“I was just up my own arse” Johnny Marr recalls the moment he realised he was being “ridiculous” not playing The Smiths songs live
Johnny Marr has opened up about life after The Smiths, including the years he spent treating the band’s songs as too “precious” to revisit onstage.
Following the band’s acrimonious split in 1987, Marr says the idea of performing The Smiths’ material felt “wrong and raw” – until one very casual suggestion from a fellow musician changed his mind.
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Speaking to MOJO, Marr recalls the moment during a 2001 soundcheck for Crowded House frontman Neil Finn’s charity project 7 Worlds Collide, when Finn suggested that Marr play The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
“[For years], the idea of performing Smiths songs felt wrong and raw and just very, very precious. Too precious,” he says. “He just assumed that it would be absolutely fine me doing a Smiths song that day. He went, ‘Hey, Johnny, how about doing There Is A Light?’”
Finn’s matter-of-fact attitude made Marr realise just how much he had been overthinking it.
“And in that moment I saw how ridiculous it was to be so precious,” the guitarist explains. “He didn’t say it, but it was like I was just up my own arse.”
The realisation came after Marr had already spent years carving out a career beyond The Smiths. After the breakup, he worked with artists including The The and Electronic before joining Modest Mouse in 2006, an experience that reignited his enthusiasm for live shows.
“My role was to be the guitarist in Modest Mouse. It really got me back into playing live,” says Marr. “And it showed me a new way of writing as a lyricist. Modest Mouse and The The were very alike. A lot of testosterone.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Marr also reveals a particularly memorable conversation with former Beatle Paul McCartney after The Smiths’ breakup.
“[McCartney’s wife] Linda was so generous as a person, she was asking me all about my life. And he was sat there so I just told him about the break-up of the band. I looked to him and waited and he just said, ‘That’s bands for you.’”
“It’s such a brilliant answer coming from him,” says Marr. “Over the years, I’ve been asked to give advice. There is just a time to say, ‘That’s bands for you.’”
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