WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Bush's Gavin Rossdale
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00:01Rock, metal, prog, and everything in between.
00:04If you're into rock, you've come to the right place.
00:07Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:11Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:15And now, it's time for today's conversation.
00:18Here's Meltdown.
00:20It feels like life gets quicker and there's more things to do and less time to do in the
00:24minute.
00:25I don't know what's going on with my life.
00:26I need better time management, but I really think that I am quite productive.
00:31So, it's not like I run around in circles.
00:33It's just like, I didn't put my kid's lunch in his bag.
00:37That's the only thing we had.
00:38It was a bit sucky today.
00:40They left.
00:41I looked around and I was like, oh, shoot.
00:45That's the only thing.
00:47Now, did you have to take it to school for them?
00:50No.
00:52Someone's coming in to do that because I'm working this morning.
00:54So, I just sent the note out to a couple of people.
00:57Can anyone take the lunch to Zuma?
01:02I remember Kid Rock told me a really funny story because, of course, he's from here.
01:06And he told me that his son forgot his lunch or his book bag or something at school at home
01:10one day.
01:10And he thought he was going to be father of the year and take it to school.
01:13And he went there and he said, everyone's looking at me.
01:15And, of course, I'm going to take pictures, want autographs and stuff.
01:18And somebody told him he was at the wrong school.
01:23Well, anyhow.
01:25But, hey, I like that.
01:26I can't beat that story.
01:27Yeah.
01:28I like how you're theme dressing with your Detroit shirt on there.
01:31It looks good.
01:32Yeah.
01:33It actually wasn't unintentional.
01:35It was just, you know, I have love for Detroit.
01:37So, I wear this regularly.
01:38I like this.
01:39And it just turned right to wear this.
01:42It feels good.
01:43Kept warm by Detroit.
01:44Yeah.
01:45There you go.
01:45So, first of all, before we get started here, happy early birthday.
01:48You got any plans for next week?
01:54I'm going to have a nice dinner with a few friends.
01:58Just keep it simple.
01:59Keep it simple.
02:01You know.
02:03Yeah.
02:04I mean, on a Monday, like a Saturday night, I've got a few friends coming in.
02:08And I've got this guy that I found I really like.
02:12I mean, he's a career.
02:12He's a private chef, but he's Korean.
02:16So, he makes great Korean food.
02:20Beautiful stuff.
02:21So, you have a nice big dinner.
02:24Yeah.
02:24By the way, that's called Devil's Night here in Detroit, October 30th, the day before Halloween.
02:31All right.
02:32I'll take it.
02:33So, you got the greatest hits coming out.
02:35That drops on November 20th.
02:39Loaded from 1994 to 2023.
02:41So, just tell us about this record.
02:44Why now?
02:44And, of course, obviously, 16 Stone.
02:46There's all sorts of songs from that record on there.
02:47But why now?
02:49I think that it was just what my management was excited about.
02:56Because they love the idea that when we're going to work on another record, that there's a nice momentum going.
03:04And it just allows us to have the momentum keep going.
03:11You know, I think that it's to do with that, really.
03:14It's not something I really ever wanted to do because I was, like, making new stuff and totally focusing on that.
03:20And it seems ironic to, like, do to, well, I'm basically not writing new songs because I'm talking about the old songs.
03:31But it's cool.
03:32So, I don't know when the right time is.
03:34I was always running for that time.
03:36No, it's going to be, like, someone's going to mean it's, like, the end or something like that.
03:39So, as long as it's not a swan song, I'm happy for it to be now.
03:43Yeah, that's right.
03:44I mean, well, let's talk about the latest single here.
03:47Because in the video, you actually go back 30 years, which I don't know if that was on purpose or just ironic or whatever.
03:53But in that video, you go back 30 years, I guess, to where your career actually started with Bush.
03:58Yeah.
03:59It was absolutely on the nose intentional, you know, to do that thing.
04:03And, yeah, we're just playing with that idea of the span of history, the span of time.
04:11Yeah, nowhere to go but everywhere.
04:15Right.
04:16There you go.
04:16Yeah, who thought of that video screenplay?
04:21Well, that idea is, you know, I had a certain thing about the song.
04:24And the guy that we work with a lot, Jesse Davey, he's very unstable.
