Drdrew.com
by Lily Moayeri

Noel Gallagher of Oasis is looking good. He's sporting a tan, he's lost weight, and he's gotten his teeth fixed. This is a far cry from the Noel of four years prior—a pasty character with burst capillaries in his cheeks who spent most of the night drinking with John Lydon. His blue eyes shine mischievously and happily, all the more noticeable due to the tan. Noel's just released Oasis's fourth album, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, a body of work that he knows is worthy of all the attention his band receives. With his first baby also due a month before the release of the album, life is looking good.

drDrew.com: You look a lot better than the last time you were on tour.
Noel Gallagher: I feel a lot better, I have to say.… It’s easy. [I’m] eating well, sleeping and stuff like that. I think cutting down on the drinking is most important. [Cutting out] the drugs helped, fair enough. With drinking, though, because it's legal, people go, "Ah, well, I was only drunk," but sooner or later that catches up with you, you know? It's been great [being sober]. I haven't had any relapses or anything, it's brilliant. Fuckin' jolly good time.

drDrew.com: You said you couldn't stop four years ago.
NG: Yeah, but I did though. It was a gradual thing where my health was suffering really badly. I was getting really bad panic attacks, and I was convinced I was going to have a heart attack; [I was] getting paranoid. I went to see my doctor and he said, "Well, there's an easy solution to all this. The thing is you've just got to stop taking drugs." And I was like, "Fuckin' bollocks, can't you give me anything?" He said, "I can give you more drugs, if that's what you mean.…Then you'll be addicted to fuckin' antidepressants." And I said, "What are they like?" And he said, "Well you don't get a buzz off them." I said, "Fuck off."

I decided I was going to give it a go [being sober] for about six months, just like that. I just woke up one day and that was it. I kicked everyone out of the house. I said, "Who are you? Can you leave now?" And that was it. I just stopped. I decided I would stop for six months and get my health back in order. Six months became eight months, then it became a year, then it became 18 months, [and] now it's two years. I can even be in a room now where loads of people are [partying] and I can go, you know, "I don't want it any more."

drDrew.com: Has being sober helped in the songwriting?
NG: Not taking drugs anymore helped a lot, and not drinking and all that stuff helped. It was all good, man.

drDrew.com: In what way?
NG: I got my focus back for writing songs. I haven't done drugs now for two years, and I haven't felt this good in my life, ever. Once I'd written the songs and done the demos, I knew exactly what I wanted and it was all very clear. It's like being in a fucking blizzard when you're out of it all the time. You can't function, you can't focus, and you get lazy. You just do the first thing that comes natural to you because doing work, writing music and recording music, is a chore. It gets in the way of the party. Whereas this time, fuck, all that shit's out of the way, let's go make some music, man.