NEWYORK -- Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher is the latest British rock star to react less than positively to Elton John's Candle In The Wind tribute to Princess Diana.
"To be honest, I think it's a nice tribute but to release it on his own label with one of his own songs on the B-side seems like, shall we say, lack of foresight on his behalf," said Gallagher in an interview prior to Oasis' appearance on Saturday Night Live.
"It's like Eric Clapton writing songs for his dead son. Then again, people aren't stupid -- death sells doesn't it?"
To John's credit, profits from the single are going to a Princess Diana charity fund.
Still, Gallagher's comments follow those made by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in Toronto. Richards told me in an interview three weeks ago that John's tribute, a reworking of his ode to Marilyn Monroe, was like "writing songs for dead blondes."
John reportedly lashed back this past week, with The Atlanta Journal quoting him as saying he was glad he'd given up drugs and alcohol "because it would be awful to be someone like Keith Richards. He's so pathetic -- poor thing. It's like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go on stage and look young." Now John's publicists are denying he ever made the comments.
Gallagher was holidaying in Marbella, Spain --"having a lager, getting a suntan," -- when Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris, but says he couldn't escape the coverage of her death and the paparazzi's perceived role.
"I'm not a fan of the royal family," he said. "I'm not a fan of Lady Diana. I know what it's like to be in that position so I could relate to it in a certain way. You know it's sad that she's gone but what are you supposed to do about it?"
Gallagher added the end result has been increased tabloid interest in Oasis.
"Because Diana's dead, I think we're the No. 1 target now." Gallagher also disputed that her death has changed the British public in any significant way.
"The thing about British people, they never voiced a concern about the treatment she was given when she was alive," he said. "Soon as she's dead there's an outpour of f---in' grief that lasts for two weeks. It's like, 'What's the f---in' problem? The woman's dead. Shut up. Get over it.' It's not going to change anything, is it? I don't see anybody standing up for me. When a photographer's chasing me down the street, I don't see anybody getting out of the car saying, 'Leave him alone.' I think people are more guilty because they bought the papers for her photograph more than anything else. It was an outpouring of guilt. It was not an outpouring of sympathy."