Johnny Marr Reveals the Simple Paul McCartney Advice That Helped Him Move Forward After the Smiths’ Bitter Breakup
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When the Smiths collapsed in 1987, Johnny Marr found himself struggling with far more than the end of a successful band. After five years helping build one of Britain’s most influential independent rock groups, the guitarist suddenly faced a bitter breakdown in his relationship with Morrissey and uncertainty over what should come next.
Then Marr spent what he remembers as “one long, incredible day” with Paul and Linda McCartney.
During their time together, Marr opened up about what had happened to the Smiths. McCartney listened and eventually offered just four words of advice.
“That’s bands for you.”
For Marr, the simplicity of the response — and the person delivering it — provided exactly the perspective he needed.
The Smiths’ Ending Left Marr ‘Devastated’
Marr co-founded the Smiths with Morrissey in 1982, but by 1987 communication between the pair had deteriorated badly.
The guitarist eventually discovered a report in the music press suggesting that the band was preparing to fire him.
Marr suspected that Morrissey had planted the story amid their increasingly hostile communication breakdown.
Rather than wait to discover whether the report was true, Marr decided to leave.
The consequences hit him hard.
The Smiths had dominated his professional life for five years, and their acrimonious ending left Marr devastated and searching for direction.
It was around this difficult period that he crossed paths with Paul and Linda McCartney.
Linda McCartney Encouraged Marr to Open Up
Marr recalled the encounter during an interview with Mojo, describing Linda as particularly warm and interested in what was happening in his life.
“Linda was so generous as a person,” Marr said. “She was asking me all about my life.”
With Paul sitting alongside them, Marr decided to explain what he was experiencing following the Smiths’ breakup.
“And [Paul] was sat there, so I just told him about the breakup of the band,” Marr recalled.
Marr then waited for McCartney’s response.
“He just said, ‘That’s bands for you.’”
On the surface, it was an extraordinarily simple answer. Coming from McCartney, however, those words carried considerably more weight.
Why McCartney’s Four Words Meant So Much
McCartney understood the experience of watching a hugely successful band disintegrate better than most musicians Marr could have encountered.
The Beatles had broken apart in 1970, leaving McCartney to navigate the end of a group that had transformed popular music and defined a major period of his life.
By the time Marr spoke to him, McCartney had lived through that experience, rebuilt his career and gained years of perspective on what had happened.
That context transformed his brief response into something Marr could carry with him.
“It’s such a brilliant answer coming from him,” Marr said.
The guitarist has even found himself returning to McCartney’s philosophy when other musicians have approached him for guidance.
“Over the years I’ve been asked to give advice,” Marr explained. “There is just a time to say, ‘That’s bands for you.’”
Rather than trying to find a complicated explanation for every fractured musical relationship, McCartney’s response suggested that sometimes the nature of being in a band is complicated enough.
Marr Found ‘Sanctuary’ by Playing Guitar Again
Moving forward ultimately meant returning to the thing Marr knew best.
He picked up his electric guitar and began accepting session work, discovering what he described as “sanctuary” in playing with other musicians.
Those collaborations brought him into the orbit of artists who became important parts of his life and career.
“I just have to give credit to the people I was working with,” Marr said.
He highlighted Matt Johnson of The The, describing him as one of his closest friends to this day, as well as Bernard Sumner and Chrissie Hynde.
“That collection of people,” Marr said. “I get very tight with people.”
The collaborations helped him establish a musical identity beyond the Smiths rather than remaining defined entirely by the band’s dramatic ending.
A Career That Didn’t Need a Perfect Plan
Looking back, Marr acknowledges that his post-Smiths career can appear unusually varied on paper.
He moved between different artists and projects rather than immediately trying to recreate the kind of permanent band structure he had just lost.
But Marr does not see those choices as aimless.
“If you’re looking at it like a CV, it seems to be flitting around a lot, but I know when I’ve got a good job,” he said.
He cited working with Bryan Ferry and appearing on his records as one example.
“There’s a time to not look too deeply at stuff,” Marr added.
That philosophy echoes the advice McCartney gave him decades earlier.
For Marr, one of the most useful lessons following the painful collapse of the Smiths did not arrive through an elaborate conversation about fame, friendship or creative differences. It came during a day with two people who listened while he explained what had happened.
Then a former Beatle who knew exactly what it meant to lose a band summed it all up in four words:
“That’s bands for you.”