They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that definitely seems to be the case with Noel Gallagher's youngest son, Sonny. The former Oasis songwriter has revealed that not only is the 10-year-old learning guitar, he's already showing his already showing his dad a thing or two.
"He’s doing good on the guitar. He rattles around on it every night," Noel says. “He showed me, and I genuinely did not know how to play this riff, Back In Black, which is a famous riff.
“He’s a rocker, he likes AC/DC and Queen, it’s f***ing great," he adds. "I hope he hasn’t started too early so that when he gets to 18 he’s bored of it. He’s my little protégé."
My plan was just to leave musical instruments around the house
"My plan was always not to say, 'Right, dad's a musician, you're going to be a musician, because I know loads of kids who have done that and by the time they get to 21 they've given it up," Noel explained during his recent residency on Radio X. "They're just not interested. So my plan was just to leave musical instruments around the house. Sonny's always had little keyboards in his room and a guitar. He literally picked it up and he's had a go. He's into it."
Back In Black wasn't the only AC/DC riff that stumped Noel though.
"He was practicing a few things – Smoke On the Water. And then he came home from school one night and said, 'Can you play Thunderstruck by AC/DC?' I sheepishly went, 'No'. He was like, 'Guy, in our school, can play it and he's grade 2. What grade are you?' I was like, 'I'm grade £76 million, son. That's what I am, how about that? But big up Sonny. He made me a very, very proud dad.
He played a blinder
Sonny was part of a four-piece performing at his school concert watched by his proud father. "I got a little knot in my stomach because I was like, well he's only 10, do you know what I mean? He's not been playing that long, he's not even been interested in it that long. There was a projected thing that came up of what they were going to play. And it came up; 20th Century Boy by T-Rex. I was like, get in there son!
"And he had it. He had it down, he had the riff and he played a blinder. He even did a little [raises arm up] at the end. I've never been so proud of anything or anyone in my life. It was amazing."
During the last in his residency radio show for Radio X, Noel revealed his next studio album would be recorded in 2022 and released in 2023. He currently has eight of the "16/17" songs written that he's aiming to track.
"I pencilled that in before the pandemic," Noel said of the release plan. "When I got back from tour in 2019, I planned to have 2020 off. This year was writing and I've written eight new songs this year… I probably need 16/17, so I'm halfway through it.
"So next year will be recording and then 2023 will be putting it out."
