Gavin Rossdale: 'Being a dad has changed me'

by ANDREW WILLIAMS - Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Singer Gavin Rossdale, 40, was the frontman in 1990s grunge group Bush. In 2003, Rossdale discovered he is the father of socialite Pearl Lowe's model daughter Daisy Lowe.

What’s the solo album about?
Emancipation. It’s a snapshot of where I am right now. It’s about my desire to get out there and play shows, travel the world and meet interesting people.

What have you been doing since Bush split up?
Working. It takes a lot of work in the back room to get to this point. No one buys records now, so the labels are terrified. The industry is governed by fear. You have to keep chipping away.

How has being a father changed you?
Everything I do and say now I have to stand by. I want my son to see me play and do shows and think: ‘That’s wicked.’ At the moment he just wants to march around the house to the song from the Jungle Book. We do that about 17 times a day.

Bush sold loads of records in the US but not many in Britain. Why was that?
[Indignant] Isn’t it time to try a different tack? We sold plenty of records in Britain. At the end, we were selling out four nights at the Brixton Academy. I don’t know if you think that’s small. That’s a tired concept and it’s not the case. Many people came to the shows and bought the records.

Will it be the same story with your solo album?
I don’t know. We were on a roll in Europe towards the end of Bush. If we’d done another record you wouldn’t be asking that question. I hope people come and see me play.

Are you still pursuing your acting career?
There’s nothing in the offing. The music has taken centre stage for me. I don’t have the time to go to auditions. Unless Mike Leigh has a good part for me in his next film, I’ll be sticking with music for a while.

What would you have done if the music career hadn’t taken off?
I’d have loved to have been an artist. It’s a romantic view but I love the idea of going to a studio and slaving over different pieces of work. Artists seem to have a good mix of being creative, being alone and living it up.

How close did you come to abandoning your pop dreams?
Starting a rock band in England in the 1990s wasn’t seen as a good commercial move because there was so much pop and Britpop around at the time. I just wanted to create an antidote to that. I wanted to do something more primal. I was never tempted to give it up.

What was the first record you ever bought?
Probably something by Gary Glitter. He had some really great pop songs, I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am) and all that. Things went a bit wrong for him in later life. When I was a kid, I’d buy a single a week from the record shop at the end of my road. They’d push me to try different music and introduced me to punk, reggae, The Doors… It was sad when the shop closed.

What’s been your worst gig?
We played some shows in Fulham which were sparsely attended but nothing disastrous happened. Sometimes my friends would be like: ‘Don’t worry about it, there’ll be another one,’ when I thought the gig had gone great.

What’s been your most extravagant purchase?
I spent a year trying to buy a house but it kept falling through. I was in New York and spent the money on a bunch of paintings instead. I totally overdid it. I got back to London and the house was full of huge crates with these paintings in.

You used to be friends with 1980s gender-bender Marilyn. When did you last see him?
It’s been so long I can’t remember.

Does Gwen leave her Harajuku Girls lying around the house?
Yes. They move out of the way if you ask them but who gets upset about having some Harajuku Girls in the house? They’re great.

Gavin Rossdale talks about how fatherhood has changed him
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