Rock ‘n’ repent. A veteran rockstar is baring his soul and spilling his sins in his latest album and a no-holds-barred interview.
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Gavin Rossdale’s 10th Bush album, I Beat Loneliness, released on July 18, is his “most personal record” yet, born from deep self-reflection and honesty.
On the track “We Are of This Earth,” Rossdale wrote “loads of clues” about the inner workings of his mind: “Anyone who wants to know me would find all the answers to my character at this moment in time by reading those lyrics,” he recently told PEOPLE, adding things he’s “written to my girlfriend [Xhoana X], things I’ve written to my ex.”
“When will I ever make my amends?” the rockstar croons at one point.
“A life well lived is a life where you’ve trodden and you’ve done things that you’re not proud of,” Rossdale pointed out.
“That’s such a beautiful learning curve. And ultimately, only death is the thing you can’t change,” Rossdale told the outlet. “When will I make amends? There’s tons of injustices I’ve done to people over the years. And if you take an honest reckoning of your life, you think of that.”
“If you’re not embarrassed by who you were a year ago, you’re not working on yourself,” the veteran rockstar added, tipping his hat to a quote by Alain de Botton called the “School of Life.”
Rockstar Wanted His Latest Record to ‘Speak to Everyone’
“Everyone is broken… or we’re all the same on the inside,” the 59-year-old continued.
“I wanted to make a record that really speaks to everyday people. Not to make a record of aspirations and good times. I’ve never been able to do that,” he added. “If you could make music that connects people or makes people not feel alone, I think that’s a really valuable contribution in this world.”
“There’s things, behavior, things can be inane from the biggest things to the smallest things. But I don’t live in the past, live in regret,” Rossdale said.
He refuses to dwell on the past or linger in regret, choosing instead to embrace the belief that everything unfolds for a reason.
“The best thing I could do is just be bone honest about myself and get in there. The funny thing is there’s a couple of places in there where I say how much help I need, and I haven’t had the help yet,” he explained.
Gavin Rossdale Says Nowadays That “Rock Music is Nothing”
Rossdale is grateful to still be a working musician. However, he’s not happy with the current state of rock music.
“I thought I’d be dead. But that’s it. Then you get there and go, ‘F—, we’re fine.’ And it’s just about being creative and interesting,” the rockstar reasoned. “I’m not in Coldplay, so I don’t have an exalted life… I get to play shows, be great, and then f—off, go somewhere else, do somewhere else, and I keep it really vital.”
“Rock music is nothing,” Rossdale added. “Back in the day when I began, rock music was the zeitgeist, the music that connected everyone. Now, it’s not that at all. And life is really fragmented. And so you just enjoy your algorithm, do the best you can, and try and sing in tune.”
The band kicked off their I Beat Loneliness tour on July 19, with performances set to culminate in a grand finale in London this November.