In a new interview with Louder, Noel Gallagher said nobody thought he could write a hit song like ‘Live Forever.’
The rocker’s bandmates were amazed when he first played ‘Live Forever.’ He said:
“[Oasis guitarist] Bonehead was saying, ‘You’ve not just f*cking written that. There’s no way that’s your song.’”
Bonehead added after Noel:
“Well, I wouldn’t believe it. For someone to just come in a room and go, ‘I’ll play you one of my songs and play you ‘Live Forever,’ it’s like, ‘F*ck off, you didn’t write that.’ He said, ‘Why didn’t I?’ I said, ‘Because listen to it!’ I thought, ‘Wow, what a song.’”
Noel’s Other Statements On The Track
‘Live Forever’ was part of Oasis’ debut album, ‘Definitely Maybe.’ The song is seen as a tribute to Noel and Liam Gallagher’s mother, Peggy. The lyrics are generally positive and optimistic. Noel previously explained:
“At the time… It was written in the middle of grunge and all that, and I remember Nirvana had a tune called ‘I Hate Myself and Want to Die’, and I was like . . . ‘Well, I’m not f*cking having that.’ As much as I f*cking like him [Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain] and all that sh*t, I’m not having that. I can’t have people like that coming over here, on smack, f*cking saying that they hate themselves and they wanna die. That’s f*cking rubbish. Kids don’t need to be hearing that nonsense.”
Gallagher also said he didn’t write ‘Live Forever’ to respond to Nirvana, as he likes their music. However, he compared his band’s lives to Kurt Cobain’s, saying:
“Seems to me that here was a guy who had everything, and was miserable about it. And we had f*ck-all, and I still thought that getting up in the morning was the greatest f*ckin’ thing ever, ’cause you didn’t know where you’d end up at night. And we didn’t have a pot to piss in, but it was f*cking great, man.”
The single’s cover, like the album cover, included a Beatles reference. The ‘Live Forever’ cover featured a photo of John Lennon’s childhood home at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool.