Bush’s Gavin Rossdale: “It was stupid having beef with Dave Grohl and Trent Reznor”

Name The Simpsons’ parody of Bush’s 1995 hit ‘Glycerine’ that Homer Simpson dedicates to his wife Marge.

“’Listerine’? Oh wait! ‘Margerine’? [Laughs]”

CORRECT. It appears in a 2008 episode called That ‘90s Show and is performed by Homer in his grunge band Sadgasm.

“I saw it back in the day and loved it. It was the biggest compliment ever. I like being smacked around a bit comically, and it takes a lot to be slagged off humorously by The Simpsons!”

Any other cultural touchstones that meant something to you?

“The rude awakening in America when you have a hit record is you do these huge festival-style shows in arenas for radio stations. Our first one was when ‘Glycerine’ was a hit, and we had 20,000 people going apeshit to us, which was mad because growing up, none of the bands I liked ever played big shows. Also, to go from Camden pubs to playing our first US show at New York’s CGBG [also in ‘95], full of bikers and tattooed hipster girls, felt like something had kicked off for us.”

Which three songs did you perform live when you were a coach on The Voice UK in 2017?

“Er…I just remember singing ‘Under Pressure’ with Tom Jones, which was great. Fuck! What were the other two?”

WRONG. Apart from a cover of ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen and David Bowie, you also sang George Michael’s ‘Freedom’ and a rendition of the Bush single ‘Mad Love’.

“We did ‘Freedom’?! My brain cells are clearly worse for wear – I’ve walked straight into a glass door and I’m fucked. I remember ‘Mad Love’, but I wouldn’t have got ‘Freedom’ if I’d sat here all day!”

Talking of David Bowie: Bush supported him on tour in 1997 and you remained friends. What are your favourite memories of him?

“When we were on tour with him, he invited me for a legendary lunch in Argentina. It felt like an out-of-body experience. I loved his taste in art so we’d discuss that a lot. It was a similar relationship to the one I have with Tom Jones – somebody who’s done so much music, and you’re so in awe of, that you love getting their perspective. It’s like having the best watercooler conversations!”

Did you ever discuss collaborating with Bowie?

“Yeah, we did. Bowie would say: ‘I love a good collab – let’s do something’, but it was one of those things where I didn’t get my shit together. I owed him an email [before he died in 2016] which was annoying.”

Which Salford frontman did you do a joint ‘heroes’ interview with in indie bible Select magazine in 2000?

“England’s greatest treasure – Mark E. Smith.”

CORRECT. The Fall founder and lead singer.

“I was just as excited to meet him as I was Bowie, but I was scared of Mark E. Smith because of his reputation. I thought he was going to nut me! And he was brilliant. He was dismissive of the journalist, but to me, he was sweet as anything. My favourite part was when he said: ‘Me and Gavin are exactly the same – both our bands do really well in America.’ It also meant a lot because it was a tricky beginning for us, so I didn’t know who was mad at us and who wasn’t. Looking back, it was a different time.”

On the subject of people who were mad at you, you had a weird ‘90s feud with Nirvana/Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl when he wore an anti-Bush T-shirt, implying you were a cash-grab band, and took a few shots at you in the press…

“[Laughs] Yeah, he wore a shirt which put the dollar sign through Bu$h – so we [the band and crew] later put similar dollar signs through our T-shirts. That was the gig I went up to Dave and said: ‘I don’t understand what the problem is. Isn’t any shades of your band [Nirvana] in us how it goes?’ I don’t sing like a hair-metal band like Poison, Mötley Crüe or Guns N’ Roses. I always thought grunge was just more aggressive post-punk music. There was never a cynical plan: as much as I loved the 4AD shoegaze bands, I never fell in love with their performances in the same way I did Perry Farrell. I always wanted the chaos of big guitars and people flying into cymbals, so it suited me to make music like that. I got into so much trouble for having what was seen as more of an American sound when – in the days of the louche cool of Suede in the UK – that was the most anti-commercial sound you could make.”

Water under the bridge, though, as you and Grohl ended up burying the hatchet…

“His daughters and my sons ended up going to the same school – like Fiddler on the Roof or something! – so I saw him at school assemblies for around five years. Dave’s one of those people who gets along with everyone, and we had a bit of a skid back in the day. The feud was obviously that Bush were doing well, Nirvana were dealing with Kurt [Cobain]’s death, and it was seen that there was a second-wave of that style of music [grunge] – and the first wave were mad at us, so it was inevitable, but it didn’t sustain for long. And I’ve recorded in his studio since and he’s been perfectly gracious to me.”

“It happens. You’re kids and say things. Me and Trent [Reznor, Nine Inch Nails] never used to get along and the other night we went to an immersive theatre dinner. You think: it was so stupid we had these bitchy exchanges back in the day.”

