Bush Singer Gavin Rossdale Looks Back on the British Rock Group's 30-Year Career Ahead of Cleveland Show

When the British rock band Bush released its 1994 debut, Sixteen Stone, critics accused the group of copping its grunge-y sound from bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana and dismissed the act as posers. And yet, 30 years later, the group is still going strong and just released a greatest hits compilation in advance of a summer tour that brings Bush to Jacobs Pavilion on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

“Well, you could argue that [the critics] got it wrong,” says singer Gavin Rossdale via phone from a Salt Lake City tour stop. “Now, looking back at it, you can see the durability of those songs and the connection to people. At the time, it was the Wild West of journalism. It was unfortunate. You don’t get that kind of shit if you’re fair to middling. You only get it if you’re successful. I’d rather take the success than be lauded and anonymous, but I’m really not mad at anyone.”

While growing up in London, Rossdale, who cites punk and reggae as particular inspirations, listened to a wide of range of music .

“At my house, my mom would play Motown,” he says. “I have an inherent love of melody. Melody is cool. I like abrasive music with melody. I was very much into the Sex Pistols. They are, to me, the perfect band that ever was. They had one record and burned out. Unbelievable.”

Rossdale was 17 when he started his musical career by playing what he refers to as “shitty guitar.”

“I could scramble out a few chords,” he says. “If you look at classic bands, I loved Dylan and Neil Young. Those songs are classic, and the complexity is in the lyrics and in the melodies and not the music. When you start out as a musician, you feel intimidated. And I still feel intimidated. You feel like you don’t know enough. It’s just about whether you got the melody and idea across and is it not boring.”

Rossdale wrote the first Bush song, the heavy, Nirvana-like “Comedown,” in 1991.

“[Guitarist] Nigel [Pulford], who didn’t want to write, said he would demo the songs if I brought them to him,” says Rossdale. “He was perfect. He would play all these amazing complimentary notes and music and melodies to my songs, and that’s how my songwriting began.”

Sixteen Stone would become a huge hit but, as Rossdale, puts it, no one thought the band had a future despite its success. When it came time to record its second album, Razorblade Suitcase, Rossdale recruited the late Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey) to record it.

“When we were going to make a new record, [the label] wanted me to do the same thing [as the first album] and repeat it,” he says. “They wanted us to work with a pop producer instead of Steve Albini. It was a brave and crazy thing [to work with Albini]. It was suicidal in many ways. [Interscope Records co-founder] Jimmy Iovine said we took a massive gamble, and it really paid off. I like that record a lot. It’s really, really strong. It’s a beautiful recording by Steve. It captures the band. It wasn’t as commercially minded as when the pop producers helped us with Sixteen Stone.”

The band’s new Best Of compilation, Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023, provides an overview of the group’s career. It features 21 tracks, including the early hit “Everything’s Zen” and the latest single, “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere.”

“It was important to have a celebration,” says Rossdale when asked about the compliation. “I’m a tennis nut so I can see the end of an era with [Andy] Murray and [Novak] Jokovic and [Rafael] Nadel. It’s weird because I see them retiring, and I say, ‘Oh no, don’t do that!’ But you have to take stock of your career and be mindful of where you’re at. We get to continue on. I don’t imagine I will, but I probably will because I’m a maniac. I still feel like as an artist that I’m a creative individual, and I feel massively creative at the moment. It’s not like I don’t feel creative, and I just need a reason to play the old songs,”

Rossdale says the band is in great form, and he’s been excited to see new young fans in the crowd as well.

“We’re all obsessed with living in the moment, and my moment is rad,” he says. ” The fans have been losing their minds. It’s such a compliment. A young girl who was maybe 12 years old was standing at one show with her parents, who obviously were Bush fans. On the new song, she was singing the words and crying. It was this great moment. She was losing her mind and crying hysterically with tears of joy and wonderment and madness. She was having a beautiful musical epiphany. It’s so powerful to have anything to do with that. In a weird way, if we all look for meaning in our lives, that kind of thing gives you meaning when you’ve devoted your life to performing and writing and connecting with people. It’s so brilliant and amazing.”

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