Phil Collins thinks it will be “interesting” to cross paths with Oasis at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after Noel Gallagher’s repeated jibes about him over the years.
The 75-year-old musician is set to be inducted into the hall later this year, along with artists including the Live Forever hitmakers, Billy Idol, Joy Division/ New Order and Wu Tang Clan, and he’s curious as to how any interaction with the guitarist will go because Noel has previously branded him the “antichrist”, demanded his “severed head” and urged people to vote Labour in 1997 to keep Phil from wanting to return to Britain.
Phil told MOJO magazine: “The [Hall Of Fame] inductees have all been invited to a lunch before the ceremony.
“Which will be interesting, as I’m sure to bump into Oasis.”
In 2007, Phil’s daughter Lily – then aged 18 – confronted Liam Gallagher backstage at the Live Earth concert to ask about his brother and bandmate’s barbs about her dad.
Phil recalled: “She went up to him and said, ‘Why do you hate my dad?’ And apparently Liam said, ‘I don’t hate anybody, love.’ ”
But the In the Air Tonight singer doesn’t think Noel actually thinks he is the antichrist, though he has an idea why he made the comment after the 59-year-old star previously admitted he had been left scared by Phil when he attended a Genesis gig “completely out of it” in the 1980s.
He said “Now I’ve thought this through, and although Noel didn’t specify what song it was, I reckon it was Mama, where I go (recites the lyric) ‘Ha-ha-ha… Oww,’ with the light under my face.
“I think Mama is why Noel called me the antichrist. But I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here, and assuming he doesn’t really think I’m the antichrist.”
Noel first branded Phil the “antichrist of music” back in 1994.
He said: “We’re gonna get rid of Phil Collins and Sting. We’ve got to get in the charts and stamp them out. I want the severed head of Phil Collins in my fridge by the end of this decade. And if I haven’t, I’ll be a failure.”
Three years later, he cited his dislike of the former Genesis singer-and-drummer, who was living in Switzerland at the time, as a good reason to vote Labour in the general election.
He said:“If the Conservatives get in, Phil Collins is threatening to come back and live here. And let’s face it, none of us want that.”
In 2005, Phil hit back and described Oasis as “rude, horrible… and not as talented as they think.”