Gavin Rossdale 'Excited' for Bush's Comeback

After an eight-year detour that saw him front the side project Institute and release a solo album, Gavin Rossdale is returning to Bush, hitting the stage at California's Epicenter Festival in September and releasing a new album, 'Everything Always Now,' this fall. Like many fans, Rossdale has been waiting for this moment for some time.

"My last show with Bush was, I think July 2002 and I didn't know at that point that it would take so long to return. Then when it started taking years, I wasn't sure how I'd ever get it back," Rossdale tells Spinner. "I've been waiting semi-patiently for eight years for the guys to join me to have that pristine reunion of the whole band and that very super Spinal Tap [moment] and really enjoy it, treasure it and savor it."

As Rossdale tells it, Bush was never supposed to break up. "It was really like we reached the point in 2002 where we needed a break and I thought that it would cool to do a side project band. Lots of my favorite bands did that, so I did Institute," he says. "It took a long time to come out and then it just dragged on and dragged on. By the time that was done and out it just seemed a far thing to do Bush. Then I tried, but Nigel [Pulsford, the original guitarist] didn't really want to travel, didn't really want to do it anymore."

But it was always Rossdale's intention to be the frontman for Bush again. In fact, "the 'Wanderlust' record was going to be a Bush record," he says, but his label talked him into doing it as a solo album when things lingered. While he had success with it, when it came time for 'Everything Always Now' he was determined it would be as a band, even if it's not the original quartet.

"When I began writing the new songs, I was thinking, 'Man, the biggest drawback about these songs is like coming out under my name. Why can't it be Bush?'" he wondered. "So I reached out again and got Robin [Goodridge, drummer]. I have Chris [Traynor, guitar], who played in the last six months of Bush, he's been with me ever since. I have Corey [Britz] on bass, who played with me on 'Wanderlust,' so it's kind of an extended musical family that I have around me anyway. I'm not getting any new guys in and I'm just doing the best I can. I'm excited about the record."

To Rossdale, it feels right to be making music as Bush again. "I just like the idea of operating under the name of Bush cause that's what I'm known by. Even after all these years that's still how I'm defined," he says. "For good or bad, that's my definition."