Why Johnny Depp wouldn’t want to live next door to Liam Gallagher: “No disrespect”
In the 1990s, oddball Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp and lairy Oasis singer Liam Gallagher were good pals who loved nothing more than painting the town red. In fact, their hard-partying exploits in that decade were so legendary that, when they reunited at Glastonbury in 2017 after a decade apart, excited hangers-on declared it a “wild reunion.”
Interestingly, the gruesome twosome’s bond was once so strong that it was rumoured that Depp wanted to move into a house next door to Gallagher in London. To everyone’s surprise, though, Depp claimed that wasn’t true – and that he and Gallagher would actually hate being each other’s neighbour.
In the Britpop era of the ’90s, it’s hard to understate just how big a deal Oasis was. After all, the band’s second album ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” sold 20 million copies worldwide, and its follow-up, ‘Be Here Now’, shifted an insane 424,000 copies on its first day of UK release alone. That album featured a guest spot from Depp, who was already friendly with Liam and his brother/nemesis Noel at the time.
The Edward Scissorhands star – and fairly accomplished musician – played slide guitar on the track ‘Fade In-Out,’ with Noel eloquently stating, “If he hadn’t been around, we’d have had to get some fat old geezer who’d be telling us about how he played with Clapton in ’76 and took a slide solo that lasted for fucking months.”
During this period, Depp and Liam bonded over their mutual love of living the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll lifestyle, with an anonymous source telling NME, “They are two of the biggest hellraisers of their time, and they’ve always had a laugh.” Indeed, over the years, Depp’s love affair with wine has been well-documented, with the star reportedly dropping a staggering $30,000 a month on claret. Gallagher, on the other hand, reportedly never met a drug he didn’t like and revelled in being a “headcase” who partied like it was going out of fashion.
This is why few people were surprised when rumours started spreading in 2006 that Depp wanted to keep the party going by becoming Gallagher’s neighbour in London. However, when The Guardian asked him about the idea, Depp confessed, “Ten or 12 years ago, that might have been true. No disrespect to Liam, but I don’t think he’s the guy I want for my neighbour, and I guarantee he wouldn’t want me.”
The fact that the pair reunited 11 years later for a night of excess at Glastonbury would indicate Depp hadn’t exactly become the shy and retiring type, so that ruled out a new lifestyle as the reason he didn’t want to live next to Gallagher. After all, on that evening, Gallagher told GQ that he indulged in some casual narcotics with Depp, all while his children were present. “We had a chat, and he met my kids,” he deadpanned. “We were in a fucking teepee. For fucking ages.”
Instead, Depp’s reticence to sanction the idea of becoming Gallagher’s next-door neighbour had more to do with his desire to keep London an elusive mystery to a wandering American spirit like him. “I like London, but if I lived there,” he mused, “for an outsider like me, it would lose the magic.”
