The one singer Noel Gallagher never wanted to talk to: “I can’t be dealing with”
Noel Gallagher has never been accused of being short of words throughout his entire career.
Whether he was becoming one of the biggest stars in Oasis or trying his hand at solo work, Noel has always been one of the most brutally honest rock stars since the days of John Lydon, and he could say his piece on virtually anyone who was in the spotlight. And while he did have a handful of artists that he held in the highest regard, there were definitely more than a few artists that he felt happy to never associate with for as long as he lived.
Then again, that sounds almost comical coming from someone like Noel. He was willing to confront anyone and everyone, and while Liam was the one who ended up getting into a lot of scraps with people, there were more than a few times where Noel could be absolutely ruthless when it came to someone that he didn’t like. After the Blur fiasco, though, there’s a good chance that he’s mellowed out at least a little bit.
He didn’t want to find himself being quoted as saying anything despicable, but sometimes it was better to have someone much more controversial next to him. He knew that he wasn’t going to be the one making headlines if Morrissey was the one making comments next to him, and even if he had a few times hanging with people like Bono and Johnny Marr, he did have a lot more of a level head when it came to talking about people after the fact.
At the same time, the 1990s were still rife with artists who had more than their fair share of shit to talk about. Kurt Cobain was notoriously honest about every single band that he didn’t like that came from Los Angeles, and even years after grunge and Britpop faded, Fred Durst did a great job at carrying on the role of the rock and roll dickhead that put his foot in his mouth more than a few times.
But even years after the Britpop afterglow faded, Noel felt that hanging with Courtney Love was extremely low on his priority list. Love was already becoming known as the Yoko Ono of the 1990s in many respects, but even if she had more than her fair share of great songs on her own with Hole, Noel felt that he would have absolutely nothing to say to her if he ended up running into her out in the wild.
There were a few occasions where they crossed paths on tour, but Noel said that he went out of his way to avoid her when they ended up in the same places, saying, “I was in a studio in LA, and we were in the back recording Don’t Believe the Truth. And reception called us and said, ‘Courtney Love’s just walked in.’ I knew Liam was running around reception. I could hear her shouting, ‘Where’s Noel? I gotta meet Noel!’ So I grabbed a cig, exited out the back door and went straight back to the motel and locked the door. I was like, ‘I can’t be dealing with her rowdiness – fucking hell, no way.’”
But even if Love was responsible for some of the greatest riot grrrl songs of her day, it’s understandable why Noel didn’t want to get caught up with her. He was the more levelheaded member of Oasis at the best of times, and he knew that it was usually best for him not to get too carried away every single time he started hanging out with some of the more wild members of the rock and roll world.
Love was still capable of making great music on her own, but her offstage behaviour was something that seemed to be even more wild than Noel could tolerate. And since Noel had his moments where he could barely tolerate his brother’s eccentric personality, having both him and Love in one room would have been far too erratic for him to tolerate for more than a few minutes at a time.
