In the studio, headphones were on and the band was about to start recording "Beyond The Rain" — the second track on Johnny Marr's new album *The Age of Everything*. A phone rang. Noel Gallagher's name flashed on the screen.
"I don't normally take calls, but Noel rang," Marr recalled to Radio X. "He doesn't normally call, he normally texts. I picked it up and the whole band was stood there, and he told me that Mani had died."
Gary "Mani" Mounfield was the bassist for The Stone Roses, joining the band in 1987 and playing on their two classic albums before the group first split in 1996. He then joined Primal Scream, staying until The Stone Roses reunited in 2011. He passed away on November 20 at age 63, with the cause linked to respiratory issues stemming from long-term emphysema. Following the news, Ian Brown, New Order, Liam Fray of the Courteeners, Elbow, Richard Ashcroft, Tim Burgess and Peter Hook all posted tributes on social media.
"I remember everyone was in shock, and it was really sad. Me and my band had known Mani for a long time," Marr said. The band briefly considered scrapping the session altogether, but ultimately decided to keep recording — just with a few lyric tweaks in mind.
"I could just hear Mani's voice in my head going, 'Come on, Mr Marr, you've got to keep rocking.' So I don't know, maybe we were all still in shock, but we got the track done anyway," he said. "When we went back in the next day to do the vocals, I changed a couple of lines slightly. There was a line about the sun coming out, and I changed it to 'I shine like a northern son, back to where I once belonged'... there were a couple of lines in the song that got changed like that. It gave the whole song a heavier, more meaningful feeling. I wasn't writing about Mani, but he was in my head the whole time I was singing it."
*The Age of Everything* is the fifth solo album from the former Smiths guitarist, released October 2 via BMG, following 2022's *Fever Dreams Pts 1–4*, a 2023 greatest hits collection, and the 2025 live album *Look Out Live!*
Marr has also recently contributed to Gorillaz's latest album *The Mountain*, performed onstage with the band in London in June, took part in recording the War Child charity album *Help(2)*, and in early April joined Pet Shop Boys onstage in London for a set featuring several deep cuts and rarities.
Speaking to NME about the new album's title, *The Age of Everything*, Marr said: "Everybody immediately jumps to information overload, overuse, overstimulation, that kind of thing when they hear that title, and that's all correct, but because I've been living with it for a long time, and because I'm a songwriter, and I'm quite optimistic by nature, I see it differently. If you were explaining to a five-year-old what 'The Age of Everything' meant, what you'd say would be completely different. And if you start thinking about it from a Buddhist or New Age perspective, the title takes on a whole other dimension again."
