Johnny Marr auctions guitars from The Smiths and Billie Eilish

Imagine a guitar that has been played on stage by millions of fans. That guitar holds a story — and soon, it might tell that story to a new owner.

Johnny Marr is a guitarist most people recognize from The Smiths, one of the most important rock bands of the 1980s. But he did not stop making music after The Smiths ended. Over decades, he has played with many artists, including the modern pop star Billie Eilish. Now, he is doing something unexpected: he is selling his personal collection of guitars.

Why would a musician sell the instruments that made him famous? Marr explains that his studio had become crowded with guitars. Each one held a memory — a concert, a recording session, a moment in his life. But Marr realized his creative space was turning into something like a museum. A museum is a wonderful place, but it is not a place where music happens. So he decided it was time to let these guitars find new homes.

This decision teaches us something interesting about artists. Sometimes, holding onto the past can actually stop you from making new things. Marr wanted his studio to stay alive and energetic. He wanted room to write new songs, try new ideas, and create fresh music. He could not do that if his studio was full of old instruments just sitting there.

The guitars going up for auction are not random instruments. They are tools that helped create some of the most important songs in rock and pop history. Fans of Marr's work will have a rare chance to own a piece of that history. But here is the deeper truth: what matters most is not the guitar itself. What matters is the person holding it and the music that comes from their hands and heart.

Marr's choice also shows us how professional musicians think differently from collectors. A collector wants to keep things safe and untouched. A working musician wants to keep moving forward. For someone like Marr, the real value is not in owning the old guitar — it is in the freedom to pick up a new one and create something nobody has heard before.

This story invites us to think about what we hold onto in our own lives. Do we keep things because they truly matter to us, or because we are afraid to let them go? Do the objects we own sometimes own us instead?

Inspired by reporting from BBC News.