Noel Gallagher says he will not be one of the millions of people who are wearing masks in public to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“I choose not to wear one. If I get the virus, it's on me,” the 53-year-old musician told podcaster Matt Morgan.
“If every other c**t’s gonna wear a mask, I'm not gonna catch it off them. And if I've got it, they're not gonna catch it off me. I just think it's a piss take.”
Gallagher fumed that the rules about wearing masks in public are not consistent. “You’re supposed to wear them in [department store] Selfridges, yet you can f**king go down the pub and be surrounded by every f**king c**t,” he said. “It’s like, Oh actually, we don’t have the virus in pubs but we have it in Selfridges? Oh right.”
The former Oasis guitarist said he refused to wear a mask while on a train to Manchester recently. “Some guy’s going ‘Can you put your mask on, on the train, because the transport police will get on and fine you a thousand pounds?’
“But you don’t have to put it on if you’re eating. So I was saying ‘Oh right, this killer virus that’s sweeping through the train is gonna come and attack me but see me having a sandwich and go, ‘Leave him. Leave him, he’s having his lunch.’”
Gallagher repeated a refrain heard all too often from anti-maskers. “There’s too many f**king liberties being taken away from us now,” he said.
Back in July, the rocker’s brother Liam Gallagher shared his views on wearing masks. “Don’t like but it’s gotta be done,” he tweeted. “think it’s a crime to hide this face.” On Sept. 13, he tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask (although it didn’t cover his nose).
Noel might find more support from fellow UK rocker Ian Brown. The 57-year-old former frontman for The Stone Roses came under fire earlier this month when he tweeted “NO LOCKDOWN NO TESTS NO TRACKS NO MASKS NO VAX” and dismissed the label “conspiracy theorist” as “a term invented by the lame stream media to discredit those who can smell and see through the government/media lies and propaganda.”
Jim Corr of Irish band The Corrs, who has used his social media to question the legitimacy of COVID-19, called the directive to wear masks “bulls**t” and praised the turnout at a recent anti-mask protest.
Corr, 56, tweeted: “Thinning out my friends list... who wears a mask while driving? … Can’t be too careful against a virus 99.6% of us will survive.”
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In July, Paul Stanley of KISS tweeted: “WEAR YOUR MASK! Don’t listen to conspiracy theorists or graduates of The Internet University Of Medicine. While the credible authorities and experts continue to learn more about Covid 19 they remain in agreement about safety protocols. End of story."
Opera star Andrea Bocelli revealed in May that he contracted COVID-19 but, in July, urged his fellow Italian citizens not to wear masks and to ignore social distancing guidelines.
A number of other music artists said they were diagnosed with COVID-19, including P!nk, J Balvin, Prince Royce, Doja Cat, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, David Bryan of Bon Jovi and Laine Hardy.
Those who have died from complications of the virus include John Prine, singer-songwriter Alan Merrill, Bruce Williamson of The Temptations, ex-Dream Street member Chris Trousdale, Dave Greenfield of The Stranglers, gospel singer Troy Sneed and Canada’s Nick Cordero.