A Plan Too Far

Album: Stockholm (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • John McEnroe played guitar on this track. The tennis great learned to play the guitar with the help of axeman pals like Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton. After divorcing Tatum O'Neil in 1994, McEnroe formed The Johnny Smyth Band with himself as lead singer and guitarist and began gigging and writing songs. The group had almost completed an album when McEnroe suddenly quit in 1997.

    Another musical connection for McEnroe: his wife is Patty Smyth, who was lead singer of the band Scandal ("Goodbye To You," "The Warrior").
  • Hynde has known McEnroe since the 1980s and they have been having a version of the same argument over that period. She told The Observer. "I say to him, 'Don't do any more exhibition matches. If you want to play in a band, just play in some sh---y little band in a little club if that's what you want to do.' Of course, he doesn't do it."

    Hynde continued, "And he always says, 'I want to meet your accountant: how much are you getting paid?' I don't know, so that winds him up. As far as success goes, I've never really got too excited about losing or winning. I don't have whatever the gene is you need for that. Whatever the gene John McEnroe has, I don't have that. I don't care."

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