribution to that album as "something no other bass player could match", and the heavy bassline on the title track as one of the best he had heard.

[20] Rourke played cello on several Smiths tracks, including "Shakespeare's Sister",[21] "Rubber Ring",[15] "Oscillate Wildly"[22] and the Troy Tate version of "Pretty Girls Make Graves".

[27][28] With Craig Gannon, he provided the rhythm section for two singles by Smiths vocalist Morrissey – "Interesting Drug" and "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" (both 1989).

[18][29][24] In 1994, he worked as a session bassist with the Pretenders, appearing on six tracks on Last of the Independents,[12] as well as working with Killing Joke,[12] Badly Drawn Boy (with whom Rourke toured for two years),[30] Aziz Ibrahim (formerly of the Stone Roses)[31] and ex-Oasis guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs as Moondog One, which also included former Smiths members Joyce and Gannon.

[32] Rourke formed Freebass with bassists Mani (ex-Stone Roses) and Peter Hook (ex-New Order) in 2007 and remained active in the group until August 2010.

Early in 2009, he moved to New York City, where he had a programme on East Village Radio[10] and worked as a club DJ with Olé Koretsky under the name Jetlag.

[38] After the death of O'Riordan, Rourke formed Blitz Vega[39] with guitarist and vocalist Kav Sandhu, formerly of Happy Mondays.

"[49] Johnny Marr describing Rourke as a "beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans",[5] as well as speaking about the early days of their friendship: "We were best friends, going everywhere together [...] When we were fifteen I moved into his house with him and his three brothers and I soon came to realise that my mate was one of those rare people that absolutely no one doesn't like.