Tom DeLonge on the Moment Liam Gallagher Invaded Blink-182's Dressing Room

This August, Blink-182 and Liam Gallagher will share headliner status at Reading and Leeds, with the pop-punk trio returning to the festival for the first time in 10 years and the former Oasis man making his second appearance in headliner after headlining in 2021. One might assume that given the disparate musical worlds in which the two groups operate, they would never have crossed paths before. But in doing so, you would be underestimating Liam Gallagher’s ability to arrogantly place himself in the orbit of others and leave his mark.

In an old interview that resurfaced this week, Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge recalled meeting Gallagher while Oasis and Blink-182 were both appearing on a radio show in Detroit. “I remember sitting backstage and I had my hat on the side and nose rings and crazy shit,” DeLonge recalled. “I hear the door open and here are all these guys in trench coats and Beatles haircuts and my first reaction is, ‘Oh, they look pretty cool,’ but they’re not punk rockers.”

That’s when DeLonge said he remembered a piece of advice Clash icon Joe Strummer gave him a few days earlier about broadening his horizons. “We’re going up,” he continued, “we’re playing our show, we weren’t that big of a band yet so we were being really rude in the funniest way, we were enjoying these moments because 17 000 people were looking at us without knowing who we were and we were playing with other bands so we were just talking shit. »

“We come off stage, I’m covered in sweat, the door opens and there’s Oasis singer Liam. He says, “Are you Blink-182? “. I say, “Yeah.” He stops and says, “You guys are the best I’ve seen in America.” I say: “You love us! “. He says, “I didn’t say that, but you guys are the best I’ve seen in America,” and he slams the door. I looked at everyone and was like, “Oh my God, he was the most punk rock guy I’ve ever met in my life.” I became the biggest Oasis fan after that and from that day on I stopped listening to punk rock music and started listening to everything. »

In that case, DeLonge should do his best to try and catch one of Liam’s sets if the schedule allows – Gallagher is currently playing setlists leaning heavily on Oasis’ early days to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their classic debut. Definitely maybe.

Watch the interview below: