Noel Gallagher: "I'm not a genius"

7 October 2020, 12:59

Noel Gallagher talks about Oasis' (What's The Story) Morning Glory at Rockfield Studios. Picture: Press

The former Oasis rocker has spoken about how his biggest songs are nods to legendary artists who have come before him.

Noel Gallagher has maintained that he's "not a genius".

The former Oasis guitarist and chief songwriter is responsible for creating some of the biggest anthems of the 90s, but he admitted that much of his work is a "nod" to other artists, who he considers to be more gifted.

Speaking at Rockfield Studios in a special track by track interview about the making of the band's (What's The Story) Morning Glory album, he said: "I’m not a genius. Everything I do is a nod to something or other. I’m not a genius. I’m a fan of music.

"Like, Paul McCartney is a genius, you know what I mean? Morrissey and Bob Dylan and I’m just fans of theirs. I've got a good knack of putting sh** together, but I'm not a snob about where it comes from. I'll tell you."

The Don't Look Back In Anger singer added: "Nothing's original. There's only 12 notes anyway."

Watch the full interview here.

Speaking about the album for its 25th anniversary and how the critics weren't expecting it, Gallagher reflected how it influenced both the quality and reception of the band's third album Be Here Now.

"Most people, our record company included, were expecting Definitely, Maybe part two," he revealed in the special video feature. "And they weren't expecting Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger and Cast No Shadow and that kind of thing. So, yeah, I was expecting it to be not well received."

The Manchester rocker added: "Nobody realised that that was our moment. I thought our moment was the one after, that’s what I thought. So, I started to overthink it on Be Here Now."

"I mean it goes to prove that really, journalists, they know f**k all," he mused. "They had to second guess everything after Morning Glory, cos they’d got it so wrong. That’s why when Be Here Now came out, which isn't a great album, it got 10/10 everywhere, it didn’t get one bad review, because they didn’t want to be made to look like dicks again, and they were, because it's not half the record Morning Glory is. After that, they properly hated us after that, cos they didn’t understand us."