Ex Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher has told boxing promoter Eddie Hearn he has no time for social media and that he never makes plans for the future.
Speaking to Eddie for the BBC Radio 5 Live podcast No Passion, No Point he talks about the split with Oasis, and says he avoids selfies with fans whenever he can.
“One of the reasons it wasn’t much of a struggle leaving Oasis was that we’d allowed ourselves to be dictated to by our audience,” says Noel.
“They wanted stadium rock and we thought that was it. Towards the end of Oasis – I was getting restless and bored with the music. And now I trust my instincts. And if it sounds good to me …
“I picked all the singles in Oasis and I got by on my taste running that band, and more or less I’ve got it right so when I’m in the studio and I’ve come up with [new single) Black Star Dancing, I think – well if I like it – a healthy percentage of people will like it too.”
Eddie Hearn is one of sport’s biggest promoters. In his BBC Radio 5 Live series No Passion, No Point he asks some of the UK’s most famous figures what drives their success.
Hearn asks how High Flying Birds compares to Oasis, and Noel says it’s exactly the same. “Oasis was my life and this is my life now,” says Noel.
“I’m older now and I’m more considered about my approach. Oasis was all about the struggle, about the struggle from growing up to getting there, then the struggle staying there when everybody’s pulling in a different direction and you’ve kind of got to make it work. This is just serene. I’ve managed to get a load of people who are all on the same page, everybody’s pulling in the same direction. “
Noel tells Eddie, who has 546,000 followers on Instagram, that social media bores him. “I’m quite a private person. I’m not interested in people seeing what socks I’m wearing or taking a photo of a croissant and going ‘Breakfast anybody?… I don’t want anyone to know anything about me at all, I’m not interested in people seeing the real me.”
He says he avoids people asking for selfies with him whenever he can: “I try to be as unapproachable as possible… the key is to not stop walking!”
Noel tells Eddie that music is still everything to him. “I’m a fan of music, first and foremost.” “What else am I going to do? I can’t do anything else. I’m not interested in anything else. I’m obsessed with Sarah, the kids, City and music. That’s it.”
Eddie asks what the future holds he says: “ I’m on tour until November, I’ve just built a recording studio … but there’s no hard and fast plans .. family life is going to take over in 2020 which is great. Plans will get f**ked up in the modern world.”