Gavin Rossdale & Chris Traynor at NRG last night.

Bush's Photos - Wall Photos-Hands on. G

Facebook post-Chris Traynor's Photos - Wall Photos

Camping with Puma Rose and some close friends on Catalina Island this week. This is shortly before I got made fun of for bringing flavored coffee and a stainless steel french press with me.

Carlos Santana Reaches Guitar Heaven with Gavin Rossdale, India Arie

No one in what’s left of the music business still does this: Clive Davis and his Arista Records family brought the world to Las Vegas yesterday and launched Carlos Santana’s latest creation, an album of the greatest guitar songs featuring a panoply of stars.

Santana is in the middle of a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel’s venue, called The Joint. So rather than wait for the famed musician and his band to be in New York or L.A., Davis invited the business and the media to the sizzling desert (one hundred and six degrees in the shade).

Santana’s album is stuffed with superstar singers, of course. Several of them made the trip, including Gavin Rossdale, India.Arie, and Chris Daughtry. The former turned out to be the biggest surprise simply because his career has been so lackluster since his monumental success fifteen years ago with the group Bush. But Rossdale was a standout in concert, belting out T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get it On)”–which is on the album–and then leading Santana through their classic cover of “She’s Not There.”


Arie–a remarkable singer who’s vastly underrated–soared as she performed George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” while Santana’s mournful guitar punctuated her vocals. Harrison’s widow, Olivia, was in the audience, and couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. “Guitar” is the first single off the new Santana album.

Other guests at the show included famed singer Mary Wilson of the Supremes, and NBA legend Bill Walton.

If you haven’t seen a Santana show — I hadn’t in at least ten years– last night’s two hour extravaganza was simply stunning. The dozen or more musicians led by the ever youthful and spiritual Carlos come on at full blast, as if they had already built up a steamroller of energy–with “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va.” It’s quite remarkable that in two hours there is never a flagging moment.

At the press conference a couple of hours earlier in the Hard Rock, meantime, Davis presented several of the tracks from the new album to the press, with Santana and his producers present. I thought it was interesting that the now 78 year old legendary record exec still has more passion for the music and the songs than any of the remaining youngsters who’ve turned the record business into a calamity. If nothing else, he’s the equivalent of I.M. Pei, an architect who sees how every landmark must be built in order for people to notice it.

Davis was a little defensive at one point. He noted that sometimes he’s criticized for putting together these superstar albums with “cover” songs. He calls choosing them and the singers “Casting.” “I believe in the copyright,” he said, which was kind of interesting: when you hear the songs he and Santana and the producers have chosen, like “Bang a Gong” or van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away,” for the star to, as Davis said, “Santana-ize,” you realize they’re picking cool gems from the rock and roll canon. They’re not going to find new songs, sadly, that will measure up.

PS Other stars feaured on “Guitar Heaven,” which is released on September 21st: Rob Thomas, Pat Monahan, YoYo Ma, Scott Stapp, and Scott Weiland.


http://www.showbiz411.com/2010/08/26/carlos-santana-reaches-guitar-heaven-with-gavin-rossdale-india-arie

Bush's Gavin Rossdale to Perform T. Rex Cover w/ Santana + More

[blabbermouth.net] BUSH singer/songwriter/guitarist Gavin Rossdale will perform with Carlos Santana this Wednesday, August 25 in Vegas for an event to celebrate the guitar legend's new album, "Guitar Heaven… The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time". Rossdale, who makes a guest appearance on the LP, will join Santana for a new rendition of the T.REX hit "Bang A Gong".

"Guitar Heaven… The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time" arrives in stores September 21.

Later this fall, BUSH will release "Everything Always Now,", the band's first new studio album in nine years. The CD was produced by Bob Rock.

On September 25, BUSH (Rossdale, guitarist Chris Traynor, drummer Robin Goodridge, bassist Corey Britz) will perform lead single "Afterlife" and preview additional music from the album during their much-buzzed-about performance at Epicenter Twenty Ten in Los Angeles.

Over the course of their remarkable career, BUSH has sold more than 16 million albums in the U.S. and Canada alone. They've also compiled an amazing string of 14 consecutive Top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, including ten that hit the Top 5. Four of these became No. 1 hits: "Comedown", "Glycerine", "Swallowed" and "The Chemicals Between Us".
http://www.explodinginsound.com/2010/08/bushs-gavin-rossdale-to-perform-t-rex.html

Gavin Rossdale, Uncensored

Thought the Bush era was over? You weren't alone. But after eight years and two kids, the 45-year-old frontman is getting the band back together.
By Jonah Weiner,Photograph by Theo Wenner
August 11, 2010


Details: While you were waiting for Bush's first album to be released in 1994, you worked a string of crappy jobs.
Gavin Rossdale: After we'd finished Sixteen Stone, Hollywood Records told us it had no singles, and no album tracks either. It was just a mess of sound. They dropped Bush before the album even came out. So I did painting jobs in London: I had to paint 12 identical dentists' offices with this nasty peach color. It was total Kafka. That was crushing. Interscope finally picked us up, and I was still painting dentists' offices when the album hit.

