Marr started playing music around his native Manchester at a very young age, getting into mischief with Smiths bassist Andy Rourke.

"Who I am is the product of having been a musician since a teenager onwards," Marr said in an interview with KROQ. "I just wanted to say from my vantage point: I can recommend that it's a great way of life. I try to be a bit conscious of what I'd like to hear if I was that age. I think I would have liked to hear, 'Don't give up.'"

Marr himself didn't give up when he was rejected during an impromptu audition for English new wave band The Only Ones, where he performed their only hit, "Another Girl, Another Planet." One of his most memorable mischievous moments alongside Rourke, the two snuck into the band's dressing room while The Only Ones' guitarist was in the bathroom. Marr thought, "Now's my chance to join the band."