Rock ’n’ roll is alive and well

Liam Gallagher on new album, simplifying life and making sure his type of music will never die

TWO years after his debut solo album went to No1 and saved Liam Gallagher’s career, the former Oasis singer is back for more.

Today, the 46-year-old, from Manchester, releases his second album Why Me? Why Not. And with huge tunes including One of Us, Shockwave and Once, it’s already shaping up to be a huge step up from his 2017 debut As You Were. We caught up with Liam ahead of the launch:

You called one of your sons Lennon and influences from The Beatles can be heard on the new album. Why do you keep going back to them?

I adore the Beatles, I’m obsessed with them. I’m obsessed with John Lennon in a healthy way. I f ***** g love them. They’re the best band ever to walk this planet and I will not stop. I don’t go out of our way to write a song… there was one, maybe Meadows. It was the one where I went: “Let’s try and do a Blue Jay Way, a bit trippy”. But the rest of them happened to sound like that. We don’t go in there with pictures of the band and go: “Right, let’s recreate.” It’s just the music I like.

Did you always want to be a singer?

Yep. At the time when I first saw the Stone Roses, that was it, that was my thing, man. I was obsessed and still am. I knew I could sing in a band. I never got a bug for being a songwriter and I’m still not bothered about songwriting. I mean I can write a few songs every now and again. But I work with other people that help my ideas come out. Do you know what I mean? For me, it was singing. I just knew I wanted to be the frontman.

Do you think guitar music as a dominant chart force is over?

A Lot of people say that but it will come back. I think there’s a lot of rock musicians that should be ashamed of themselves. It’s like they sit there because everyone’s been saying rock ’n’ roll music has died. They’ve been saying it in the 70s, the 80s , the f ***** g 90s. I think in this day and age, there’s a lot of rock ’n’ rollers or people that are in bands that have done well from guitar music or rock ’n’ roll and the minute it’s not selling records, they jump ship. And it’s like: “Give me that keyboard” and all that nonsense. I’ll never do that. You’ve got to stick to your genre, whether it’s going well or going bad because it will always come round. Rock’n’roll is alive and well. I’m proving that. It might not be selling loads of records but it’s not really about that. It was never about that. It was about moving people and meaning something. It doesn’t matter if you sell a million records. It’s nice but it doesn’t f ***** g matter. If I sell a million copies of this album or 100,000, it won’t mean it’s better or worse.

Once shows a different side to you. Liam singing a love song?

Well, I love it so it’s a love song in that sense. But it’s a bit more like a reflection, of going like: “Look, I remember when you used to be great, I remember when life used to be so great when we didn’t have much to manage, when life was simple.” You’ve just got to simplify your life sometimes. Get rid of all the s*** that you don’t need. You don’t need two Rolex watches, you don’t need five houses on the Continent or whatever, you don’t need four cars.

How did you get your son Gene to play bongos on One of Us?

We couldn’t get the drummer on that day and Gene was there checking out the girls. He’s been drumming since he was six, so I said, “Can you