Did you think Don’t Speak would become such a huge hit? Troy_McClure
I absolutely had no idea. It didn’t even represent what we were doing, because No Doubt were such an uptempo, live-energy band. Even the guitar solo has no business being in that song. The original version was written by my brother [Eric, keyboards], who lived at my grandparents’ house; after they passed away, it became the band house. He’d stay up all night eating peanut butter sandwiches, drinking milk and smoking cigarettes and go: “Oh, I wrote this last night.”
Then I ended up rewriting the lyrics and changing the whole song because Tony [Kanal, bass] broke up with me. It’s crazy, but that song really is the heartbeat of who I am and changed everything. After it came out, we were driving through Israel and these guards came up to the van with guns, which I’d never seen anywhere before. One of them looked in the van and started singing Don’t Speak to me. That soon became normal.
No Doubt covered Talk Talk’s It’s My Life after considering a version of the INXS song Don’t Change. Is there a studio version of that song gathering dust? McScootikins
No. We never recorded it. My memory is like the movie Finding Dory – everything erases! – but I do remember sitting with the band on [label boss] Jimmy Iovine’s little outdoor patio, talking about doing a cover. The rest of the band were against it, but we all thought It’s My Life would be OK. Even though I didn’t write the song, it’s very much my story – like it was written for me.
What did Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis think of the No Doubt version? Did you get to meet him? stephenw1979
I didn’t. I think he probably thought: thanks for the cheque, because he got paid twice. I don’t know what they thought of our version, but I’d be so happy if anyone covered any of our songs. It’s such a compliment and gives the song a new life.
What can you tell us about your Space Pants Saturday Night Live sketch? Segelov
Behind the scenes on that show is incredible. They come up with many more skits than they need and I shot a bunch of stuff that never came out. When I got asked to be on Space Pants, I was super nervous, because I’m not an actor and I’m a slow learner and live TV is hard. I was convinced I’d forget my lyrics, but I didn’t mess up and it was super fun. I loved the way the song rhymed “finale” with “Stefani”. I still have the pants in my closet.
What was it like in the early days in California with all those up-and-coming ska punk bands like Sublime? Do you miss Bradley Nowell? Are you in contact with his son, who has taken over from his father as lead singer? scroogemcgrew
It was a really exciting time in Orange County when all the UK ska stuff like the Specials, Madness and the Selecter was super underground in America and really inspired us. We ended up on the same bills with Sublime because we had the same vibe. Bradley was one of those people you meet that have a halo around them. He was super soulful with so much talent. It was devastating when his life was cut short [by a heroin overdose in 1996]. I do know his son. It was such a tiny part of my life, but I still get asked about it all the time because that band made such an impact. I’m happy for Bradley. I wish he was still here.
You mentioned once that you have seen wild and even traumatic things around you in the music industry. Do you want to address darker subjects in lyrics? alex111111
I don’t remember saying that, but I feel like I’ve had like a blessed experience. I was very naive and people say: “Oh, you were a female in the industry,” but I always had a voice and people wanted my opinions. Yes, they sent us back to the drawing board with an eight-track recorder and said: “Go back to your garage and write music.” But that just made us work harder. I have written a lot about my personal darkness. I have been through a lot of suffering, trying to find love, truth and an honest person.
My favourite song that you have written is Simple Kind of Life, as it feels amazingly honest and vulnerable. Does inspiration or perspiration make a great Gwen Stefani song? proevpete
That song is a gift from God because I just received it. I was just learning to play guitar, started strumming the chords and ran upstairs and said: “Guys, I think I just wrote a song!” It’s the only song I’ve ever written on my own or on guitar, but I love it. I can’t listen to the Return of Saturn album now because there’s too much PTSD and too much truth for me. I was revealing everything, yet at the time I couldn’t even see it, but I’m so happy that that song resonates with somebody.
What drew you towards flowers as inspiration for your new album, Bouquet? Kierralanni
Meeting my husband [country singer Blake Shelton] felt like a second chance at life, because when my family fell apart [Stefani was married to Bush’s lead singer, Gavin Rossdale, for 12 years; they have three children] it was a catastrophe. How do you pick yourself up from that? But God put this other person there to love me. I know this sounds weird, but Blake and I came together in gardening. We have a house together in Oklahoma and during the pandemic we came across this very old building on the land and there were some purple irises, which someone must have planted centuries ago, but they’ve survived. I wrote the song Purple Irises about that and how it feels to find true love and the insecurities of not wanting to lose it.
Bouquet is apparently influenced by “yacht rock”. What is yacht rock? kwakwa2
The music that I grew up on as a child – going to church in the back of the station wagon in the 1970s – was I guess what you would call classic rock, but then somehow it got this label of yacht rock: late 70s singer-songwriters, the Doobie Brothers and so on. Live music with background vocals. I really wanted to put these new songs in that kind of an atmosphere, to make it feel like there was no genre and there was no time. But there was no yacht! This album’s songs were written with pop writers and we were initially writing in a pop zone. But I felt like the songs were me going back to high school and trying to put on my prom dress and saying: “Here I am again!” Like, no, you can’t – you have to evolve. I wanted the songs, sonically, to represent more of who I am today.
Would you do an album of country duets with your husband? Keeganlynn
I would love to. I never listened to country music, so while Blake was super successful, I never even knew he existed before I met him. When he heard Purple Irises, he loved it so much he ended up singing on it. I love singing with him. He’s very humble and doesn’t realise how good he is. There’s something so attractive about that.
• Bouquet is released on 15 November on Interscope
