{"id":47195,"date":"2026-08-15T19:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47195"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:24:26","slug":"johnny-marr-shares-brilliant-answer-he-got-from-paul-mccartney-about-the-break-up-of-the-smiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47195","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Marr shares &#8220;brilliant answer&#8221; he got from Paul McCartney about the break-up of The Smiths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/johnny-marr\">Johnny Marr<\/a> has looked back at the sage advice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/paul-mccartney\">Paul McCartney<\/a> gave him in the wake of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/the-smiths\">The Smiths<\/a>\u2018 1987 break-up.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-content-read-more\">\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/music-features\/the-smiths-every-song-ranked-in-order-of-greatness-3589477\">The Smiths: every song ranked in order of greatness<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/1801948-1801948\">Marr left the band in July of that year, with his guitar duties briefly overtaken by former Easterhouse member Ivor Perry<\/a>. However, Perry failed to gel with Morrissey and by the time The Smiths\u2019 fourth and final album, \u2018Strangeways, Here We Come\u2019, came out in September, the band were effectively finished.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mojo4music.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>MOJO<\/em> <\/a>recently, Marr looked back on that fraught period, and said Beatles legend McCartney was instrumental in navigating it.<\/p>\n<p>On spending \u201cone long, incredible day\u201d with him and his wife Linda, Marr said: \u201cLinda 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI looked to him and waited and he just said, \u2018That\u2019s bands for you.\u2019 It\u2019s such a brilliant answer coming from him. Over the years, I\u2019ve been asked to give advice. There is just a time to say, \u2018That\u2019s bands for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney on honouring Lennon and George Harrison, duetting with Ringo Starr, and new album\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/afHEY-7_-JA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He also touched on how, post-Smiths, he found purpose in being a \u201cringer\u201d, and didn\u2019t feel a pressure to form another band right away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just have to give credit to the people I was working with \u2013 [The The\u2019s] Matt Johnson is one of my closest friends to this day. Bernard Sumner and Chrissie Hynde \u2013 that collection of people. Because I get very tight with people, you know.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at it like a CV it seems to be flitting around a lot, but I know when I\u2019ve got a good job \u2013 playing with Bryan Ferry and turning up on his records. There\u2019s a time to not look too deeply at stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/paul-mccartney-170-1252730\">McCartney could\u2019ve been another name on Marr\u2019s CV, given at that time, he was invited to play with him<\/a>. While the sessions never led to anything permanent nor any official recordings, Marr opened up about the experience in a 2012 interview with <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theautojubilator.com\/johnny-marr-the-messenger-interview\/\">The Auto Jubilator<\/a><\/em>, and said: \u201cI didn\u2019t do a recording session with him as such, but we did get together for a good long eight-or-nine-hour day, and just played and played and played very intensely, really loudly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe can play that bass and sing pretty well, I must say. That was a fun time. That was pretty much the first thing I did when The Smiths stopped being together. I\u2019ve seen him a couple of times since. We\u2019ve not played together, but he\u2019s always very friendly and very gracious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Johnny Marr on his first ever solo best of &amp;apos;Spirit Power&amp;apos;, his book &amp;apos;Marrs Guitars&amp;apos; and more\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7S27KOzAABY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/morrissey\">Morrissey<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/morrissey-and-johnny-marr-have-both-worked-on-new-rare-vinyl-release-from-the-smiths-3961991\">and\u00a0Marr both helped to create a rare new seven-inch release from\u00a0The Smiths, as part of an upcoming Rough Trade boxset<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The legendary London independent label will release its second volume of newly printed classic singles, titled \u2018Rough Trade 45s: Volume 2\u2019, on October 30. It will comprise tracks from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/the-fall\">The Fall<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/aztec-camera\">Aztec Camera<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/mazzy-star\">Mazzy Star<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/scritti-politti\">Scritti Politti<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/robert-wyatt\">Robert Wyatt\u00a0<\/a>and more, and the boxset will be limited to just 1000 copies, released on October 30. Pre-order\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/roughtrade.ffm.to\/singlesboxset2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among them is a new release from The Smiths, with \u2018The Headmaster Ritual\u2019 on the A-side, and \u2018I Want\u00a0The\u00a0One I Can\u2019t Have\u2019 on the\u00a0flip side. Both songs originally appeared on the band\u2019s second album \u2018Meat Is Murder\u2019 in 1985, but they were never released as a single\u00a0on Rough Trade.<\/p>\n<p>Now, they will\u00a0be available as a single for the first time, with Morrissey and Marr both requesting the two\u00a0tracks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Marr has looked back at the sage advice Paul McCartney gave him in the wake of The Smiths\u2018 1987 break-up. READ MORE:\u00a0The Smiths: every song ranked in order of greatness Marr left the band in July of that year, with his guitar duties briefly overtaken by former Easterhouse member Ivor Perry. However, Perry failed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/live-paul-mccartney.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}