Former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge has called Oasis’ Liam Gallagher “the most punk rock dude ever”.
In a preview of the latest episode of The Pursuit Of Tone, a series of documentaries about musicians, DeLonge discusses his views on punk and some of his memories of being in Blink-182. You can watch the video below, via Rolling Stone.
In it, he recalls when the trio performed at a radio show on the same day as Oasis. “I remember sitting backstage and I’ve got my sideways hat on and nose piercings and crazy shit. Here the doors open up and in come these guys in trench coats and Beatles haircuts. My first reaction is ‘fuck, they look pretty fucking cool, but they’re not punk rockers, but whatever’.”
He continued with an anecdote about Gallagher coming into their dressing room after the show and asking if they were Blink-182. “He goes ‘you’re the best I’ve seen in America’. I go ‘you like us!’ and he goes ‘I didn’t say that, but you’re the best I’ve seen in America’ and he slammed the door.
“I looked at everyone else and I went ‘oh my god, that’s the most punk rock dude I’ve ever met in my life’. I became the biggest Oasis fan after that where from that day forward I stopped listening to punk rock music and started listening to everything.”
He also discussed meeting Joe Strummer in Australia and The Clash frontman telling him to “open your mind up”, and the meaning of punk.
“The punk rock ethos exists in a form where kids can adopt it, become unique, become individuals and celebrate the fact that they’re outcasts,” he said. “The more of an outcast you become, the better you feel about yourself. You use it in the wrong way when you try to judge other people for not being something.”
Sing Like A Bird 