Details: Your ancestral surname is Rosenthal. What's the most Jewish thing about you?
Gavin Rossdale: My father was a lapsed Jew, but my grandfather was practicing, so he used to do the Friday-night thing. I love the culture of it, the tradition, the theatricality, the funny outfits, the buildings, the history. I'm half Jewish, half Scottish, so I have a bizarre obsession with being generous, because one of the stereotypes leveled at Scots and Jews is the inability to share. I'm fighting the good fight.

Details: You met your wife, Gwen Stefani, while touring with No Doubt in 1995. Do you remember your first date?
Gavin Rossdale: I threw a party in New Orleans just as an excuse to hang out with her. We drank a bunch of hurricanes and went around the French Quarter. We had our first kiss that night, just walking around, being careful to step over the puddles of pee. The next day we had that sort of cute, embarrassed, sober meet-up.

Details: You have two sons together—Kingston, 4, and Zuma, 2. Who's on diaper duty at home?
Gavin Rossdale: Whoever's nearest, really. We have good people around us. If there's no one there, I can do it, but otherwise I sort of slide away—I get very interested in my BlackBerry at that point. A friend once told me, "By the way, they never thank you for changing their diapers when they grow up, so don't sweat it." I thought it was good advice.

Details: Is it true you and Gwen bathe together to conserve water?
Gavin Rossdale: The first half is true, maybe not the latter. Or, the ecological benefits are a healthy consequence.

Details: Keep your romance alive, save the planet?
Gavin Rossdale: Exactly! And stay clean! But no, we don't stage bath-ins.

Details: How do you explain the paparazzi to Kingston now that he's old enough to understand?
Gavin Rossdale: We haven't found the words to explain it. I'll want to take my kid to the beach, and there's six grown men chasing us. He's running around in his underwear as every child should, and I have to go up to them and say, "Can you not photograph my son running around in his underwear?" The pictures show up anyway. He went through a really angry stage. He'd scream at them, "Get away! Don't take a picture of my mom!" They'd say, "Wow, Kingston's really moody." You're a fucking grown man running after a 4-year-old! What do you want him to do?

Details: In 2004, you learned you have a daughter, the now 21-year-old model Daisy Lowe. How do you shift from being a dad to toddlers to being a dad to an adult?
Gavin Rossdale: With the boys it's traditional: I'm all they know, and I'm with them all the time. With Daisy, I don't know her in that context. The way I nurture those boys, I never got a chance with Daisy. I love my connection with her, but I don't have any say in who she is. With the boys it's my job to correct them and shape them. With Daisy, I just have to be respectful. I suppose it's more like a friendship.

Details: Last year, the cross-dressing pop singer Marilyn revealed that he was romantically involved with you in your teens—an assertion Boy George first made in 1995. Why haven't you talked about those claims?
Gavin Rossdale: I think at the outset there was a sort of fear—that was right at the beginning of Bush, and I didn't want it to be part of it. It felt like a cheap shot, so I was like, "I'm not getting involved." I've never wanted to appear closed about it. It's not something I've talked about really because it's always been in the glare of a tabloid world. It's just one of those things: Move on. When you're 17, Jesus Christ. I don't think there's anything strange about any form of—you're learning about life. It's a part of growing up. That's it. No more, no less.

Details: So it was just a one-time experimentation?
Gavin Rossdale: Yeah. That was it. You have to know what you like, and I know what I like.

Details: You play tennis regularly with your friend Roger Federer. Ever come close to beating him?
Gavin Rossdale: No, it doesn't really work like that! With Roger, my fun is just to hit with him enough so it's a workout for him. That's my Wimbledon: to hit with Roger and not waste his time. I've scored points on him, of course. If you hit a good serve, you could take out anyone in the world. But can you do it over five sets? Probably not.

Details: The music industry is in a tailspin, and rock sales are especially grim. Why on earth did you think this would be a good time to reunite Bush?
Gavin Rossdale: I'm a creative person—I need to be doing this. I don't think I'll scale the giddy heights of before. The market's not there, the outlets aren't there. But I think there'll be an audience for it. It's nerve-racking because I'm not expecting anyone to care; I have no sense of entitlement. But I do know I'm a better singer, a way better guitar player, and a better songwriter. It just comes down to "How good can you be?"

Details: Did you have any reservations about reviving the Bush name when only two original members—you and drummer Robin Goodridge—returned?
Gavin Rossdale: I had to offer the album to those guys. I rang them up and said, "I really want to do this. I've waited patiently for seven years, and now I realize I'm forsaking my own potential. I have to do it. I can't survive making music under my solo name." And I got two blessings and one acceptance. I can't believe they didn't want to do it. I just don't get it. But sometimes it's hard to see outside the prism of your own vision.

http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/music-and-books/201011/bush-frontman-lead-singer-gavin-rossdale-interview-gwen-stefani