04:30And he's really, his creativity, I don't know if you ever saw the People at War video with it for the United Nations.
04:39Incredible video where we had all the refugees in there and people getting, well, you should see the video.
04:45It's really incredible.
04:47I've done one-take videos within flowers on a grave.
04:50I've done only way out video where we just shot the whole thing backwards, one take, the whole thing backwards.
04:56He always pushes us to some kind of place.
04:59And this was no different.
05:02But I did win in the end.
05:04You know what I mean?
05:04Every movie I'm in, I generally die.
05:06I'm an English baddie.
05:08So I die or get killed or I'm a drug dealer or something, always on the negative.
05:12So it's cool to, even though, well, I don't want to give it away, this last Bush video, but I get my sort of anti-hero revenge, which is a bad idea.
05:24You shouldn't do that.
05:25But it's only for big, so it's cool.
05:28Well, there's a lot of great anti-heroes out there, you know?
05:31I mean, just look at the world of wrestling.
05:32So I guess you could be lumped in with those groups right there.
05:36There you go.
05:37There you go.
05:37So all these years later, 24 million albums sold.
05:42I mean, as a young kid growing up, you couldn't have imagined doing that, could you?
05:49Literally, when you grow up in England and you want to do music, for some reason, maybe I'm just a limited person, but like in my brain, you are limited by the scope of the country.
06:02So you could do a tour of England in like 10 shows.
06:05And so I didn't even really know what that truly was for musicians, you know?
06:13I didn't know what the potential was in bands, you know?
06:16I had no idea.
06:18So it's just so naive and so innocent that, yeah, to find out, come on the other side, pop the other side, be 30 years later and say, well, that means 24 million records or whatever.
06:28I played to loads of people and still have a good time in music, you know, I mean, I would have fallen over, I would have died of shock and never had any career.
06:37So, you know what I mean?
06:38It doesn't make sense.
06:40And how could that make sense?
06:41But it's, and I just seem, you know, I don't know, yeah, it's an incredible thing.
06:47And I just see us in a kind of solid and strong, you know, being a band that just like, just plays great every night and just is consistent and wants to make great music.
07:01Looking back on that, I'm sorry, go ahead.
07:05I missed that.
07:06I'm saying it's a fun, it's a fun job.
07:07Yeah, for sure.
07:08Yeah, there's a little bit of a delay here, but looking back on your career, somebody told me a couple weeks ago, I never thought about this because I'm not a musician, but the first record you kind of make for yourself because you don't have any fans.
07:19So how does the writing process for the second record go after it's so much success with the first one?
07:26Well.
07:26Did you find yourself writing towards the fans?
07:32Well, you, you, you definitely want to, I had this sort of bizarre image of like, of just where the band would go live and how we would add to 16 Stone and the songs that I put in there on Razorblade, trying to compliment what we had already and, you know, probably
07:56Yeah, you know, because you have, I had a couple of years to write the first record and I had like, you know, six months, nine months to write the second record.
08:03So everything has been pretty fresh with Bush, I've never had like songs that I wrote when I was, you know, really, really young that I held on to and all that stuff.
08:11Yeah. So I don't know. It's just a voyage of discovery. And it's like a leap of faith, like, like, you know, how there's like insane mountain bikers, they take off, you see them at the top of the crest of a mountain, they've got a thin track.
08:23It's like, oh, my God, and they're bombing down. And, you know, one mistake, you know, inches and they cost their life. And making records has to be a bit like that, you know, there has to be that sense of danger, not really knowing where you're going, what more important was not round, you don't know what's around the next corner by sort of investigating things more, pushing the songs more, you know, and so that's what's important.
08:48And interesting, you know, it's a great, it's a great way to live.
08:55Yeah. So how hard was it to pick the songs for this greatest hits package? I mean, you got five of them from the first record. Those are probably pretty simple. Then after that, how was there ones you wanted on there, but couldn't get on there and vice versa?
09:08Yeah, there's like five or six that we missed that were not, that we didn't want to go to three CDs or something like that, or three records. There was a limitation. And so I was hoping that there'd at least be a chance to just put those other songs out, because now I was doing the set list.
