Oasis Classic Live Forever Was Inspired By The Rolling Stones

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Released in August 1994, Live Forever was just the third single from Oasis, but it already hinted at the massive storm their debut album Definitely Maybe was about to unleash.

People often talk about Noel Gallagher’s love of The Beatles, but funnily enough, the spark for Live Forever didn’t come from Lennon or McCartney. It came from another ‘60s icon — The Rolling Stones.

Back in the early ‘90s, Noel was working at a builders merchants, recovering from a foot injury that had him stuck in the storeroom. Bored out of his mind but armed with a guitar, he started writing songs, one of which would become Live Forever. He says the idea came from a line in the Stones’ Shine A Light:

May the good Lord shine a light on you.

At that point, Noel wasn’t even in his brother Liam’s band yet. But by the time he joined (after famously gatecrashing one of their gigs), he’d turned that idea into a full song, and it instantly blew the others away.

What made Live Forever stand out was its attitude. In 1994, the music scene was drenched in the gloomy grunge vibes coming out of the US, think Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, with their dark, self-destructive lyrics. Noel didn’t relate to that at all. As he put it:

It struck me that this fucker, an extremely talented guy, had everything I wanted. He was rich, he was famous, he was in the greatest rock and roll band of its time — and he’s writing songs saying he hates himself and wants to die! My way of thinking was, well, I fuckin’ love myself, and I’m gonna live forever, man!

That defiant optimism became Oasis’s calling card, a middle finger to the gloom and a rallying cry for a new generation of Britpop believers.

When Live Forever hit the UK charts, it climbed to number ten and quickly became a fan favorite, even Liam himself still calls it one of his top Noel-written anthems.

Live Forever wasn’t just another single. It was a statement, a declaration that Oasis had arrived, and they weren’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon.