The Last Word: Serge Pizzorno

This is The Last Word. It’s our chance to take a bonafide legend and ask them about life, navigating the tricky waters of the music biz and what they’ve got on the horizon. Up next, it’s Serge Pizzorno, the legendary frontman of Kasabian.

Your new album Act III is on the horizon and you’re playing Finsbury Park. A huge year awaits.  

Yeah, it’s all come around really quickly. I wrote this record a lot faster than the last one, and suddenly the summer is here. It’s shaping up to be the biggest summer we’ve had in 20 years. We’re headlining four major festivals in the UK, and playing all over the world. It’s just an incredibly exciting time.  

What makes you want to keep putting albums out into the world? 

You have to be careful because songwriting is tricky and it can be a cruel mistress. It comes and goes. So, if you define your life on whether you’re good at writing, then it’s a perilous voyage. There are so many ups and downs if you put the weight of your existence on that. But in my case, I just like doing it: it’s as simple as that. There’s no ambition to achieve anything other than simply waking up and writing songs. You obviously get better if you’ve been doing it a while, but I love the puzzle of it all, and that one day a song appears, and there’s a magic to that. And now I’m the frontman, I see it like a martial art that I’m learning. So that’s exciting too, getting better at that really keeps me engaged and everything feels brand-new again.  

You’ve got a song on the album called ‘Superpowers’. What superpower would you have, Serge?  

What a lovely question. It’s quite deep when you think about it. Dr Manhattan in Watchmen is the most high-powered superhero and even he struggles knowing what to do with it. But I’m just gonna say “fly” because I could mooch about and be there when needed. If you need to get away from everyone, you can just go and sit on top of a mountain somewhere. 

It would also save on air miles when you’re touring…

Yes! That’s a phenomenal idea. It would beat jet lag too, and jet lag is a bitch.  

Another song on the album is ‘Nothing Better Than This’. What’s that very thing in life for you, Serge? 

My family. Sitting with my team, my kids. Just having the firm together. Listening to their mad stories. Of all the things I’ve seen and I’ve done, that’s where I always return and where I get this indescribable feeling of contentment. But also, being on stage, when you get that connection between the audience and yourself when the music hits. That’s never lost on me, and an honour. Fans are like my family too, when they’ve been with us for so long. 

Weirdest place you’ve ever heard a Kasabian song being played?  

Arnold Schwarzenegger used to work out to our music. ‘Club Foot’ was blasting out, apparently. 

The first song you fell in love with?  

The first single I ever bought was George Harrison’s ‘Got My Mind Set on You’, which I didn’t know was a cover. I can really remember going out to buy it and playing it, but I was also mesmerised by Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’. My dad used to play it and there was just something about that rock ’n’ roll edge. They are the two songs I remember having a physical reaction to, where your body starts to move and you’re so young that you can’t understand what’s happening. That’s why music has always fascinated me. That uncontrollable chemical reaction and the neurones firing. It’s so amazing.  

Advice for your younger self?  

Be kinder to yourself. It’s so easy when anyone else tells you their problems as you seem to be able to pull out the most perfect advice and offer some compassion for them. But when it comes to yourself, that never seems to be the case.    

Your worst habit? 

Well, it’s the duality of life. My worst habit is that I’m quite obsessive about things, but it also helps. It’s a double-edged sword because it is what makes me good, but it’s an absolute killer in the sense that it can be very, very annoying for other people! 

Picture the deal with the devil. Leicester will win the Champions League in the near future, but Kasabian will never play huge shows again. Are you taking that? 

That’s a horrible, horrible question! Can I broker the deal? 

Go on… 

OK, I’ll accept it if our last big show is the half-time show at the Champions  League final.

That’s very clever: we’ll allow it. And a band or artist you’d like to see reform?

I went to All Tomorrow’s Parties in Somerset years ago specifically to see the Silver Apples. I adored them. Portishead were curating it and Silver Apples’ drummer Danny Taylor was probably up there with the greatest drummers of all time. He’d passed away a little while before the show, and I hadn’t realised until one half of the duo told me at the event. It was so sad. They were great and that’s absolutely who I’d go for.    

Kasabian will also headline Thursday night at Pepsi MAX Presents Leeds Festival, taking place 27-30 August 2026. Tickets available: https://www.leedsfestival.com/