09:25It's like, oh man, it's like afterlife. It's nice, fast, upbeat songs. It was really, really good. And I love playing it live. So it's a bit like, that's a bit of a guy. But so we did it chronologically. And really, I think we went with the biggest songs, you know, the ones that had the most, got the highest on the, on the, they were all like, you know, within the kind of, I don't know, hits, but just meaning they're sort of inside the top 40 at radio.
09:50Yeah. And they, they meant a lot to your career. So next year, uh, being the 30th anniversary, are you playing anything special around the, uh, the, the debut of the, the, the first record?
09:59I don't know. I never used to think of it, but it does seem like it'd be pretty fun to play the record, like note for note, start to finish. You know, it's become such a, um, people have taken it so deep into their DNA that whilst I may,
10:18the song order is just like bizarre, like I can't even, I don't even know how the song order came about. Now everything that I know about the song orders, I'm just like,
10:28it's a head scratcher because I feel like I have nothing to do with it. But yeah, I can't imagine that I have nothing to do with it. It just has no logic to it, but it's great.
10:37I think it's just funny. Uh, so I don't know whether I might change the realm, maybe play that whole record, just top to bottom would be, um, intriguing.
10:49Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of bands seem to do that with, uh, with their anniversary of their, uh, albums. Uh, so I was on my, uh, Peloton the other day, I'll drop the Peloton thing.
10:58And one of the instructors, uh, played, uh, I think she played come down and she talked about how it was used on a Netflix series, which I didn't see, to be honest with you.
11:05Uh, but, uh, uh, talk about your, your music being used in movies and stuff like that. And even on the Peloton.
11:10I love it. You know, it's just so incredible when you get that sort of, uh, collaboration or, you know, to do music for, um, a great film, you know, doing John Wick and then being back with the Keanu and that whole team. It's really fun. Um, I've got a friend of mine who's got a film for Jericho Ridge that I wrote an original song for that that's just coming out now. Um, and that's a pretty cool thing. Um, I, I, it's just fun.
11:40I'm seeing different contexts, you know, and how it sits and what, what it does.
11:44So I think we've got mouth. We're looking to do mouth on tour. And that was, of course, in, um, you know, American werewolf in Paris, I think, right? So, uh, you know, it's just a thrill, you know?
11:57Yeah. When I, I was telling, uh, Monty or before we started that, I went and saw that new, uh, Scorsese movie last night. I went with my stepdaughter.
12:04Yeah. And my stepdaughter's husband says, uh, Oh, you're talking to Gavin. You got to ask him about Constantine and all the acting and all that.
12:10And stuff. So, uh, you got anything in the works?
12:13How was the movie by the way? Sorry to interrupt, but how was the movie?
12:16The movie was actually pretty, it was pretty good. It was obviously long. It's three and a half hours. You have to invest a lot of time in it, but it was a well done and it's a, it's a true story.
12:24So it was, um, it was kind of a history lesson at that.
12:27Could it have been shorter?
12:30I thought about it. Sometimes there are some scenes that kind of lingered a little bit, but yeah, perhaps.
12:35Right, right, right, right.
12:36But I'm not going to argue with Scorsese, right? You can't argue.
12:38No, he's the best. Yeah. And Leo is one of the best actors we have. So.
12:43Do you know him?
12:44Uh, no, I mean, I'm passing. I mean, I'm not, not in any, um, over lingering way, but it's always good to see him if I've ever seen him.
12:54Yeah. Yeah. He's a great actor, but, uh, do you got anything, uh, acting wise in the, in the, in the, in the pike?
13:01Well, they're doing, they're redoing Constantine's. There's Constantine 2 coming. So I'm hoping that, uh, I am in that, but that's not to me.
13:09Uh, so not really, uh, my plate is really full because I have my label sea of sound and working on that a lot and I'm doing, um, music and trying to write for the new record and I'm doing press for this.
13:24And, uh, my cooking show is kind of takes time here and there and focus on that. I'm trying to do this interview show.
13:31I've been trying to do it for years, so I don't know when the damn thing's going to get made, but it's pretty cool. Um, but I'm pretty close on it.
13:39Yeah. You told me about that cooking show. I think before the pandemic, you mentioned that to me.
13:44Yeah. It's just, it just, it's a, it's a really wild world because, you know, look at those crazy animals. Yeah. Because, uh, it's a wild world. So much to be done.
