On Putting His Life Back Together Post-Divorce & Sitting Next To 'Tom Fuckin’ Jones'

"My body is in London and my brain is in LA," Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale jokes. Currently commuting between London — for his new gig as judge on The Voice UK — and his home in Los Angeles, where he coparents his three sons — Kingston (10), Zuma (8) and Apollo (2) — Rossdale confirms he asked his boys to sing on one of the tracks on the new Bush album, Black And White Rainbows. "They fucking turned me down!" he bemoans. "Completely turned me down, like, cold. I was like, 'Shut up! Just get in and sing on it! Just do a song on it and then you're done!'" When asked whether his sons play any musical instruments, Rossdale shares, "We all have the same guitar teacher."

"I'd see people outside going, 'Loved you since the '80s!' and I'd be like, 'Ah, I'm never gonna wanna hear that!'"

Also sitting in The Voice UK's giant red chairs this year are Tom Jones, will.i.am and Jennifer Hudson. When asked whether he's noticed Bush's fanbase expanding since The Voice UK started airing in January, Rossdale asserts, "Yes and I think that Tom [Jones] is the only [judge] you could argue that probably doesn't need the show that much, y'know: it's Tom fuckin' Jones! But with everyone else, especially for me, in England, y'know, [Bush has] always been, like, a super-countercultural rock band; a small slice of the world of London."

But still, Rossdale is grateful for the success he's achieved through Bush. "I learnt my craft and we play great shows," he points out, before letting us in on some of his self-talk: "Don't be a pig! You've had a great run." Bush toured with Bowie "a couple of times in South America a number of years ago" and Rossdale tells that he performed at The Wiltern as part of a tribute to the late legend earlier this year. "They had a bunch of people/musicians going around the world - 32 of them - and [in] every city guests come in and sing," he tells of these Celebrating David Bowie shows. "And me and Sting did LA - and Perry Farrell - so that was a lot of fun."  

Man On The Run, the predecessor to Bush's latest album came out in 2014, but then Rossdale says he had to take some time out because his "life was falling apart". "I was trying to figure out what was helping my private life and what wasn't helping," he explains. On writing the material for Black And White Rainbows, the singer/guitarist reveals, "Basically when I began writing, right straight after my divorce [from Gwen Stefani], the songs were a little bit maudlin and a little slow. And I had a manager at the time who was actually really worried that I was gonna bring out this sort of, y'know, this certain 'type' of record. And I was like, 'Nah, man'. I'm just like, 'I gotta be honest about what I gotta write about and I'll get through it. But I can't just leapfrog to sunny days at the beach, 'cause it's not so sunny at my beach right now'."

After acknowledging that he's "got to that point in life now" where Bush performs before "a multi-generational audience", Rossdale recalls, "With the Institute, my side-project, I toured with U2 and I'd see people outside going, 'Loved you since the '80s!' and I'd be like, 'Ah, I'm never gonna wanna hear that!' But actually once you get your vanity out of the way, it's really nice that you've crossed generations and I have that with people. It's amazing! What a fuckin' privilege!"