Why Liam Gallagher hates U2: ‘Not remotely rock ‘n’ roll’
In 2017, Bono declared that music had grown “very girly” and that real rock and roll held rage “at the heart of it”. By his estimation, U2 were still carrying the torch. And it’s true that they’re an archetypal stadium band; they aren’t short of people willing to point out that Bono’s seemingly endless earnest takes don’t exactly gel with rock tradition. Joining the legions of detractors is Liam Gallagher, who, amongst other things, has called them “beige fucks”.
Luckily for Gallagher, Bono’s self-confidence is so overblown he can weather the critique. While he has an ego in keeping with rock stardom, it’s his lifestyle Gallagher took issue with. Assessing the current state of music’s most high-profile stars, the former Oasis man claimed that the majority were useless. He said: “The ones that think they’re rock stars are not, they just live a very boring fucking life, and I think rock ‘n’ roll deserves a little bit more than just making music, you know what I mean?”
Gallagher, whose own commitment to rock and roll excess made him a staple of newspaper headlines in the Oasis year, was bored by Bono. “You gotta get out there and get yourself – you just gotta live an exciting life,” he lamented. “It’s like U2; they pass themselves as a rock ‘n’ roll band, but what the? Come on, man, I’ve never seen fucking Bono. I mean, I’ve never seen any of them do anything remotely rock ‘n’ roll.”
Pre-empting the rebuttal – “a lot of people will go, ‘Oh it’s all about music'” – Gallagher told Loudwire that attitude was everything. “I don’t think it’s all about music,” he said. “Obviously, you’ve got a certain degree of, your tunes have gotta be decent enough, but I think attitude goes a long way”.
Gallagher, whose infamous longstanding feud with brother Noel is more aligned with rocks history of bitter breakups, said although his gripe with Bono might sound “a bit stupid”, it meant a lot to him.
In turn, Noel took to Absolute Radio in 2021 to explain why the U2 frontman was so divisive, and funny enough, it had to do with Bono’s attitude. “I get a bit frustrated when people are like ‘I don’t like U2,'” he said, in a potential barb to his brother.
“‘And I’m like no, what you are saying is you don’t like Bono. It’s like you’re not telling me you don’t like one single note that they’ve ever done. It’s rubbish, it’s nonsense”. But on his brother’s most salient point, that his attitude rubbed people the wrong, he did concede. “I’ve said this to him, so I’ll say it to you: nobody likes a do-gooder, nobody likes it. That’s why people like me, I’m a do-badder.”