13:58And, uh, it's not always easy to get it going. Yeah. By the way, you're the second interview I did in a row. I talked to Rick Emmett from Triumph yesterday and his dogs were going crazy too.
14:09So let me just get him to eat someone. Get him. Get him. Get him. Get him. There you go.
14:17That's pretty cool. Is that like a little home studio you got there?
14:20Yeah. It's really great. It's really great. It's so, it's vibey. And I wrote the last record and hear the songs with myself.
14:27And, um, yeah, it's brilliant. Really, really good. It's a converted room, but I've got these sound barriers everywhere.
14:34Uh, so all around. So it looks super, super like spaceshipy and wild and I have them on the walls and everywhere. So it's cool.
14:43Do you like having something like that in your house? Like I have a studio in my house.
14:46If I ever want to bust something out, I can just down and do it. Do you like that?
14:49Well, yeah. I mean, I have to travel so much for my job that I, you know, have to be here half the time for my boys.
14:58And so the idea that adding, I had a studio, um, you know, 15, 20 minutes away from my house and that was fun for a bit.
15:05You know, they've had a whole different field and you go to work and it's like this ceremony of like, okay, I'm not coming until I've got something useful to come home with.
15:13So I like that. But as soon as I tricked this place out and they go in this room and I started to engineer myself, um, I don't do my vocals because I don't want to be that one man band thing.
15:25Right. But I don't do my vocals, but I'll do everything up to the vocals. I can arrange it all. I can, you know, put it all together.
15:32So the whole song plays with every, you know, an example of everyone in there, just a band of me, but it's like, you know, it's like, you know, these can, you know, the soft synths.
15:43And stuff, but just incredible programs. And it sounds like a lot of people playing.
15:47Yeah.
15:49And it's a great way to get my, my, my, my songs, how I want to hear them. And then, and then, then I have a great band to kind of collaborate with and let in and see what happens, change things, add things, you know?
16:03So, but it's good to get like, it's like getting my, you know, spitting my opinion.
16:09Like, here's my opinion. So we pool our opinions.
16:14Yeah. So I guess, uh, you're, you're, you're the, you're the main guy in the band. You, you bring all the ideas.
16:19I shouldn't say bring all the ideas. You, you, do you start or form all the ideas and then kind of, kind of go to the other guys. Is that how it works?
16:24Well, yeah. You know, you only need one idiot in the band like me, you know, it's just, you just need that one. Same way. I'm sure Dave is with food, food fighters or any, there's a little bit of that. I mean, they, they do bring me music.
16:43Um, but generally, uh, we're just in a, we're just in a, in a, it's a lot easier to, to, uh, maneuver something than to maneuver nothing.
16:57So like, yeah. So I have always generally been maybe the one that starts the conversation and then it goes on. If you want to put it like that. Uh, and that's it. That's it.
17:11Yeah. I know. I know when I have a studio downstairs, sometimes I do stuff that I think is really cool. And, uh, next day I go downstairs after sleeping and, you know, having a little bit of morning coffee or whatever. And I go, eh, this ain't so great. Do you ever do that?
17:20Yeah. Yeah. I do that all the time. Yeah. Um, you know, maybe two things out of three things you did are great. It's really liberating that if you're ever in doubt, like a song for me is as good as its weakest moment. Right. So if I can solve the weakest moment, like, you know, put something better in there, but, you know, I know that everything exponentially improves everything else.
17:49So it was already doing fine, but it's kind of like the poison in the well was like messing up with the program a little bit. So I find it useful for that. So I'll come in and be like, I just did the other day, did a song through and did three sections really fast in a couple of hours. And I was like, we'll listen back to it. But one main thing that I didn't get that bit. Right. So as soon as I get that, I redo that bit, it will elevate everything else.
18:13Yeah. What kind of stuff influences you nowadays as far as writing or creativity?
18:19Um, I really like some of the, uh, I just like the extremism of some of the metalcore bands and the post-punk bands. Um, you know, idols have just as a great spirit to them. They just remind me of a sort of, well, not remind me, but they're just like, just socially conscious, strong, opinionated,
18:44and, uh, and, uh, and, um, bad wolves, you know, uh, bad wolves, bad wolves, bad wolves, bad wolves going toward them. They're doing great. God bless them. They got a record coming out. So they're doing great.
