The only musician that left Noel Gallagher starstruck: “The only guy I’ve been in awe of”
Even before Oasis hit the big time, they carried themselves with the presence of superstars. When they performed in toilet venues across the country, Noel Gallagher looked destined to progress up the ladder to the top, and within a couple of years, they duly delivered upon that promise.
While many artists suffer from imposter syndrome, believing they don’t deserve to be playing to thousands of crazed fans nightly or have their faces on magazine covers, Noel and Liam Gallagher thought it was their divine right. When Noel was penning Oasis songs in his bedroom with an acoustic guitar for company, he dreamed these creations would lead to a bright future, which came true in the blink of an eye.
After Oasis became the biggest British band of their era, selling out stadiums everywhere from Birmingham to Buenos Aires, Noel suddenly found himself surrounded by his musical heroes. Gallagher believed this was his fate, so he felt comfortable talking to his newfound peers and rarely felt nervous in the company of giants.
Due to the bolshy manner in which Oasis acted in public, it tended to rub certain people up the wrong way. Therefore, the encounter could end in disaster whenever Noel stepped into a room at a glitzy event. Thankfully, legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young couldn’t have been more welcoming and generous to Oasis, according to Noel.
Young and his band, Crazy Horse, are on a pedestal in Gallagher’s mind. He once revealed that if he could jam with one band, alive or dead, it would be them. “Neil Young and Crazy Horse would be fucking great,” he explained on his YouTube channel. “Just to kind of be on stage with them and skulk around in the background just playing loud, I’d love that. Or playing drums for Crazy Horse, I’d be a great Crazy Horse drummer. I’ll be Neil Young’s drummer all day.”
This comment isn’t the first time that he has used superlatives about Young and Crazy Horse. In 2011, Gallagher spoke candidly about their interactions over the years, which made the Oasis songwriter think even more highly of the Canadian.
“This is the only guy I’ve been in awe of after meeting,” he told MOJO about the singer. “I’ve had a few beers with him, been out for dinner, played gigs, and before we met, people would say, ‘Well, you know he won’t speak to you.’ I was doing an interview at a festival in Canada that he was on the bill for, and I was telling the Canadian journalist that I couldn’t wait to meet Neil Young. And he was going, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ At that exact moment, there was a knock on the dressing room door,” Gallagher gleefully recounted.
Young’s kindness to Gallagher wasn’t lost on the Mancunian, who continued, “He’s always been very respectful to Oasis, and to me when I’ve met him.” The Higher Flying Birds leader then highlighted Young’s authenticity as his best attribute, adding, “I’ve seen him with Crazy Horse, with acoustic gigs, and he always comes from a place of truth. He’s invented a car that runs on fucking grass or something.” Heaping more praise onto the ‘Godfather of Grunge’, Noel declared: “The world can be split into two camps: people that like Neil Young and people that don’t. And the people that don’t are fucking idiots.”
While Gallagher and Young don’t sing from the same hymn sheet in a literal sense, they’ve both never hidden away from their true selves in their art. They are unapologetically authentic, which has made both unpopular at times. However, neither Young nor Gallagher would have it any other way. They’d rather be hated for being themselves than celebrated for acting like somebody else, which has made them adored by millions.
