![]() I ask the guys how things have changed for the band since those days, and Young says, “Kids.” All four bandmates are married, with eight children between them. When No Doubt’s last album, Rock Steady, came out in 2001, there was no Twitter, no Facebook, no YouTube people were still buying CDs at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. I’m chasing it, I don’t know why I think about it a lot Better hurry, running out of time I think about it a lotĭuring a break, Stefani’s acupuncturist, Moses, has turned up at the studio to work on her neck, and so I head outside and sit in the sun at a round picnic table with Dumont, Kanal, and Young. ![]() “This is going to be really loud.” They lean into “Looking Hot,” easily the best song on the album, one that reminds you that for all of her rock-star swagger, Gwen Stefani has always had a certain amount of existential angst about her life-questioning her pursuit of fame, her vanity, and even herself. The chairs are cleared away, the amps are turned up. Suddenly, Stefani decides they need to get out of their seats and go full tilt. The band plays a few of the new songs, one called “Sparkle,” which Stefani wrote years ago and is classic No Doubt, and another called “One More Summer,” a wistful tune that verges on treacly soft-rock. (For a while there, with all the florid melodrama laid bare in songs like “End It on This” and “Happy Now?,” it felt as if they were vying to be their generation’s Fleetwood Mac, Tragic Kingdom their Rumours.)Īs the old familiar songs pile up, Stefani begins to sway in her chair-singing more forcefully, actually moving her head a bit-while her neuroses come into sharper focus through the lyrics: a fixation on the passage of time regret over the paths not taken a longing for a simpler life. Stefani didn’t start mining her life for material until the band’s 1995 breakthrough album, Tragic Kingdom, which sold 17 million copies worldwide on the back of the smash hit “Don’t Speak,” which she famously wrote about the humiliation of being dumped after a seven-year relationship with Kanal while they remained together as bandmates. What’s also striking is how deceptively clever so many of those early songs are-how excellently they rock, how well they hold up. And when she is sitting still and singing softly, it can really stop you in your tracks. This is a No Doubt song, and that is Gwen Stefani’s awesomely weird plucked-rubber-band voice: bwouwayng-a-wayng-a-wayng! Hers is not a subtle instrument, but there is so much character in it-she can effortlessly telegraph ironic brattiness or howling indignation or coy sweetness-that you don’t mind its limitations. If one of the hallmarks of a great rock band is that you instantly know it when you hear it, then No Doubt clears that hurdle easily. “Do we have a book of lyrics so he can follow along?” A notebook with lyrics is produced. “Can we get him a headset and connect it to my mic?” A techie appears and wires me up. As Stefani pulls up a folding chair and straddles it backward, she looks over at me leaning against a giant speaker and begins to dote. Though she is dressed in black leggings and lace-up oxblood Doc Martens boots-in other words, ready to rock-the band has decided to take it easy and sit in chairs arranged in a circle for a quiet, almost acoustic run-through. But sometimes I think, God, what did I do in my sleep? I slept too much. “A lot of muscles get used when we are playing. After 26 years as the lead singer of No Doubt-a quarter century of whipping and snapping that pretty little head around onstage like a nunchuck-she is finally beginning to show some wear and tear. (If you are feeling anything less than hella good about yourself, do not Google “Gwen Stefani’s abs.”) The reason she is bummed about her neck is that she can barely move it. And like the rest of her body, it does not look even remotely like that of a woman who just turned 43. Far from it: Her neck is very much on display in her husband Gavin Rossdale’s droopy black tank top. ![]() She’s not wearing turtlenecks or anything. Whether at home with her boys or on the road with No Doubt, Gwen Stefani proves she’s still the first lady of rock. ![]() ![]() Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane silk blazer, scarf, blouse with ruffle detail, wool vest, trousers, and felt hat. “What sets Gwen apart for sure from the Katy Perrys, the Taylor Swifts, is that she fronts a rock band,” says No Doubt member Tom Dumont. ![]()
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