Noel Gallagher has been doing a lot of interviews lately to promote his new album and North American tour, which is a gift to everyone who likes unexpurgated opinions, and creative insults and swearing.
In an interview with Seattle’s KPNW, he elaborated on the possibility of an Oasis reunion. While he’s said very content being a solo artist, Gallagher did offer a glimmer of hope, saying it really rests on his estranged brother, Liam. “Look, he’s gonna have to call me. He’s going to have to get somebody to call me, because he’s been going on about it for the last fucking 10 [years] or whatever it is and you know, he doesn’t want it,” Noel said. “He knows that neither of us are particularly interested in it. I know he doesn’t want it. I’m very comfortable with what I’m doing. I couldn’t give a flying fuck one way or the other, but he keeps going on about it and I’m like, ‘OK well fucking call us then.”
Then, in an interview with Rolling Stone published over the weekend, Gallagher claims he was responsible for Taylor Swift and Matty Healy breaking up. “Taylor has obviously said, ‘Now look, keep your fucking nose out of that Gallagher business, or we are fucking through,’” Noel said, tongue clearly in cheek. “And he couldn’t help it. And Swifty, God bless her, said, ‘I can’t deal with this shit because once he’s done with you, he is gonna come after me and I’m not fucking having it. So, I’m sorry, Matty, you gotta go.”
That was in reference to Gallagher and Healy’s recently trading barbs in the press. After Healy made a public plea for Oasis to get back together, Noel called Healy a “fuckwit” and said The 1975 are “shit.” Healy, meanwhile, gave a little more back, with what is a genuinely great line while on stage in Dublin: “The difference between me and Noel is that I do a series of interviews to promote an album, whereas he does an album to promote a series of interviews. But we love you Noel, get Oasis back together!”
As for his upcoming tour, Noel told Rolling Stone that while he does perform Oasis songs, it’s not a nostalgia tour: “I’m starting off with five new ones. People should have bought the fucking album, then, shouldn’t they? So they’re gonna stand there with their mouths open thinking, ‘What the fuck is this?’ I should advise them to go to their preferred streaming service.”
And as for fans who just want him to keep on writing the kind of songs he did with Oasis, he says people need to let him grow up. “I would assume Oasis fans would like me to rewrite Definitely Maybe forevermore, but you are not really stretching yourself as an artist then,” he said. “I’m 56, right? Let me be 56. You know, I’m not fucking 27 anymore. I was 27 once and I fucking changed people’s lives! You can’t carry on doing it.”
Noel’s new album, Council Skies, is quite good, actually.
His tour with Garbage and Metric is underway now and hits NYC at SummerStage at Central Park on July 10.