The Unruly Return of Liam Gallagher: An Epic Interview
"This one's called 'Rock 'n' Roll Star!'"
Liam Gallagher swaggers onstage in his signature parka (it's summer) and shorts and high-fives screaming fans in front of a garish banner that says 'ROCK 'N' ROLL." Then he launches into the iconic 1994 Oasis track, tambourine in hand. Lights flicker wildly.
It's late July. The ex-Oasis frontman and legendary loudmouth is playing one of his first-ever stateside solo shows at a tiny venue in Brooklyn. Gallagher is back from a lengthy musical hiatus (which, in his words, involved lots of time spent "pissed in the head, doing things you shouldn't be doing" after the 2014 dissolution of Beady Eye). He and his backing band barrel through more Oasis classics, as well as material from his forthcoming solo record, As You Were: the hooky, finger-pointing "Wall of Glass," the more contemplative "Chinatown."
Related: Oasis's (What's the Story) Morning Glory at 20
Then he plays "Wonderwall"—fans go nuts—but ends the song abruptly before the God-like singalong coda. That's it. He's gone. "That was the best thing I've ever seen," a total stranger says to me in the men's room after the gig, grinning. "I can't believe he just stopped 'Wonderwall' in the middle and walked off. That's so him." Fact check: true.
A month and a half later, Gallagher calls me after a gig in Milan and proves that he's regained his title as rock's most inexhaustible and quotable trash-talker. In a wide-ranging conversation, Gallagher discusses his boozy sabbatical, his never-ending feud with brother Noel ("if anyone should be apologizing, it should be fucking "), Noel's renditions of Oasis songs ("really kind of boring"), the 20th, his infuriating run-in with a cashier who refused to sell him cigarettes without ID and, of course, his surprisingly reflective new solo album, . And more. Lots more. At 45, Gallagher has not shed the gleeful arrogance that pushed his brother to quit Oasis in a rage in 2009.
