were written on drugs. That’s why
they’re so good. And that pisses
me off. I think, “Maybe I should
get back into taking drugs, and
then it would be brilliant again.”
But that thought lasts less than
a second.

Is that sad? Your best work was conceived off your nut? No. The first two albums are widely regarded as two of the greatest British albums of all time. But Be Here Now isn’t my best work. I’ve got kids now. Dad cannot be a drug addict. That’s bollocks. It’s not right.

There are many classic Oasis
tunes, but sometimes the
lyrics just spoil them: “The
Masterplan,” “Champagne
Supernova,” “Don’t Look
Back in Anger.” Do you ever
wish you’d spent more time
making sense?
What’s wrong with “The Master-
plan?”

Didn’t Sir Mick step in and
offer any sage advice?
No, he was spending too much
time trying to get off with Kate
Moss to be arsed.

Standing on the Shoulder of
Giants was the comedown
album. It sounds quite dark
now.
It was definitely a comedown—by
about eight million copies. But the
lyrics were written from a place of
truth. “Gas Panic!” perfectly cap-
tures the jitters and fears you get
coming off cocaine. It sold 600,000
copies. People bought nine million
copies of the coke-fueled ranting
that was Be Here Now.

I notice there’s a certain
amount of setting the record
straight on the new album,
too. “Ain’t Got Nothin’ ” is
about Liam being attacked in a
Munich hotel bar in December
2002 and—
How much I fucking laughed?

“And cast your words away
upon the waves / Bring them
back with Acquiesce on a ship
of hope today.”
It’s possible to sail away on a ship
of that name—when you’re off
your nut on drugs! What the fuck
do Thom Yorke’s lyrics mean?
Apart from “Creep,” which is the
anthem for all freaks and weirdos
and students. Good for them.
But you’re not telling me “Live
Forever” is shit, are you? Nothing
wrong with those words.

He is not a crook:

London, July 2008

 

“All those albums were written on drugs. That’s why they’re so good. And that pisses me off.”

Well, no. He is genuinely
aggrieved that he was
attacked, got hurt, and yet he
got all the blame.
So he says. How many of them
were in that bar? Eleven drunk
Mancunians in a German bar at
5 A. M. Nobody knows what really
happened. All we do know is that
there was a fracas on the dance
floor, and Liam ended up getting
his teeth kicked in.

The new album title, Dig Out
Your Soul—
It’s a reference to party DJs
putting on soul music: “Dig out your soul,
because here we go.” But it can also be about
finding yourself. Don’t give me a hard time
about the album title. Come on, In Rainbows?
What the fuck does that mean? Can you be in a
rainbow? All the action is supposed to be at the
end of the rainbow, isn’t it? Maybe that’s where
Radiohead are fucking going wrong. Thom has
led them into the rainbow, when all the laughs
and the good times are at the end. That’s why
you’re in pain, lads.

But it’s not enough that your own brother is moved to write a song about it and say, “I am innocent”? You don’t believe him?

What? Are you fucking serious? He’s a born fucking liar. I wasn’t there at that bar in Munich, so I won’t cast aspersions. But I ask you, do you think Liam was helping clear away the glasses or assisting an old lady up the stairs when it all kicked off? I leave that for you to decide.

Radiohead have made it in America in a way you never managed. Is that frustrating? No. Good luck to them. I mean it. But I have to say, we look like we’re having more fun. How do you feel the morning after a Radiohead show? I bet you feel better after an Oasis one.

What are you most ashamed of? I regret going to the Caribbean island of Mustique with Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Johnny Depp, and Kate Moss and trying to write Be Here Now. I was doing it for the wrong reasons. And that’s how you get a situation where at the beginning of “D’You Know What I Mean?” there’s no music for the first minute. It’s the sound of an airplane landing, which we recorded on the airstrip outside the house I was renting. And, of course, we thought it was the most amaaaazing thing we’d ever recorded. We took the tapes back to Sony in London, and you’ve got all the suits sitting round the boardroom stereo thinking, “These fucking jokers are riding on the biggest expectations of any band this decade, and they have recorded a plane landing.”

Why don’t you talk to Ray Davies of the Kinks or the Black Crowes about sibling issues? Oh, fuck that. We handle it pretty well. We’ve got through 18 years of it. In the middle of the Definitely Maybe tour, they gave us till Christmas. I’ve only seriously tried to kill him once. I think that’s a pretty good record. In fact, I think I deserve some sort of commendation. I’ve kept Liam in legal employment for nearly two decades. Where would he be otherwise? He’d need fucking round-the-clock care without Oasis.