Gary Numan: Kicking Off His Tour at Glasgow’s Queen’s Park Arena – Looking back on Fame & autism, being fair to support bands, and being 32% Scottish (interview)

Ahead of a UK and European tour that opens at Glasgow’s Queen’s Park Arena on 17th July, Gary Numan spoke to SNACK about the Apollo, an unexpected DNA result, being okay with his past, and why the new album is a fight every single time.

Gary, we’re talking in the build-up to the UK and European tour. It kicks off in Glasgow on the 17th of July. It’s been 45 years since you first retired from live performances. How’s that working for you?

It’s going well, mate… I first had success in ’79, and I just didn’t really take to it — the whole fame thing and all the pressure and stress and demands that come from it. I’m autistic, and it was much worse back then. I did a couple of world tours within about 12 months, and it just felt like it was damaging. I didn’t like the attention the way I thought I would, and I just didn’t handle it very well at all.

The reason for announcing that I was going to retire… I never actually meant to get out of music, I just meant stop touring. I should have just done it quietly, stood back for a little bit, had a couple of years, found my feet. Instead I made a big song and dance about it beforehand, which upset a lot of people and made me look slightly silly when I did come back. It was a good move badly executed.

The Queen’s Park Arena is a fantastic place for a gig; my favourite gig of last year took place there. Aside from possibly worrying about the weather, do you approach outdoor gigs differently?

I really like outdoor gigs. There’s a very different feel to them. As far as preparation’s concerned, there isn’t much different you have to do. You walk out on a stage. It just doesn’t happen to have walls around it. Often when you do festivals I try to have that moment where the sun is going down, the lights are coming on and becoming more effective, so the show has a dynamic of its own just due to the time of day.

I’ve a house not too far from Glasgow, actually. I’ve had it about four years now, so I spend a lot of time up there. I’m very, very familiar with the vagaries of the weather. But I love it, man. It’s probably my favourite place to be in the world at the moment. It’s got a river that runs through the land, it overlooks some mountains, and it’s just an incredibly peaceful place.

You’re on record as saying your 1979 Glasgow gig at the Apollo played a big part in launching your career. That venue’s long gone now – what are your memories of that space, and those times in general?

The building itself was unique in the sense that it was the only place I’ve ever been where, when you started, people at the front stood up and walked backwards, because the stage was so high they couldn’t actually see much from the front six, seven, ten rows or more. So it was a weird experience, seeing what you think are your hardcore fans running away from the stage.

It was the first concert I ever did after I became successful .The first gig where people were screaming and girls were fainting, first time the bus was chased up the street and there was police outside to protect us.

It’s hard to imagine that people are that bothered about you; one minute you’re living at home with your mum and dad, writing your silly little songs on an out-of-tune piano, and next thing you know you’ve got people screaming and chasing you up the street hundreds of miles away.

But it was just such a fantastic venue to start at, and the crowd was just the best you could ever have dreamed of. It got me off to an amazing beginning, and I’ve started many tours since then in Scotland. Many like this one, I guess. So it has… I feel particularly attached to it, that’s the truth of it. 

And in a bizarre coincidence, I do that Ancestry DNA thing, and on my last update I’d become 32% Scottish, which I had no idea about at all. My mum’s dead now, so I can’t ask her about it, but I asked my dad and he’s got no idea where it’s coming from – he’s hardcore London. So we suspect it’s somewhere in my mum’s background. I’ve suddenly become a third Scottish. I almost feel guilty, like an interloper. But that’s what it said.

In your first Apollo gig, you had OMD support you. Later in this tour, in Halifax and London, Ladytron support you – both cutting edge, highly revered electronic acts. Do you think acts like that help new fans keep finding you?

I think it helps, yeah. I’ve had some amazing support bands over the years. Simple Minds supported me on my first European tour in Germany, and I’m doing a festival with them in November and supporting them in Australia in March. OMD did a whole tour with me. The Killers supported me twice before they made it really big.

I’ve always tried to look after support bands as much as possible. I’ve never charged anyone, never had bands buy onto a tour the way some do. A support gig is a really difficult gig, you’re playing to somebody else’s crowd who aren’t always the most receptive, and it’s expensive to be out there. I think it’s the least we can do in the privileged position we’re at.

