The SPIN Interview: Noel Gallagher

Photographed for SPIN by Alan Clarke

I have a certain turn of phrase. So if I say, "Chicken sandwiches in McDonald's are just plain fucking wrong," it doesn't mean I'm attacking all chickens or all sandwiches. I've hung out with Jay-Z in Tokyo. I've seen his show. It's not my bag, but it's all right. We have a mutual friend in Chris Martin. So I am a guy who doesn't like hip-hop -- shock, horror. I don't dislike rappers or hip-hop or people who like it. I went to the Def Jam tour in Manchester in the '80s when rap was inspirational. Public Enemy were awesome. But it's all about status and bling now, and it doesn't say anything to me.

Do you think hip-hop fans could get anything out of Oasis?

Yeah. In England the white working class are feared, and our music is working-class expression. We have a lot in common with hip-hop. Apart from people pumping shotgun pellets into each other.

What's your biggest regret career-wise?

I wish we'd let (What's the Story) Morning Glory? settle and go away. It was still No. 5 in the Billboard 100 when we started making Be Here Now. I wish someone who's paid to be bright and clever had told us to go away and do a bit of living. But we were fueled by youth and cocaine. Everything was going to be bigger and better. We were surrounded by people telling us it was the greatest thing they'd ever heard. When you're the cash cow that lays the golden goose egg, people are always going to cheer you on, whatever.

What about meeting Tony Blair?

I don't have a crystal ball. I didn't see he was going to turn into a cunt. I was 30, off me head on drugs, and everyone telling me we were the greatest band since who knows. Then the prime minister invites you round for a glass of wine. It all becomes part of the high. Why not? I thought it would give me mum a laugh. I didn't go thinking, "I endorse this government's policies in every respect." I went to have a look at the curtains.

After 1997's Be Here Now, the euphoric, hedonistic Oasis music stopped. What happened?

I took a long look around my living room at Supernova Heights and realized 20 to 30 people were there all the time. None of them were my mates. Also, I was starting not to feel well, getting edgy and twitchy. I decided to kick drink and drugs for a week. One week became two and then six. And then I got addicted to being sober. After that, I said to various people, "You have to leave -- you're getting divorced." Between '95 and '97 was mental and great. But unsustainable.

What great Oasis songs were not written on drugs?

Get the answer to that question, and loads more, in the October 2008 issue of SPIN, on newsstands now.