Ahead of his solo set at the Weekender Festival on Sunday 6 July, former Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan talks to TOM OGG about his personal struggles, his disdain for modern music – and why his current backing band are ‘1,000% better’ than Kasabian
*As the JEP is a family-friendly newspaper, I have carefully substituted a certain four-letter swearword with “flip” and “flipping” throughout the following article.
WHAT was the last great era for rock and pop music? Some would say it has all been downhill since the 1970s, perhaps even the 1960s. Others would cite the 1980s, a once maligned decade that has since been reevaluated as a time of great artistic creativity. And then there are those for whom the 1990s, and Britpop in particular, represents the last high-water mark for popular music.
Former Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan, however, puts forward a strong argument for the final great rock era having occurred more recently.
“The first decade of the noughties was amazing, a flipping amazing time for music,” says the Leicestershire-born singer-songwriter, chatting over the phone earlier this week.
“Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, the Killers, the Libertines – flipping great bands. And Kasabian were a band of that time. We are of that generation – we own it. We’re one of the bands that people think of when they think of noughties music. And I’m proud of that.”
Today, Tom is a solo artist, having parted ways with Kasabian in 2020, although he says Islanders will be able to hear both Kasabian hits (Cutt Off, Empire, Fire) and Tom Meighan solo material when he performs live at the Weekender next month.
Held at the People’s Park on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July, the annual festival will feature such big-name acts as Faithless and Sugababes and will see Tom taking to the stage on the Sunday.
It will be the first time he has visited and performed in the Island since 2007 when Kasabian played at Jersey Live. Upon being reminded of this, Tom bursts into laughter – the first of many laughs throughout the interview – and says: “Flip me, mate – 2007? Really? Oh my God, I was 26 back then. I’m 44 now. I can’t really remember the details other than that it was a flipping great gig with my old band.
“I’m totally going to play some Kasabian stuff at the Weekender. I mean, that’s still me, isn’t it? It’s a massive part of my life. And they’re still my songs. That’s where I come from. It’s like being in the flipping Beatles – you can’t ever get away from it. You’re always going to be associated with it. I’m Kasabian, always.
“So, yeah, I’ll be playing some old-time rock ‘n’ roll Kasabian classics and some new stuff as well. I’ll be letting it all out, bro.
“Jersey is a strange but beautiful place,” he adds. “It’s kind of like a hidden treasure, isn’t it? I’m well looking forward to coming over again.”
To date, Tom has released two solo albums – The Reckoning (2023) and Roadrunner (2025) – with singles including Better Life, Don’t Give In (“That one’s a nice blues-rock tune, it’s got plenty of spirit”) and The Reckoning. As their titles suggest, the soul-searching tracks are very personal in nature, with Tom often using the self-penned lyrics to confront his demons.
“I’d say my solo stuff is more in-depth, it’s more intimate than what I did with Kasabian,” he says. “It’s about the things that I’ve experienced personally and the things that I’ve been through in recent years. The first album was almost like a diary, the songs were about where I was, emotionally, at that particular time, in that place, in that moment. With the second album, I just had a bit of fun, bro.
“When it comes to music, I’m not interested in flipping 20-minute tracks. I’m more into old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. I’d rather write a three-minute banger, do you know what I mean? No thrills, no spills. Just in and out.”
On this note, I tell Tom of a well-known Alice Cooper quote in which the iconic American rocker said of 1960s pop bands: “They were creating two-minute songs you could sing the first time you heard them. There’s an amazing art to that. Getting something as ‘simple’ as In My Room is far harder than writing a ten-minute ‘complicated’ prog-rock piece.”
“Oh, Alice Cooper – what a legend, what a flipping legend that man is,” says Tom. “And, yes, he’s absolutely right – writing a great two-minute or three-minute song is the hardest thing. That right there is the challenge, man.”
The manner in which Tom went from Kasabian frontman to solo artist is a subject of some controversy, involving as it does assault charges, alcohol abuse and an ADHD diagnosis. Announcing Tom’s departure from the band at the time, the remaining Kasabian members evasively tweeted: “Tom Meighan is stepping down from Kasabian by mutual consent. Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time and now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track.”
It was a topic about which I felt apprehensive ahead of my interview with Tom, but I needn’t have worried. He repeatedly returns to the subject, openly and unprompted, throughout our chat.