This tour it’s Divine Shade: French, quite heavy industrial music, and it’s very difficult to make headway with that sort of music in France. I just admire their determination. They’re doggedly sticking at what they love, and I think that’s admirable.

What’s the makeup of the Gary Numan audience these days?

It’s difficult to know for sure. I’d say 75% of the people that come to meet and greets are the ones that were there from the beginning, so they’re older. But when I look out at gigs there’s a lot more younger people, and I’m sure a lot of that following comes from other bands. I’ve been covered by Foo Fighters, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God knows. I used to keep a list of it, but it got to over 100 artists and I stopped counting.

The stage I’m at now is probably the strongest I’ve had since the very beginning. Not as strong as the very beginning, but certainly the closest I’ve been to it for a long time. The albums now get well into the chart: the last two have been number two, I think. I appreciate I’m not at that number-one-fan-hysteria level I used to be, but I’m certainly in a much better place than I was, so I’m grateful for that.

You’ve got one of the best pieces of merchandise going: the Gary Numan car air freshener.

There’s a retro one, but we’ve done new ones for whatever the current album is too, so it’s not all about looking back. I did turn something down recently, though.

One of the big newspapers in Britain wanted to recreate a famous old photo or album cover: dress up the same way, same makeup, close to the same setting. I just thought that was a terrible idea. I

‘m 68 years old. There’s no way I can put this face onto a 1979 or 1980 album cover and look anything other than an old wrinkly shit bag beside it. I don’t even think the fans would want to see that, and I’m sure as fuck don’t want to see it. It’s very rare that I turn things down, but that’s the first time I’ve ever said no to something because of the way I look.

Last year you played your first Glastonbury and your 1,000th gig, It felt like a reset to go and do more new things. What drives Gary Numan in 2026?

Just the desire to come up with something new that I’ve not done before, to be better than I’ve ever been. The two biggest things I’ve ever had were in 1979, but I’ve certainly not tried to recreate those with every new album. With the new one I’d like to write better songs than I did on the last one. I don’t know that I will, but that’s the aim when I start.

Because that’s the aim, I actually find making the albums really, really stressful. I struggle with a lack of confidence really badly, and it’s getting worse as I’m getting older. It becomes harder not to repeat yourself when you’ve made twenty-odd albums, hundreds and hundreds of songs. 

When I’m making a new record I feel a huge amount of pressure, and if I have a week where I’m not happy with what I’ve come up with, that’s a nightmare for me. I can get into a real downward spiral of self-doubt, and everything you write seems not good enough.

I’ve had two attempts to start this new one already, and both have sort of faded away; a little bit because I’m looking for an excuse not to keep going, because I find it so stressful.

But I have to. When I get back from this tour I’ve got to start in earnest, because I’ve only got two and a half songs underway at the minute. I know it’s going to be shit to begin with, and I know I’m going to have to deal with it. But it’ll be what it will be.

It’s been close to 15 years you’ve been living in America now. How do you think today’s Gary compares with the Gary you’d have been if you’d stayed in the UK?

I don’t think living in the UK would have made any difference to me, to be fair. I lived there for 55 years, you’re pretty ingrained in your personality by then. Listen to my accent – there’s not a hint of American in it.

I think having kids has changed me more than that. I’m calmer now, more patient, a lot less quick to anger than I used to be. I think I’ve grown into a reasonably nice, decent sort of person, considering the life I’ve had. I don’t fuck about with my wife, I don’t beat my kids, I’m a really nice dad, and my whole life revolves around them.

Anything you’d like to add as we head into the tour?

As soon as the tour’s finished, I’m going back to Scotland to decompress from the tour side of things – it’s pretty intensive, lots of gigs back to back. I’m really looking forward to it, actually. I think we do (London) Crystal Palace on the 6th of August and that’s where it ends, so one way or another I’ll be on my way up there the next day.

I think I’m going to rent a car this time, because when I’m up there I want to explore it even more. There’s plenty of places I’ve read about that I’d like to visit that I haven’t been able to yet.

Tickets: Gary Numan opens his UK and European tour at Queen’s Park Arena, Glasgow, on 17th July