BUSH Frontman: 'You Have To Grow Up Ridiculously In The Limelight'

Amy Harris recently conducted an interview with Gavin Rossdale of the reformed British alternative rock band BUSH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Amy Harris: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the band coming back together. Was it a hard decision for you to move forward with BUSH without Nigel [Pulsford, guitar]?

Gavin: It was up until the point I decided to do it. I did a solo record in lieu of doing BUSH because Nigel wasn't ready. He changed his mind. So yes, I wanted to be as respectful as possible to everyone involved, to the band and the fans, because I thought we deserved it. I think I clearly gave, he left a large window of re-affirmation in there, when that clearly was not happening, I was like, "Fuck it." I was going to do what I was going to do. BUSH is, professionally speaking, my entire life. It is my vocation. Music is everything that I love and am inspired by. BUSH is my complete.

Amy Harris: Are you still friends?

Gavin: Yeah. Are we friends? Do I see him socially? I've probably seen him once in the last couple years. We got together before the solo record. We play. I love him. We went through so much together and we will be linked together forever. There is no getting away from it. Are we friends in the sense of do we hang out all the time? No, but do I love him forever? Of course. He gave me, what he gave me is life. His contribution, same with the other two, what they did and what they went through has got me to this point. Again, I'd have to be a pig to not to appreciate what they did for me.

Amy Harris: I still have the April 18th, 1996 cover of Rolling Stone that I got in college with you on the cover. If you could go back and give advice to yourself back then knowing what you know now, what would it be?

Gavin: I would say instead of trying to appease my critics, just to continue to be there for the people that love me. I think that sometimes with the small things I corrected on this record, my muse is the audience I have seen over the years, my muse is the audience I missed. I think that sometimes when you are young and being attacked, you want to stay in the fight, you want to stay in there and duke it out. In fact, what you should be doing is going to the bar where they love you. I would change my interview style. For some reason I started out on a bad foot with some of the interviews I did. I think I was a bit green. I was too open. I think that kind of cost me. But again it is me delving too deeply into it. My whole thing now is that the world is too fragmented now, you are an idiot if you try to appease your critics. I think what you have to do is to fly toward the love, fly toward the people that want you to be there. That's all that we try to do. It is a learning curve and there is a sense you could have this massive success it means that you have to perform under pressure and constraint. You have to grow up ridiculously in the limelight because no one is really ready for that in a sense. It twists everyone's nose out of joint, the people in it and the people watching. But it's an incredible ride, so many great things that I must say I'm moved.

Amy Harris: You guys have your families, and I know you have just gotten back on the road the past few months for the first time in a while. How do you stay connected with the family and the relationships while you are on the road?

Gavin: That's a real challenge. That is a real difficult part that is very painful. It is most acute with the kids because they are five and three. A month is an eternity to them at that age, and to me too. I'd rather be around them than not. It is really challenging. It is further proof that in life there is no free lunch and there is sacrifice to be made. It is funny because someone just recently said to me, You look so happy. I said, Of course I am happy. We have the new record. There is fantastic reaction to the beginning of this journey. I am back where I belong. It is incredible. How can I not be grateful? It is tinted with the fact that I am not going to see my kids until the end of October, and then only for four or five days. Then I have to go to Europe for a month. That's not complaining, it's just reality in everything you do. Anyone with a kid and a job knows what I am talking about. It's like you have to do what you have to do. It's very self-serving and very self-nourishing to do your work that keeps you, you. Who wouldn't rather be with the people they love and not doing their work? No one really wants to go to work. But you do, we all just do. It is a requirement. It is unfortunate that in this life you are away. That is the roughest thing. I had panic attacks at the beginning of it all thinking about being away from them, just the idea that I am away a lot is challenging.

Read the entire interview from Amy Harris.