“The transition from Kasabian to solo artist was very difficult,” he says. “I really struggled for the first few years. I was kind of isolated, what with Covid lockdown and what had happened in my life, and suddenly I didn’t have the band to bounce off. We were always a band and we would bounce ideas off one another – and suddenly that was gone. We’d been through all kinds of things together, do you know what I mean? And so I found it really flipping difficult, man. I’ve not spoken to any of them since the break-up, or whatever you want to call it. But I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and I feel I’ve finally come out of my skin. It is what it is.
“We started Kasabian in 1997, bro,” he adds. “I’d been in the band 23 years when I left, which is flipping insane. That is a long time. We didn’t get a record deal until five years after we’d formed. We were playing and gigging together for half a decade before we got signed. Some people give up, but we didn’t – and the rest is history.”
As some readers will know, the name “Kasabian” means “son of the butcher” in Armenian, but it also relates to the infamous Manson Family, with Linda Kasabian having been among the young girls who took part in the Tate–LaBianca murders in 1969. Then aged 20, the troubled Kasabian – who had already married and divorced before her 17th birthday – received legal immunity after agreeing to give evidence for the prosecution, which in turn resulted in Charles Manson and other Manson Family members spending the rest of their lives behind bars.
Did Tom and his bandmates worry that naming their band after such a notorious individual might cause controversy?
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but the truth is we didn’t,” he replies. “[Kasabian founding member] Chris Karloff was into the whole Manson cult s**t and he’d watch all these videos about it and be, like, ‘here, you guys, get a load of this’. He had all these theories about American history, some of them were pretty far out, and he was just obsessed with the whole Manson thing.
“Anyway, one day we were talking about band names and he suggested ‘Kasabian’ – and it stuck. We just thought ‘what a great name’. I had no idea that Linda Kasabian was a getaway driver for the Manson Family. It’s mental, right, but it’s also such a flipping cool name. It’s a name that sort of means the end of the 1960s, doesn’t it? Because Manson killed the ‘60s. He ended the hippy dream.
“I’m proud of the music I made with Kasabian,” he continues. “The whole ride was incredible. I sometimes look back and reflect on the old songs and the old albums and, yeah, we did some pretty amazing things. We did some really flipping good stuff.”
Nevertheless, Tom says that he and his current supporting band – lead guitarist Chris Haddon, guitarist Brodie Maguire, bassist Ele Lucas, keyboardist Bnann Infadel and drummer Gareth Young – are producing material that is “100%” superior to that which he wrote and recorded with Kasabian.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely – we’re flipping unreal live. We’re 100% better than me old band. Scrap that, we’re 1,000% better. If my old band are a Ferrari then we’re a Lamborghini, mate. I like that quote. That’ll make a good headline for you.”
Asked which bands or artists have provided inspiration for his solo work, Tom cites Jack White as among his favourites: “The guitarist who I play with loves Jack White, he just loves his stuff, and that has got me back into his music again, because I always loved the White Stripes.
“And, believe it or not, I’ve recently been listening to a lot of Green Day. Can you believe it? They write amazing flipping songs. I’d never realised before. Their new album is brilliant, it’s flipping fantastic.
“And I’ve been listening to Mantra of the Cosmos, which is a group featuring my mate Zak Starkey [drummer and son of Ringo Starr]. He’s just done a Mantra of the Cosmos album with Shaun Ryder, Bez, Noel Gallagher and Andy Bell and it sounds amazing. Every bit as amazing as you’d expect with a line-up like that. You’ve got to check out the album – it’s flipping mind-bending. Shaun Ryder is a genius, isn’t he? He’s as much a beat poet as he is a rock star. I said to Zak: ‘Why didn’t you ask me to take part?’” [laughs]
Sadly, the artists mentioned above are exceptions to the rule when it comes to modern music. Certainly, it would take a brave soul to argue that we are currently living through a golden age of rock akin to the ‘60s, ‘70s or even the noughties.
Or, as Tom succinctly puts it, “it’s all just a load of s**t”.
“Listen mate, there are a few good bands around – I love Mother Vulture, they’ll make your eyeballs bleed – but mostly it’s not good. I’m just not interested in what is in the charts anymore. There is no point looking at it because it’s awful, all of it, from top to bottom. It’s just the same churned-out manufactured garbage. It’s flipping appalling. It really is shockingly bad.
“But, you know, I just try to stay focused on my own music. I concentrate on me. Am I still making bangin’ music? Yeah, I flipping am. And that’s all that matters.”
*Tom Meighan will be performing at the Weekend Festival on Sunday 6 July. For more details, or to book tickets, visit weekender.je
‘If my old band were a Ferrari then we’re a Lamborghini’
