Over the phone, Liam Gallagher asks, “Do you know what I mean?” in between each sentence. It’s a warm and yet odd quirk for a man who, after more than 35 years of success as the frontman of the illustrious band Oasis and then many solo projects, doesn’t really give a damn if he’s understood or not. He’s a rock star—one of the last, according to a recent comment from Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl—and he doesn’t have anything left to prove. “I appreciate what Dave said, and I kind of agree with him,” Gallagher says, flatly. We’re connecting the day after the Grammys, and I ask if he finds anyone in the younger generation to be a bonafide rock star as well. “We’re all just watching our p’s and q’s too much,” he replies, “I honestly think that it’s not good.”

Whether you’re for it or not, it’s true that political correctness has put a damper on what public figures dare to do or say—a newfound conservativeness that directly battles the notion of a vodka-swigging, sloppily dressed rocker with a sailor’s mouth. “I think Oasis wouldn’t be allowed to live in this world we’re living in now,” he adds. Despite being an industry veteran, Gallagher remembers what it was like to dream a little dream of rock stardom. “When you’re young, you just wanna be in a band. You know what I mean? You just wanna be playing music,” he says. “You wanna be like the Beatles. You want to have tons of girls and be drinking at all the fancy places and then, obviously, fame kicks in. If that happens, you, sort of, lose your privacy. But I’d take that any day.”

How has being a career musician compared to that dream? “It’s been everything and more, man. It’s been exactly how I saw it in my head. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it.”As for what’s next, Gallagher’s third solo studio album, C’mon You Know, will be upon us on May 27. The album’s title is a call to action, reflecting the singer’s feeling that we all know what needs to be done, or how we should be living our lives to better ourselves and the world, and that it’s time to just start doing it. This new body of work also sees Gallagher becoming more experimental with his sound as he continues his passage through these strange and tumultuous times. “There’s definitely some peculiar sounds on there that I’ve never done before…but, you know, I’m not yodeling or anything.” (Laughs)

Reflecting back on a life that’s been heavily documented by British tabloids, Gallagher says he would never dare regret the career path he took. “No way, no way,” he insists. “I’ve made some mistakes, but they’ve been beautiful.”

C’mon You Know is out on May 27th, 2022.