Noel Gallagher on the genius of Johnny Marr: “It’s mad what he does”
Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have been friends for decades. “In all honesty, when I first met Noel, I liked him a lot,” Marr once stated. “I saw a young kid. I didn’t make too much of a big deal of it at the time, but the fact that his background is quite similar to mine, that Mancunian-Irish thing, I think makes us understand each other quite well.”
Gallagher and Marr first crossed paths before Oasis’s official signing with Creation Records. Marr played a pivotal role in Oasis’s ascent to stardom, gifting Gallagher a black 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom before the band began recording their debut LP, Definitely Maybe.
However, despite helping Gallagher to ascend the metaphorical career ladder, Marr had no idea that Oasis would actually make it. As he explained: “He was just a kid from Burnage. I had no idea Oasis were going to go on to such big things. I did it because he was in need, because I was lucky and had lots of guitars, and because I wished someone had done it for me.”
Over the years, the two musicians have continued to share nothing but respect for one another. For Marr, Gallagher is “one of the most dedicated” musicians. Likewise, Gallagher regards Marr as the ultimate creative meastro, a true innovator whose work has touched and influenced many.
Speaking about their relationship on That Pedal Show, Gallagher went into more detail about Marr’s prowess as a musician and songwriter. He said: “It doesn’t look like [Marr] is playing the most intricate, arpeggio thing in the world. I’d be grimacing on the floor, and he’ll talk to you while he’s doing it.”
He added: “I swear to god, I’ve seen him do this. The track will be playing, he doesn’t let you send him the track, he’s not interested. He’ll come in here, […] he’ll just listen to it, and he’ll start playing. And then he’ll start talking telling you what he’s about to do. He’ll be like, ‘so what I’m going to do is this’, and I’m like, I can’t fucking do that and hold a conversation with someone. It’s mad what he does, it’s truly mad what he does.”
Since their first meeting, the duo’s friendship has endured. Marr and Gallagher have collaborated on several recordings, a gesture Marr mentions he’s always eager to extend to the former Oasis songwriter. “Noel is interesting in many ways,” Marr explained. “The thing about Noel is that because he’s so unpretentious and genuinely down to earth, people think they know him. And because he’s so outspoken—which a lot of that is because he knows it’s funny, right?”
He continued: “But in a way, I’m going to blow his cover a little bit now. But it’s almost like to cover up the fact that he’s really deadly serious about what he does, and that he puts a lot of thought and work into it.”
