The Pretenders introduced alongside a couple of friends to their Glastonbury set in the present day, together with Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, who performed drums for the band, plus Johnny Marr, who additionally got here onstage as a particular visitor. It’s truly one thing of a homecoming for Marr, who was briefly a member of the Pretenders in 1987 after the Smiths parted methods. “My favourite factor about Glastonbury through the years is seeing my guitar heroes,” Chrissie Hynde mentioned as she launched Marr, who carried out “Tattooed Love Boys” with everybody. Marr was additionally available for classics like “Chain Gang” and “Don’t Get Me Improper.”

Marr truly talked to us about his Pretenders days in our We’ve Received A File On You interview:

You may think, on a human degree, your band breaking apart so publicly and with such acrimony: It felt like, I get up within the morning and it was like being in an earthquake. Buildings falling round throughout you. Then on the similar time, you’re getting a name from a mutual good friend saying, “Hey, hear, the Pretenders’ guitar participant stop and so they received an entire lot of dates in America and Chrissie would love so that you can come over.” I am going, “Effectively, I actually wish to get the fuck out of right here, and I wish to play the guitar, and I just like the Pretenders songs.” I used to be by no means one for sitting and figuring out many different folks’s guitar components. I used to work out information, T. Rex songs and stuff, after I was younger. However there have been a couple of information I labored the whole lot out on: Bert Jansch’s L.A. Turnaround, the Stooges’ Uncooked Energy, Rory Gallagher’s Deuce, and the opposite was the Pretenders’ first album. I kinda knew the best way these songs went.

It was actually bizarre. As I mentioned, this earthquake was occurring and somebody pulled me out. If you happen to’re going to be pulled out of an intense life state of affairs, you may do lots worse than Chrissie Hynde. It’s a state of affairs with quite a lot of depth every day, friendships breaking down. I’m all of the sudden partnered up and in a detailed friendship with somebody with somebody the place two of her band members have died. Attempt that on for measurement. It was superb for me to be with an grownup who everybody is aware of as ballsy, robust, opinionated. She was like, “Boo hoo, two of my fucking band died, strive that on.” That was the vibe. I received overseas, and the subsequent factor I used to be concentrating on was strolling onstage opening for U2 on the Olympic Stadium in Los Angeles and different locations like that, as a result of they have been on the Joshua Tree tour. Now, I’m 24, and I haven’t walked onstage to 100,000 folks earlier than. That was actually good to distract me from the truth that my closest pals have been all speaking about legal professionals, and shit happening within the media. Round that very same time, virtually in the very same week, I received a name from Paul McCartney’s workplace asking would you want to return over jam. That’s fairly surreal.

Like the whole lot in life, when shit goes down, you discover out who your pals are. Fortunately for me, my pals have been Matt Johnson, and Bernard Sumner, and Chrissie Hynde. And so they have been all like, “Hey, now you’re free, come and play!” The backstory to The The was earlier than I fashioned the Smiths, Matt Johnson and I wished to be The The collectively. It was only a matter of teenage economics. I believed they have been doing unbelievable stuff. I began taking part in with The The as a type of session. Chrissie was in a spot with the Pretenders the place she’d been touring a very long time and he or she had babies. She wanted a break from that. And The The have been like a gang of fellows on a mission. It was Ocean’s Eleven or one thing. There was no approach I used to be going to be allowed to not be concerned in that, from Matt. It was a wierd, private story that I solely ever actually received to elucidate after I wrote my e-book.

And I used to be a child, you realize. Anybody whose band breaks up, when you type that band, it’s heartbreaking. All this unbelievable, thrilling stuff was happening, however to be trustworthy with you — while it was occurring, my coronary heart was damaged. It was a tough time of life, however I look again on it with amazement that I used to be robust sufficient to do it. I wouldn’t need me personal kids to undergo it. But when they did, I’d be very pleased with them, you realize?

As for Grohl, he beforehand joined the Pretenders on stage throughout the Taylor Hawkins tribute present at Wembley Stadium final yr. The Pretenders are set to launch their new album, Relentless, on September 15; final week, they unveiled their newest single, “I Assume About You Every day” that includes Jonny Greenwood.

Watch some fan-shot footage of the entire crew at Glastonbury beneath.