Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale joined Audacy’s Nicole Alvarez in Los Angeles this week to help host KROQ's 90's at Noon, and give fans an update as the band winds down their 2024 Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour.

LISTEN: Gavin Rossdale helps Nicole Alvarez with KROQ's '90's at Noon'

On the road since mid-July on their Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour, Bush will be wrapping it all up at L.A.’s Greek Theater on September 15. “It's literally one of my favorite venues,” Gavin tells us. “It's older, it's sort of got that wooden frame to it. You're nestled in, in Griffith Park.”

“I mean, music just has to be transcendent,” he explains. “It has to transcend us to somewhere different, and when you're in an environment like that, it just lends itself to just an explosive night of music.”

Getting into his DJ duties with Nicole today, Gavin chose to kick off the music portion with Bush’s classic, “The Chemicals Between Us.”

“First off, I'd say that it's not very English of me to present my own song first as my favorite… but I appreciate the fact you're playing it,” he laughs. “Anyway, what was weird about this song, I was thinking about it, was having done ‘Razorblade Suitcase’ and having really kind of explored that whole, really raw side of capturing the band that we did the record with Steve Albini -- that we should talk about as well because we love Steve -- something about ‘The Chemicals Between Us’ was this was one of the first attempts at trying to go somewhere different, and electrify it in a different way, and get away from the more raw approach… whether it worked or not.”

With the help of GRAMMY-winning producer Tom Elmhurst, “we just crafted something sort of a bit less raw, and just trying to make it go in a different direction. I called it ‘beeps and whistles’ at the time, but it was just a different vibe and still with a weird kind of concept about chemicals between people.”

Looking back on his history with KROQ, Gavin tells us, “They always say that it just takes one person or one entity to believe in you, you know, and all the naysayers can fall away.” After Bush’s 1994 debut, Sixteen Stone, dropped he says, “I was happy with it because I'd been an unsigned musician for a while and it was like, my legacy.” For months however, the album saw zero distribution.

“I was back at work, and I worked for four months,” Gavin remembers. “I was back painting, decorating, and doing all that… I painted 11 dentist offices in the west end of London, all the color of magnolia. In November, I got a call that my then record label said KROQ have picked up the song, this was ‘Everything Zen.’”

Back to his day job today, another choice pick from Gavin and his crew was Garbage’s “Stupid Girl.”

“You know, the best thing in music is attitude,” he explains, “and Shirley Manson, when I was asked to pick some songs from the ‘90s and who was one of the most important artists, I thought of Shirley and I thought of her power, and I thought of this song. I love this band.”

Alice In Chains also made Rossdale’s list, featuring his friend Jerry Cantrell, or “Cantr-Elvis” as he calls him. “First off, I got to say that when I had been in two bands before Bush, and the second band, I didn't play guitar in it. The guitar guy was a really good guitar player and he wanted to play guitar. Anyway, that band kind of went away, he left me,” Gavin says, “and I gotta just say how much that ‘Man In the Box’ was such a lighthouse for Rock music for me for just what was possible.”

“If you weren't going to be in a hair metal band, you know, where those guys sang, I didn't feel connected to them,” he explains. “But something about ‘Man In the Box’ had all that post-punk… really, just an amazing sound and that just set a template for so many of us that we're all in debt to that song.”

Gavin continues, “I hear it every night because he's on the road with me now, and I've actually sang on this song. When I was on tour with Alice In Chains, I sang this song and it was so cool because I'd be in the dressing room talking to people and they'd be saying something, I’d say ‘Listen, I gotta go, I gotta go sing for Alice In Chains,’ my favorite line. I’d just go around to stand next to people so I could say that to them.”

Reflecting on the past few months, “I'm super excited to have had the ‘Greatest Hits’ because I really learned that it's all about celebrating that time,” Gavin tells us, “and to be here now on this full circle thing is really incredible.”

“Something that for me personally, as a creative person, was important to me was, before we went on that tour, was to try and do a record, so that we weren't creatively bankrupt at the end of the tour,” he adds. “So, we did the record,” Gavin reveals. “I think it's called ‘I Beat Loneliness.’ I might change my mind but for now, that's what it is, ‘I Beat Loneliness’ and I'm so excited about it. It's just like a further continuation of our journey and trying to get better and sort of understand, I don't know, just get to the core of everything. It's a lot about people and interpersonal relationships and how we navigate all these mad challenges that I think that everybody is suffering a lot of the time and I find that writing songs that have a cathartic sort of release, and people find that, as I said before, that transcendence.”

Lastly, in honor of late Chicago music icon and producer Steve Albini, Gavin adds, “I just wanted to sort of pay homage to a great friend and an incredible recording engineer as I think he would like to be known as… he just passed away in November. It's been a terrible few months and it's just very upsetting, and I'm so happy we made a record with him. I'm so happy. I had a long friendship with him and I maintain a friendship with his wife Heather, and I'm just saying that so many musicians owe him such a debt.”

“I spoke earlier about Alice In Chains," he says, "but there's also the Pixies, 'Bone Machine' [from the Albini-produced Surfer Rosa]. Those records were the most informative records… just too many bands to choose from. So anyway, I love Steve and I wanted to pay my respects to him."

Don't miss Nicole Alvarez's full chat with Gavin Rossdale above -- and follow along with Bush More Than Machines Radio and more on the free Audacy app.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez