Gavin Rossdale is a proud papa, but when it comes to his kids, his rock star status doesn’t hold much weight.
“My kids don’t applaud me at all. Shocking,” Rossdale, 58, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, May 30, while promoting Bush’s new album, Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023. “I make these great dinners, big spreads, not one round of applause. I say, ‘Guys, somebody could do something, step it up.’”
The Bush frontman joked, “I mean, they just keep me as a caterer that I like to be.”
Rossdale revealed that even without their praise, he does like bringing his boys, Kingston, 18, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10, on tour with him because it’s the best of both worlds. (Rossdale shares his sons with ex-wife Gwen Stefani, whom he divorced in 2015.)
“When I’m on the road and without them — they’re the two best things in my life,” he shared. “So when I can combine them, I can sing and do my thing and have people applaud me. … I get the applause from out there [on stage] from people and I come back and I’m just with them.”
Rossdale, who also shares daughter Daisy, 35, with ex Pearl Lowe, noted that his sons “appreciate that I don’t suck” as a musician but they don’t have a favorite song from his catalog.
He explained that Zuma is “obsessed with guitar” like his older brother, Kingston, while Apollo is a piano enthusiast. Zuma, however, is the one who has started to show interest in Rossdale’s music recently.
“I’ll hear him playing ‘Glycerine.’ I hear him playing my song,” Rossdale told Us of his band’s 1994 hit. “And I feel that that’s a really, sweet, subtle way of connecting with me, but without having to say anything. … When they do things just of their own volition it is super cool and makes me so happy.”
The singer confessed that Zuma is “starting to play it better than I can,” which makes him feel like he’s passing the torch.
“I just want them to be proud of me,” Rossdale said of his children, revealing that his sons will be joining him on tour during their summer break.
During Bush’s upcoming Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour, the group will play at the PNC Banks Arts Center in New Jersey on Zuma’s 16th birthday.
“So we get to sing. He’s aware of it. He’s like, ‘We’re doing a cake,’” Rossdale shared. “It’s going to be really cool. So that’s a very special thing when I have my boys with me, and they’ll come out for a few weeks in the summer.”
In addition to celebrating summer on tour with his boys, Rossdale will be giving fans a trip down memory lane in concert. While the musician wasn’t initially excited to release a greatest hits record, he has since come around.
“It’s been great,” Rossdale told Us of putting the songs together for the album, which was released in November 2023. He noted that learning how much his lyrics “affect” fans was something he didn’t think about as an Englishman.
He teased that British people “don’t self-reference that much,” but this record made him stop and think. “The idea of being that self-referential is intense, but it’s been a beautiful thing because the music is in people’s DNA, so it’s really cool,” Rossdale added.
Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour kicks off on Saturday, June 1, in Pennsylvania and ends on Sunday, September 15, in Los Angeles.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
