Dr Drew (Spring 2000)

Stellar Success

After kicking around the Orange County scene for nearly a decade, losing one founding member to suicide and another to a proper job and releasing a major label debut that was an outright flop, no one could have predicted No Doubt would ever amount to anything.

But everything changed in 1995, when the band released its spastic ska-funk-and-rock infused sophomore album, Tragic Kingdom. Spawning the hit singles "Just A Girl," "Don't Speak," and "Sunday Morning," the disc went on to sell 15 million copies worldwide.

Needless to say, the unexpected success wreaked havoc on the four members of the band--singer Gwen Stefani, bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young. They toured for nearly three-years straight, only to come home to find their personal lives turned upside-down. The turbulence is detailed on No Doubt's new album, Return of Saturn. Now fully recovered and doing well, Young explained the perils of fame to us at his Long Beach home.

drDrew.com: So I hear you finally got married.

Adrian Young: Yeah, I got married January 16. It was a short engagement. I proposed in October, so we went right into it.

drDrew.com: Did you want to make sure you got married before the band set out on tour?

AY: That's absolutely true. We're going to be on the road another year and a half promoting this record. I don't want to be engaged another year and a half. I was ready to get married when I asked her, so I wanted to do it before we left.

drDrew.com: You're ready to give up all the groupies?

AY: I've definitely done the single thing. I've gotten my fruits and eaten them on the road, so to speak. That was great. But spending so much time together and being on the road together as well, you get to know someone really well. I just felt like I was happy and didn't want to look elsewhere.

drDrew.com: Are you thinking about having a family?

AY: Yeah, maybe when all this is over.

drDrew.com: How would you describe the last five years of your life?

AY: I don't think anybody can be ready for what we went through, but you get used to it. If it had happened on our first record we would have been that much less prepared maturity-wise for it. We've been together for so long that definitely helps us handle it. A lot of bands that get that big that fast off one record can't handle it. We're grounded enough to handle it.

drDrew.com: What was the hardest thing to deal with when the band became popular?

AY: There wasn't any one thing, really. The whole thing is such an alternate reality, it doesn't feel like real life. It's just a mishmosh [sic] of weirdness and dreamlike shit.

drDrew.com: Did people treat you differently back home?

AY: That's true. At first I hated it. You really feel everyone around you looking at you differently. There's an awareness factor that was not there before, but I've learned to get used to it. A lot of people know how to back [away a bit] and treat us normal.

drDrew.com: Do people go out of their way to tell you they hate No Doubt?

AY: I would expect to get it more than I do, but it doesn't happen that often. I know people think it. There was this one time I was at a party in Long Beach. I was standing outside talking to my friend, and this girl comes up to me and says, "I don't like Gwen." I said, "Well, do you
know her?" She goes, "No, I just don't like her." I said, "How can you not like her if you don't know her." She goes, "She just seems like blah, blah, blah." I said something like "If you don't know her, why the fuck are you telling me this for? I didn't ask for your opinion." She walked away. I was pissed off. At the end of the night, she was sitting on some guy’s lap making out with him. I look at her and said, "In case you were wondering, you're a fucking asshole." Then I looked at the guys and said, "When you're fucking her tonight, give a couple extra pumps for me." I don't know what that meant, but it sounded good. It's amazing how stupid people can be.

drDrew.com: Has the money changed your life?

AY: I don't think the money has changed my life, but I think getting older and having success naturally changes things. There's a certain innocence that's gone. You can't fake it, and you can't go back to it. Obviously, my living conditions have changed dramatically.

drDrew.com: Is it weird looking at Gwen as a celebrity?

AY: Sometimes it's a little funny. There was a point during Tragic Kingdom when it was bad. The press often doesn't want to talk to guys. They don't want to have anything to do with us. We accept that as a reality. That's fine. But when we go into interviews, we don't want to waste our time or be made to feel bad. It's like going to a party and forcing yourself on a girl who doesn't want you. It's like that when you walk into an interview, and it's obvious that the interviewer doesn't want to talk to you. You just have this awful feeling that you're forcing yourself upon the girl. I don't think anybody needs the ego boost or anything like that. We're here to work.

drDrew.com: How did her relationship with Gavin Rossdale [from Bush] affect the band, especially her relationship with bassist Tony Kanal, who is also her ex-boyfriend?

AY: I'm sure it was difficult at first, but we didn't talk about it a lot. We had our own shit to deal with, which was everyone becoming popular and things becoming more complicated. But as far as Gavin goes, we're all friends with him, including Tony. I like the guy.