![Johnny Marr's "astonishing" collaboration with Paul McCartney]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Johnny-Marrs-astonishing-collaboration-with-Paul-McCartney-758x426.jpg "Johnny Marr's \"astonishing\" collaboration with Paul McCartney] 1")
Performing alongside Paul McCartney must feel nothing short of surreal for those who’ve been lucky enough to experience it. Johnny Marr knows that feeling first-hand – and he recently recalled what he learned from his “mind-blowing” jamming sessions with Macca.
“If you take a band like the Beatles – they always come to mind because they’re the yardstick everyone thinks about,” he says on The Overlap podcast.
“Paul McCartney, on the other hand – and speaking as a musician – I had a mind-blowing experience playing with Paul McCartney when I was younger.”
Marr goes on to say Macca is equivalent to having “two guys” in a band, “Because he’s so melodic, he’s so attitude-y, and just [has] amazing musicality.”
“You forget, actually, about what their craft is,” he asserts. “And Paul McCartney reinvented a way of playing the bass. You think of him as a songwriter and a singer really, but as a bass guitar player, it’s next-level, really.
“I think that was really deliberate. I think he took great pride in being… he wanted to be the best bass player in the world.”
The Beatles as a whole revolutionized music, but as Marr notes, Macca’s bass chops were equally evolutionary, helping to transform the traditionally ‘background’ instrument into a melodic force that could carry hit after hit.
Post-Smiths, Marr developed a reputation as a gun for hire, which included a brief period during which he jammed with the Beatles bassist.
“I didn’t 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,” he told The Autojubilator in a 2013 interview.
“Which was pretty great, obviously. I remember everything about it. We played I Saw Her Standing There, Twenty Flight Rock, Tutti Frutti. I got him to play Things We Said Today, and I think we played some Wings stuff. C-Moon, I remember. That was fun. He and I were singing harmonies on I Saw Her Standing There – that was a pretty good moment, too. I was only 23, maybe 24.”
Marr recently launched his latest signature Jaguar with Fender, and shared what he hopes this new version communicates to the next generation of guitarists.