Complete the following lyrics: “As a matter of fact, you take me back to where I want to go…”?

“Wow! So that’s a very early song. ‘As a matter of fact….’. I’d steer away from that lyric now! Kill me!”

WRONG. It’s from your pre-Bush synthpop band Midnight’s 1987 single: ‘Run With You’. The rest of the lyrics are: ‘And in the dead of the night/When I’m burning bright/You make me whole’.

“I knew it had to be early because it’s a shitty lyric! I’d only been writing songs for six months when I did that. A year into that, I got a publishing deal – £5,000 from Warner Chappell and I paid £350,000 when I started selling records to get me out of the deal, so I was just another kid being ripped off by The Man. ‘As a matter of fact.’ sounds like a phrase that’s better said with your hands on your hips. It’s a petulant, poncey line – I tried to eliminate all the ponce in my subsequent lyrics! [Laughs]”

Name the rock star or his vampire alter-ego that you played in a 2009 episode of FBI procedural drama Criminal Minds titled ‘The Performer’?

“Dante?”

CORRECT. Dante was the vampire alter-ego of rock star Paul Davis. You covered Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ on the show…

“Here’s a funny story: when I finished filming, I took the life-size cardboard cutout of me as Dante, where I’m dressed in the goth white make-up and red lipstick, just so that literally no-one else in the world would have it! I didn’t want it turning up later! [Laughs]”

What score out of 10 did NME award Bush’s second album ‘Razorblade Suitcase’ in 1996?

“Oh, I think it was one out of ten [Laughs].”

CORRECT.

“Was the one because it was Number One in America?”

Eek! Sadly not…the one rating was “for spelling their name right on the top of the record”. Ouch!

“It broke my heart because I grew up reading NME, appreciating their opinion and they curated the best bands for me. The way they would describe bands, I’d think: how can I ever reach these heights of what these great bands do to these journalists? And I guess as far as NME goes, I’ll never find out! [Laughs] It ruined Bush being massive in Europe, England and Japan. In America, I’ve got 26 hits – in England, I had one. It was a drag because all you’re trying to do is make something interesting and the hate felt disproportionate.”

Which Bush song appears in the acclaimed 2023 Netflix series Beef?

“I don’t know… ‘Machinehead’?”

CORRECT.

“Well, that answer wasn’t on the tip of my tongue, but it was on my lower-calves somewhere and I could feel it coming up! That was a weird, really good, show. I love it when people use my songs, like when I lucked out by having ‘Bullet Holes’ on John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Everybody thought I’d written it especially for the film, but I didn’t – I had the song and it fit really well.”

Which two bands did Bush perform between at Glastonbury in 1999?

“Oh wow! Hole was one and ……Sonic Youth? Blondie? I should have been playing Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals all of the time!”

CORRECT. You were sandwiched between Blondie and Hole.

“What a fucking line-up! We should do that again! I’d love to play Glastonbury again.”

 

Which song did you perform at 2017’s Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington?

“Linkin Park’s ’Leave Out All the Rest’”.

CORRECT.

“The lyrics are: ‘Forget the wrongs I’ve done/Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed/And don’t resent me/And when you’re feeling empty/Keep me in your memory/Leave out all the rest’, so I felt like I was singing his suicide note. Singing that song with Linkin Park at the Hollywood Bowl for Chester’s memorial was the most nervous I’ve ever been before performing. It felt such responsibility to honour someone else’s song. The adrenaline was coursing through my body and I had such fear and thought I was going to crumple with nerves. I’ve never been a person who’s had to clear the room before I perform – but I had to on that night. The only other time I’ve been nearly as nervous was when I sang ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ with David Bowie’s band at a two nights night celebrating his life in LA in 2017.”

Which politician did ‘you’ face off against on a 2000 episode of MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch?

“Is it my ex-manager Rob Kahan? I think I have the placard.”

WRONG. It’s George W. Bush.

“I hope I won! [Laughs]”

You did – your Claymation doppelgänger beat him to death with his mother (portrayed as a Rossdale groupie) Barbara Bush’s pears, before making his head explode with some guitar licks. Speaking of politics, your songs have tackled everything from toxic masculinity to abortion rights. Any issues you’re proud of highlighting?

“Probably my spelling – because it’s the only thing I’ve ever got accolades from NME for! [Laughs] On my our last album [2022’s ‘The Art of Survival’], we had a track called ‘More than Machines’ which includes a line: ‘Girls, you’re in control/Not the government’ which was written after Roe v Wade was overturned [meaning a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by the US constitution], while ‘This is War’ was inspired by the guy who drove into the protestors in Charlottesville.”

The verdict: 7/10

“I’ve had a laugh throughout my life, so I’ll take the damage!”

Bush’s career-spanning compilation album ‘Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023’ is available now

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