When Keith Richards first met Noel Gallagher
Keith Richards has an undeniable aura that surrounds him. Thankfully, when Noel Gallagher met The Rolling Stones guitarist for the first time in the Carribbean, the encounter was everything the Oasis man could have wanted…and expected
Gallagher discussed the meeting with his hero during an interview with Absolute Radio when he was asked about Mick Jagger. The former Oasis man said Jagger is “alright” from his experiences with him and shared a memory of spending New Year’s Eve in the Carribbean in the company of the singer’s trusted right-hand man.
Due to the generational divide between The Rolling Stones and Oasis, Gallagher is much closer to Jagger and Richards’ children than he is to them. Richards’ eldest son, Marlon, initiated the meeting with Keef after Noel accidentally bumped into him on the island.
Even Noel Gallagher, British music royalty in his own right, still felt an element of trepidation before speaking to Richards for the first time. Fortunately, from the outset, the guitarist exercised his cutting sense of humour which charmed Noel. “I go up to the bar, and there’s Keith Richards, looking exactly as you would imagine, scarf and a hat,” Gallagher vividly recalled. “He suddenly turns around and says, ‘Ah, you’re still around, are you?’… His second line was, ‘One thing I’ve always wanted to ask you: Who is the bigger cunt, your singer or mine?’ And I said, ‘Well, as your singer wrote some of the greatest lyrics of all time, I’m going to say mine.'”
Noel continued: “[Richards] was like, ‘Your band, you were quite interesting there for a while,’ and I was like, ‘I could actually say the same to you. But he was great and such a dude. It kinda reaffirms your faith in all your heroes when you meet Keith because he is the man.”
Like every right-minded individual, Gallagher is a dedicated believer in The Rolling Stones and has a lot to thank the band for. Most notably, they inspired ‘Live Forever‘, the most sentimental and significant song he’s ever penned. On the Sodajerker podcast in 2017, he explained: “When you get it right, it becomes something new. When you get it wrong, it can be a pastiche, and I’ve done both. ‘Live Forever’ was inspired by ‘Shine A Light’ by The Stones, and that became something new. I don’t shy away from that. I chase it if anything.”
Watch the footage below of Noel Gallagher appearing on Absolute Radio and delivering his hilarious anecdote about Keith Richards first-hand.
