Gavin Rossdale Interview in Nylon Magazine

THE INSIDER: GAVIN ROSSDALE
The rocker talks about his music... and gives us love advice.

Even if he weren't married to Gwen Stefani, we'd still be fascinated by Gavin Rossdale. The former pro soccer player picked up a bass guitar in his friend's basement over 20 years ago, and became part of Bush, one of the defining bands of the grunge generation. Now on a solo streak, the UK native sat down with NYLON to rise like Strawberry Fields. Okay, not really, but we had to use a Glycerine lyric somewhere...

We’re having an office debate about music vs. lyrics. Do you think if the music is amazing, the words can be random? Well, being someone who’s devoted my entire life to words, I have to say I think that’s complete BS. I mean, sometimes I write down the words first and then I build the melody around what they say. The only time it’s really true that the words don’t matter is when it’s a totally shit song!

Didn’t you start out by playing bass? Yeah, that’s right, a long time ago.

Are bass players underrated? Oh completely. The bass player is like the dark horse of music. What most people don’t understand is that in your band, the drummer is the engine. But the bass is what makes the engine go. It’s quite a deep instrument, both literally and figuratively, but you really need the bass guitar to make everything come together. And you’ll find bass players are like that in terms of their personality, they’re really low key people who take a lot of pride in holding everyone together.

Is it harder to be in a band than to do it Solo, like you’re doing it now? It’s much harder, but it’s strange… I go through waves when I talk to other people about my life, like the way I’m talking to you now, where I miss my band so much, I miss Bush and everything we did. But I love being in the studio, I love working with the music and making time in the studio, and when you’re doing a solo album, the reality is that there are far fewer interruptions. I mean, when [Bush] used to record, we would always have people showing up and distracting us, or giving us an opinion that we hadn’t thought about or maybe didn’t even want, and it took a lot longer to get back down to the music.

You used to play professional soccer. Did that help your music at all? Well there’s something very similar about the energy, isn’t it? I mean, in both music and sports, the future and the past don’t quite matter, what’s important is the exact moment… Now I play tennis. I’m not great at it, but I love it, because the only thing that matters is hitting the ball back to the other person. Even when I lose, I still feel very accomplished at the end of it. It’s Tai Chi with a racket.

That’s very Zen. Buddhism is really just common sense, isn’t it?

Okay, you seem pretty together. Will you give me some love advice? Yeah, definitely. What’s going on?

I like someone and he likes me, but we keep picking each other apart because we’re scared of commitment. See, that part worries me. Why would you pick each other apart if you’re scared? Being scared is good!

Not when you both freak out! Well, I think the key to any successful relationship is to pay attention. I try to do that, I always make sure to pay attention and to feed energy into the relationship, looking for new things to appreciate with someone. That’s kind of why I named my song Love Remains the Same, because if you look back and you’re like, this person was a creep, you can’t actually feel bad about it, because at the time, your love was there. And if you just keep in mind that love is about what’s happening right now, not what did happen in the past or what might happen in the future, I think that’s really the key. Also, you can’t be so critical of someone that they get scared to be themselves, right? Like, if they read Perez Hilton and you don’t, you can still love them.

Yes, you can. But don’t be scared. Or if you are, be excited about it. If you’re scared, the person must really mean something to you. Be happy!

I’m happy! I’m happy! So is it cool being a rock star? Yeah, that’s weird, huh? But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.
--FARAN KRENTCIL
source Nylon Mag