Bush Frontman Gavin Rossdale Thrives to Please Old and New Fans

Loudwire recently spoke to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale in the midst of the band's tour promoting its new album 'The Sea of Memories.' Bush were obviously one of the biggest bands of the mid-'90s alt rock zeitgeist, as 1994's gazillion seller 'Sixteen Stone' yielded hit after hit after hit. While much of their original devotees are chipping away at mortgages and middle management gigs at this point, Rossdale isn't daunted by the common band task of retaining its initial fanbase and finding a new one!

"The challenge is to find a way to get both," the good-natured, cheeky and wickedly funny British singer told us. "When I was making the record, I had both elements in mind. I wanted to make sure that people who liked Bush before would be far from disappointed and it was essential to make a record to give to someone who never heard of Bush, or who was not old enough to care about music, and have them say, 'No, this is really great.' Big, huge bands are cross-generational."

Rossdale illustrated that point, saying, "I remember when I was on tour with U2, they had that. I am sure they felt 'bad' hearing fans say, 'I loved you since the '80s.'"

Rossdale joked that he wants to "be greedy and have both" and that he thinks any band can satisfy all factions of fans simply by crafting songs that connect with people. "Last night was a young crowd, I was so happy," he said. "It had the combination."

Rossdale also reveals that he had no recent plans to retire the Bush name, start something else or go solo, since, well, he's already done that! "I did [post-Bush band] Institute and that was intriguing and fun and I loved that record and had an amazing time," Rossdale admitted. "Then, I was like 'Okay, when do I go back to my real world and my day job?' Especially after the solo thing! Now, all I am doing is Bush. I don't care. I am never doing anything else. I was realizing that it wasn't fair in a sense. I worked so hard to build the band with the other guys and any one of us should continue it on. It was our life's work. I am happy to do that, which I love. I couldn't feel more right." Even though other key members of Bush have moved on, like guitarist Nigel Pulsford, Rossdale is soldiering on.

Even though Rossdale has been playing songs from 'Sixteen Stone' for over 16 years, he's hardly fatigued by continued renderings of 'Glycerine' or 'Machine Head' or 'Everything Zen!' He joked, "I don't have that 'too cool for the school that is my catalog' issue. Of course, I love to play news songs and we play six or seven but I could never thank those songs enough. It's not like, 'Oh, those songs got me here and got the crowd here, so I need to be so mad at that song!"

Bush's current tour with Filter and Chevelle continues through an Oct. 28 show in San Antonio, Texas.