Johnny Marr’s life seems to orbit around perfect accidents. “It was either really great accidental planning or really bad planning,” he laughs about releasing both Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr and his new book Marr’s Guitars at the same time. The best-of celebrates a decade of his solo work, while the book documents the literal instruments that got him there—130 of them, give or take.
Originally, the idea for Marr’s Guitars wasn’t some grand career retrospective. “It was just meant to be a coffee-table book of beautiful abstract photographs,” Marr says. His photographer friend Pat Graham wanted to capture the scratches and dents of Marr’s guitars in hyper detail—“a rusty bit of the guitar or a crack where it’s been beaten up against a microphone stand.” But as they began shooting, stories started surfacing: Radiohead borrowing three guitars for In Rainbows, Bernard Sumner using his red Les Paul for “Regret,” Chrissie Hynde giving him one, Nile Rodgers another. “Then I remembered, oh yeah, I wrote ‘Meat Is Murder’ on this one,” Marr says, amused at the sheer weight of history sitting in his hands.
That includes the Telecaster he bought right here in Louisville while touring with Modest Mouse. “For a British boy growing up in the ’70s, Louisville is all about the champ—it’s Muhammad Ali,” he says. “I was buzzing to be there. We found this cool guitar store, and I bought that Telecaster. I call it the Louisville Slugger.” Heavy, dark-toned, and very Marr. “Next time I’m there, you’ve given me a good reason to get another guitar.”
The book may read like a museum exhibit, but Marr insists it’s not about showing off. “It’s not ‘hey everybody, look at how great my collection is.’ It’s more like these objects have lived with me, and through them, you get my story.” Which means a history that touches everyone from The Smiths to Modest Mouse to The Cribs to Hans Zimmer—and now, a solo career that’s lasted longer than most entire bands.
Spirit Power looks back on that solo decade, from The Messenger through Fever Dreams Pts 1–4, while adding a couple of new tracks like “Somewhere” and “The Answer.” “My manager told me not to go straight into the studio again,” Marr says. “He said, ‘You just put out a double album, give everyone a break.’” So instead, they compiled the last 10 years into one concise statement. “I’ve always been a fan of best-ofs,” he admits. “When I was a teenager, Tom Petty and Blondie put theirs out. I already had all the records, but I loved that they existed.”
If anyone’s earned one, it’s him. And yet, Marr’s restless nature doesn’t let him sit still long enough to just reminisce. “I’m busier than I’ve ever been,” he says, rattling off orchestral shows in Manchester and book readings between recording sessions. Still, the retrospective offers something rare: a sense of era. “Yeah, it is an era now,” he says. “For me, ‘Spiral Cities’ really defines it. Fans might say ‘Hi Hello’ or ‘Easy Money.’ People hear that one and go, ‘Oh, it’s the Easy Money guy!’ I’ll play ‘This Charming Man’ and they’ll react, but then some of them are just there for that song. I love that.”
It’s funny, because for all his iconic jangle—the “signature riffs,” as he calls them—Marr says his songwriting usually starts with emotion, not concept. “I write down all these ideas for stories and titles, but I’m led by feeling,” he explains. “Sometimes you want to contrast the music and the lyric. Like with ‘Armatopia’—it’s about ecological doom, but I turned it into a disco banger. Basically, how we’re going to dance at the end of the world.”
That’s the duality of Johnny Marr: a pop intellectual who still thinks in riffs. “When I go play on someone’s record, I’ll bring that same guitar—the red Les Paul—because it makes me do the thing people want me to do,” he shrugs. “And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m happy to have something people actually want from me.”
Even when he’s covering Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You,” his band—his sound—is unmistakably his own. “My bass player heard me playing it and said, ‘That really suits your voice.’ That kind of set something off in me.” For a guy who spent years as the guitar hero behind other singers, Marr’s voice has become the throughline of this era. “We sound like us,” he says simply.
He’s not wrong. The songs from Spirit Power—“Spiral Cities,” “The Priest,” “Easy Money,” “Spirit, Power and Soul”—all sound like pieces of the same beautifully restless world. They’re spacious but direct, melancholy but kinetic. “I’m not trying to race anyone to number one,” Marr says. “I just want to make a cool listen for four minutes.”
That’s the thing about Johnny Marr: even when he’s looking back, it feels like motion. His best-of may be a summary, but he talks about it like a springboard. “If I’m in the same company as Blondie and Tom Petty, I’m doing all right,” he says, smiling.
Then again, he’s still got one guitar he hasn’t bought yet—the next Louisville Slugger.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
