Gwen Stefani Gives Emotional Speech During Her Hollywood Walk Of Fame Star Ceremony
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00:00 Thank you guys so much for showing up.
00:01 This is ridiculous.
00:03 Never, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think
00:07 that this girl right here from Orange County
00:09 would have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
00:13 That just doesn't make sense to me.
00:14 But Jimmy, what are we doing?
00:16 How did you know?
00:17 It feels like a second ago that you pulled me aside
00:22 at a showcase.
00:23 I didn't know who I was.
00:25 You didn't know who I was.
00:26 I didn't know who you were.
00:27 I didn't care who you were.
00:29 And you said to me, he literally said to me,
00:33 you are gonna be a star.
00:36 And I'm like,
00:37 and then he said, in six years, you're gonna be a star.
00:42 And I said, six years, that's just weird.
00:45 Like in six years, I'm gonna be pregnant
00:47 with my fifth child and I won't be doing music.
00:50 But six years on the dot,
00:52 Don't Speak was number one around the world.
00:54 And he was right.
00:58 Just to give you perspective here,
01:02 the reason I have a music career is because of Jimmy Iovine.
01:05 You pushed me to cross boundaries, writing with people
01:08 I didn't even feel like I fit in the room with.
01:11 You were right every single time.
01:13 Every time you put me in Jimmy jail, it was an honor.
01:16 That meant Jimmy jail was when you thought you had your hit
01:20 and you were a really just one song away from winning.
01:23 So thank you for doing that to me multiple times.
01:28 And honestly, I just wanna give you a little perspective
01:32 on how it was working with Jimmy Iovine.
01:35 Basically, I had just given birth to Kingston,
01:38 my first baby, he was nine weeks old.
01:41 And I get a call from Jimmy saying,
01:43 "Hey Gwen, I think you need to go in the studio right now.
01:45 "You need to go right now with this rapper."
01:47 And I'm like, okay, well, I just gave birth
01:50 and I don't really feel like I'm in the head space
01:53 to be going in with an African rapper from Africa
01:56 that came and flew here to be with me.
01:58 I'm like, okay.
01:59 He said, "Just trust me, whatever you do,
02:02 "just go to that session today."
02:04 So I picked Kingston up, we went to the session.
02:07 I walked in, there's Akon, he's sitting there
02:10 and literally within seconds, he's my best friend.
02:14 And all I have to say to him is,
02:15 "I wanna write a song about something sweet."
02:18 And we finished the song and he's like,
02:21 "Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, I have one more idea."
02:24 And he goes, goes into the booth and he goes,
02:26 "Woo-hoo, yeah-hoo."
02:28 And then that song took me around the world,
02:33 me and Kingston around the world again on tour.
02:36 And it was incredible.
02:39 And then life went by and out of nowhere,
02:42 my life turned upside down.
02:44 Just like all of us, we have those times.
02:46 And I figured everything has pretty much
02:48 gotta be over at this point.
02:50 And I get a call from Shelly Azoff.
02:54 And Shelly says, "Hey, you gotta be on 'The Voice.'"
02:57 And I say, "What?"
02:58 And next thing I know, literally just gave birth to Apollo.
03:02 And next thing I know, I have Irving Azoff
03:06 making deals for me.
03:07 I have a Vegas residency, I have a makeup line.
03:10 I'm on 'The Voice,' I'm on TV.
03:13 And I just wanna say Irving,
03:15 you have given me my chapter two in my life.
03:19 Your belief in me just means everything.
03:21 You're a visionary.
03:23 You've made things possible I never thought were possible.
03:26 And you've given me so much wisdom and security.
03:29 I needed that so bad.
03:31 I love you and your impact on me
03:33 is just makes my heart full.
03:35 Thank you so much.
03:37 And if I didn't have 'The Voice,'
03:42 and I didn't have Irving,
03:44 I wouldn't have met my best friend,
03:46 my husband, Blake Shelton.
03:48 I love you so much.
03:50 You have given me the kind of love I never knew before.
03:53 The minute I met you, I knew I was home.
03:55 And I'm so, so proud that you're mine.
03:58 I can't believe it.
03:59 I love you so much.
04:01 Growing up in Anaheim, California, I had such...
04:05 Thank you!
04:06 I had such amazing family,
04:10 Jill, Eric, Todd, and my incredible parents,
04:14 Patty and Dennis.
04:15 They taught us how to be creative
04:17 and love music, love God.
04:20 But it was my brother, Eric Stefani,
04:22 who's here today, that taught me.
04:25 He taught me how to write songs.
04:26 He taught me how to be original.
04:28 And it's because of you, we had no doubt,
04:31 and I will always look up to you.
04:33 And of course, the greatest gift of all
04:39 is to be a mom to Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo.
04:42 You are my biggest blessings.
04:47 I can't believe that I get to be your mom.
04:49 I'm so proud of you guys.
04:51 It is literally my biggest joy of my life.
04:55 Thank you to John Janik, Steve Berman,
04:57 the team at Interscope Records.
04:59 You have been my label since the very beginning.
05:01 Thank you for giving me the freedom to be creative
05:03 and supporting all these years,
05:05 supporting me, letting me have big dreams,
05:07 and for making this whole day possible.
05:10 Thank you to the Warner Brothers TV studio
05:13 for your very generous support
05:16 in making this day come to life.
05:18 And thank you to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
05:20 for this honor.
05:21 Being able to write music, I never saw that coming.
05:26 The first song I wrote, it gave me my life purpose,
05:29 so thank you, God, for that.
05:30 And thank you to all of the fans, you guys.
05:34 Honestly, every single person that listened to my music
05:39 all these years, I would not be here without you guys.
05:41 It has been a beautiful exchange of love.
05:44 Thank you so much, Hollywood!
05:47 (cheering)
05:49 (chattering)
05:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]