Gavin Rossdale / Photo by Sophie Muller
Everything is Zen with Gavin Rossdale.
The London-bred rocker has two sons (Kingston, 4, and Zuma, 23 months) with his wife, No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, and a successful solo career; his debut album WANDERlust hit No. 8 on the rock charts in 2008. Now he's returning to his musical beginnings by reforming the post-grunge hitmakers Bush, who split eight years ago.
In June, the band unveiled plans for a reunion concert (singer Rossdale and drummer Robin Goodridge are the participating original members) on September 25 at Los Angeles' Epicenter Music Festival. Even better, the quartet -- also featuring bassist Corey Britz and guitarist Chris Traynor -- will release their fifth studio album, Everything Always Now, in October, followed by a worldwide tour.
Chatty and buoyant, the 42-year-old rocker phoned SPIN from his L.A. home to discuss his band's "evolved" new album, why he can't say the word "grunge," and his desire to play Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in a match of tennis.
Hey, Gavin. How's it going?
Great. L.A. is super hot. Being English and living here feels like you're on holiday every day. It's the weirdest thing. As a kid, if you ever got to go away to the sun, you'd come back with a tan. It was so fun having a tan. The weirdest thing about living here is you go away somewhere, and it's sunny, then you come back and it's sunny.
What a nice problem to have.
[Laughs] On a superficial level, it's great.
So, the Bush reunion. Exciting! But why now?
For eight years I've been patiently waiting, gently pressing those guys and saying, "Come on, what else is there? What else are we going to do? We're doomed if we're not working with Bush." Then when I began to work on these songs after the WANDERlust tour, I was thinking that the only thing working against this material is me. Being released under my name sucks. It gives the album a ceiling. On the solo tour I was thinking, "Awwww, man, it would be so much better if I could do these songs with Bush, as Bush, and give them a fair run." So I rang the band up and asked them to do it, and just took whoever was willing [laughs]. Fuck it. Mark E. Smith can do it and it's always called the Fall. Why can't I be in that situation?
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Did you have any worries about reuniting the band?
Not really. In a way it was liberating. I just wanted to make music I'm proud of and tour. I look at it like a great festival bill. When you're looking down a bill with great bands, whether it's Sonic Youth or Pixies or the National, just having your own name up there always felt so weird to me. With Bush it feels far more natural.
Why aren't original guitarist Nigel Pulsford and bassist Dave Parsons in on the reunion?
Well, I've been speaking to Nigel a lot and each time I do a record, I'd ask him to do it. He's happy and it's not something he wanted to do -- he has a family. I spoke to Dave. I was surprised because I thought he'd do it. He thought about it for the weekend and then said he couldn't. He didn't want to commit and then back out -- he didn't know how long he could tour. It's an absurd amount of work. After all this time away we can't expect to just reappear without a lot of effort, you know?
How do you balance your personal life with your music?
It's always painful when I leave on tour. It's the hardest thing. It never used to be difficult -- I just had my dog and that was it. Now it's not easy, but it's reality. I want to set an example for my kids. I say, "Look at this house… this is how you get it." I don't understand the idea that you're unable to do both. People have done it for a long time, and you find a balance. I'm not going to be one of those dads who are always away and doesn't have any contact with home. I'm the opposite. I like that nomadic lifestyle and bringing the kids along is cool -- they love it.