19:01Um, but I like the bad wolves, that sound, there's a certain sound. Those bands have, I, you know, I don't do the scream or stuff, but they, to me, they're really crafting songs well and making stuff interesting.
19:12Um, and, uh, that's what I find intriguing and interesting. And then the rest of it is like me, it's just, I'm on this voyage. Like I see like the Beatles, um, light years, you know, ahead or above, whatever, floating away.
19:29And so the, the, the, the, the, the, I know what I'm meant to do to connect with people. And yet I'm not nearly as good as that. So every song is an effort to kind of push into that empty space of forage further.
19:44So I get better, but I can never get as better as good as the Beatles or something. But, you know, that's the thing as a songwriter, you know, I like this hybrid of, of great best melody with like heaviest music.
19:56That's my sort of, I don't even know why I have that. That's my landed on my lap. That's your job to think it through. That's what I really like trying to figure it out.
20:06And not too much riffing and chord, chord, beautiful chords, great changes, very emotive music, and then finding, uh, words that unlock people.
20:18Yeah. Uh, Bad Omens and, uh, I prevail who are from here. They just, uh, headlined our riff fest, uh, just last month. And, uh, yeah, uh, both those bands, uh,
20:26feature all qualities. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what I love about them, um, is that the screaming is incredible,
20:34but they all go through great dynamic ranges, really brilliant. And, um, you know, really impressive bands.
20:41So I just, I'm like, you know what I mean? You just have to be like, in the way that's, you know, it must've been like certain heavy bands,
20:50seeing other bands coming up, you're like, damn, they, they, they, they, they took care of their heavy,
20:55they're really heavy, you know, and they're exciting. I mean, you know, it's exciting. I mean,
20:59I grew up on punk music and the thing about that was compared to what was being listened to, that was,
21:05was exciting. And all the, all the time, the perspective changes of what's, what gets it to be exciting
21:11because you've heard it before, you know, so the way I make, we make records, you know, it's way different to
21:16how we did 16 Starling, for example, you know, it's just a whole different approach, but, um,
21:22but they sit well because I hope, because the melodies, I've always tried to keep the melodies
21:27the same. So people say like, for instance, flowers on a grave, sounds like the old bush,
21:32you know, that was one thing to sit with flowers on a grave on a kingdom record. It's like, well,
21:37no, because we never, we never played with, with a drop, drop C de-ching guitars. So what,
21:44what they mean by that is the intention, the, the, the energy, the energy was up, the energy was,
21:50was, was, was, was there. Um, and, uh, yeah, so it's just exciting. So those are the exciting
21:58bands get me. And then also, you know, the really very open, gentle, uh, vulnerable musicians get me
22:09as well, because that's a very brave place to come from. Yeah. Speaking of, uh, Detroit bands
22:14and bands you'll be touring with, you'll be touring with my friends from, uh, Eva Under Fire
22:18as well, coming up here. Nice. Nice. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We are, we are looking forward
22:22to it. It's a great life. And like, Bad, Bad Wolves have a great record. They have a, uh,
22:27their album is coming out now, I think this week or something. So we lucked out, uh, for their hard
22:35work, you know, doing, they have this record. So that's good. It's, you know, uh, I, if we're
22:42going to tour, especially after everybody been through, you know, you better have a good
22:46time and make it nice and make it cool. We've always had good tours, good people and good
22:51energy backstage, because I think that it just, it's all infectious. You have great bands, you
22:57have great energy backstage, you have great performances. Everyone's really good. The audience
23:02is just, it's just, you know, and Detroit, the best audiences, you know, I'm not even
23:06saying that because I'm not going to say that in my next interview because I can't because
23:09those, some of the audiences there, I, you know what, when I play in Detroit, it feels
23:13like very South American, but I don't know why the energy, the passion is the same as the
23:20Latin American thing that you feel in Portugal and in Brazil. Yeah. Very cool. You can feel
23:27it's a particular, um, it's a particular thing. So, well, we work hard and play hard
23:33here. The greatest hits, uh, comes out November 20th, loaded 1994 to 2023. Uh, Gavin Monty
23:39is going to cut me off here. So, uh, I'm going to say goodbye, but good luck with everything.
23:43I have a great birthday as well. Thanks man. All the best. Thank you.
23:48Thank you. Thanks.
23:48Thanks.