Rocker Noel Gallagher believes his wife is a real-life angel who helped him quit his rock and roll ways for good.
The former Oasis guitarist told how he met Sara MacDonald in an Ibiza club during his wild days — and he’s never looked back.
In a candid interview on RTE’s Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, the singer said: “My wife is an angel to me — and a real one.
“She appeared out of the smoke in a nightclub when I was at my lowest and I’ve never looked back since then.”
The 45-year-old married the Scottish beauty earlier this year after 12 years — and he told Gay he believes he has finally found true happiness. He said: “My wife is still my best friend in the world.
“I still love her dearly. The meaning of life for me is watching your kids grow up and growing (old) with your wife.”
Noel, who has two children with Sara and a 12-year-old daughter Anais with ex-wife Meg Matthews, also told told how he and younger brother Liam, 40, took steps to patch up their long-running row after their mum, Peggy, intervened.
Noel explained: “She never takes sides. Christmas just gone she said, ‘I’ve told him to call you and I’m telling you to call him so it’s about time you spoke’. We exchanged texts on Christmas Day. Liam doesn’t have a phone as he is always losing them so you’ve got to text his missus.”
But Noel, who has found solo success with High Flying Birds, insisted he doesn’t miss playing alongside the volatile singer.
He said: “I’m not wistful and nostalgic. If I hear Oasis songs on the radio I don’t think, ‘Oh God, wouldn’t that be great?’”
The songwriter is proud of his Irish heritage — Peggy is from Charlestown in Co Mayo, while dad Tommy grew up in Duleek, Co Meath — and the family travelled from Manchester on regular holidays.
But Noel told how he no longer speaks to his violent dad, who separated from his mum while he was still a teenager.
He said: “I don’t think he was an alcoholic. I just think he was a bit of a rubbish husband. The 1970s was a tough time in Manchester not only for working class people — but for Irish people with the Troubles.
“There wasn’t a lot of work, but I don’t look back on that time with any regret or sadness. It kind of makes you what you are. After my mam and dad split up we still (saw) him because he only lived about 200 yards up the road.
“My mam never said anything like, ‘You can’t see him’. He still had his own firm and we still did a bit of work with him, but soon after that we kind of became men.
“Then you go off and do your own thing. It’s not shocking for families to become estranged, particularly a family of boys when they start doing their own thing.”
Noel, who was regularly in trouble with the police in his teens, also told how music saved him from a life of crime. He said: “(My mother) kind of seen that me and my other two brothers weren’t bad lads. We come from quite a large council estate in Manchester and we were all lads and my dad was working away and we never really seen him as a father figure.
“You were kind of out there in the Wild West almost and it was all going on... crime and drugs and all sorts of thing.
“I am just glad I got through the other side and found something in music that took me in a different direction.”
During the early days, Oasis became famous for their hard-partying rock-and-roll lifestyle. They drank, took drugs, fought, and made celeb friends such as Mick Jagger, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp.
But Noel told how he decided to put an end to his wild ways after waking up from a bender to find his house full of strangers. He explained: “There came a point for me in 1998 when I went to bed one night thinking, ‘This is the greatest thing ever. I am living the dream. I’m like the new Keith Richards’.
“I woke up the next morning and thought, ‘This is boring, I hate all these people’. I’ve never done it since.”
Blues supporter Noel also told veteran broadcaster Gay, 78, how all his dreams came true this year when Man City finally won the Premier League in May.
He smiled: “It means everything, I’ve been supporting that team since I was five or six. For 40 years I haven’t seen them do anything really.
“I wouldn’t give up my kids or my family for City winning the League but I’d give up a few No1s, for sure. I have had nine so I’d give up about four of those.”
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds release International Magic Live At The O2 DVD through Sour Mash Records on October 15.
They will embark on a number European dates before they tour the US and Canada alongside Snow Patrol and Jake Bugg.
For details on the above and more click here.
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