Bush

Rock Show of the Year

“Nothing is better than doing what you love,” says Gavin Rossdale, and the Bush frontman knows from experience. For near three decades, the musician has been a perennial presence in the annals of rock music — an intellectual and emotional, albeit occasionally misunderstood creative, forever with a hard-charging rock n’roll heart.

And yet some have counted him out. Other have written him off or downplayed his talents. “I consistently feel underrated,” Rossdale declares. “But that’s the most beautiful perspective and position to be in.” Because now he’s primed and ready to flip the script. “I’m on the playing field of my life right now. I’m at the driving wheel of my creativity,” Rossdale says of having cooked up The Kingdom, one of the most hard-hitting, heavy and powerful albums of his band’s career. What sets Rossdale apart from many of his rock-icon peers is a supreme humility -- an awareness not only of his place in the music world but as an overall global citizen. Rossdale is nothing if not a fighter and, to that end, he says “the biggest achievement we’ve ever accomplished” is Bush’s longevity. And one needs to look no farther than their continually selling out large amphitheater’s and sheds across the world as to their sustained popularity. Most important to Rossdale, Bush have gotten to this place, he says, “by doing everything our way and not doing the things on paper that would otherwise make sense.”

Music has always been a release for Rossdale, and now as he reflects on a career that’s seen Bush sell close to 20 million records in the U.S. and Canada alone — as well as compiling an amazing string of 23 consecutive Top 40 hit singles on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, six of which shot to No. 1 — he says that passion remains the same. “That’s exactly what it still is,” he says of the way music can free his spirit. “It’s a rocket ship out of the madness. A way to get away from all those things that maul us down and hold us back.” At its core, Rossdale says, “Music is freedom to express yourself.”

That year Billboard ran a story about the band under the headline, “Like They Never Left” – a fitting title as the multi-platinum quartet (vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Gavin Rossdale, guitarist Chris Traynor, bassist Corey Britz and drummer Nik Hughes) promptly picked up where they left off. They’ve continued to dominate rock radio and play sold-out shows to audiences around the world ever since. Their latest album The Kingdom followed 2017’s Black And White Rainbows, which People magazine hailed as “a triumphant return.”

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