Bush front-man Gavin Rossdale has had an incredibly fascinating life. From The very beginning of his music career he has captivated audiences with beautiful tunes, introspective lyrics and unmatched live moments. He is a joyful man and when I asked what inspires him to write he said this.
‘I only think of these things once. (laughs) (saying he has to write everything down) When I think of these phrases and things, because I’ve thought of so many things over the years and you think “I love that!” But you forgot to write it down it’s like gah you f&*(ing idiot! I really, really love this life, so I just want to keep being of value by writing things down that happen and that’s where my inspiration is I suppose.’
I asked him what it’s like to write so many songs that so many people have interpreted in their own way and coopted for their own lives, asking if he ever feels selfish on a song that someone else perceives differently than he intended.
‘If you love a song it belongs to you…I could something and then someone else can be like “I need that in my brain”…People coming up to me to tell me something very important to them is an incredible journey of trust for them…I could be like “Yo I’m trying to eat or waiting for a limousine or some shit and they’ll come up and say something very vulnerable about their life and I think that’s incredible…My proudest thing really to be honest is, I’ve always written about dark things because I like the light so much and life so much, so I’ve always written about the darkness but with every song there’s never been a doom and gloom…I’m very, very, very anti suicide, I’m very much about opening up and talking about where you’re at and finding a way through, so anyone that comes up to me and tells me about a journey they’ve been on it validates my work. It gives a sense of wow that really worked!’
He continues to talk about hope and getting a way through incredible darkness. He really opens up about how he loves the beautiful moments in the world and how much the preshow acoustic performances he and the band did on their last tour was such an incredible experience.
I had to ask about 1996 and the epic Spring Break performance where he played ‘Glycerine’ in a the pouring rain.
‘Incredible highlight. It was such a bizarre experience, we were just at the start of our careers…it’s still exciting you know, every show is still exciting…this is the business of excitement but that…we couldn’t understand what was happening, I didn’t know you could be successful at this, I didn’t know the MTV exposure to that extent, you know I was coming from London, we didn’t have any of that, we didn’t have radio like you guys, thank god…so I’m already blown away and in shock like I spent the whole time like, “Oh my god this is incredible!” And then when we played that night and you know now they’d just see rain 25 miles away they’d cancel it because no one wants to get sued, but then they’re like “Nah it’s ok it’s just a hurricane, it’s not gonna last long!” (chuckles) What I remember weirdly is playing it and obviously the rain was lashing off my hair and the guitar, which is a piece of wood but it felt really like a piece of wood like a wet piece of wood and I was thinking there was no way that this is resonating or doing the job of a guitar. Because we’re under water! So I was trying to find the sound guy trying to ask him “Did that sound like a crazy guitar?? Like a guitar with Alzheimer’s or what?” Because it wasn’t a guitar anymore. I also thought “Am I going to die?” It had taken me so long to find my feet to get going in music…is this my gang plank? Is this stage a large gang plank into the ocean of nothing, you know? And I didn’t die. I didn’t die.”
Another chance to see Bush live is coming May 6th at Oshkosh Arena along with Mammoth.
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