The Daily Record (July 16th 2002)

Groupies and Me, By Gwen

The unofficial queen of last weekend's T in the Park Festival - No Doubt's Gwen Stefani - has spoken about how she deals with the bane of every rock star's life - tour groupies.

Referring to her song Hey Baby, from the band's new album Rock Steady, she says: "It's basically about my point of view being in the band and being backstage on tour and just seeing what goes on between the guys and the girls and watching the development of the guys' behaviour back there.

"And I have a weird point of view because usually groupies or fans/ girls are going out with the guys in the band to seduce them, or be with them so they can tell everybody they were with them.

"This is something that's been going on forever. But being the female in the band, they can't really do that to me.

"Of course, someone might try, but it's just a weird perspective to be in because I don't really have guys coming up to me trying to hook up. It just doesn't happen.

"So I just wanted to write a song about a fun version of being backstage and seeing the stuff that goes on back there."

And Gwen revealed that she is at ease with the thought of similar shenanigans going on backstage with her boyfriend Gavin Rossdale's group, Bush perform.

She said: "Of course, I go out with them once in a while and I get to see it first-hand. It's an interesting concept. But music is so powerful and it's such a gift and it just really makes people react funny. People really love having music in their lives.

"And for girls, music has a sexuality to it. So everything kind of all emerges together at that point. They can't help themselves. There are a lot of interesting people you meet onstage."

And she denied that she and Gavin are in competition.

She said: "You can't really compete because we're lovers and we're together forever and they're doing rock music, we're doing a totally different kind of music. But it's been a cool year for us, because we really got to spend a lot of time together.

"He did a lot of his record in LA and I did a lot of my record in London, so we were both together a lot. And I feel like I have two records coming out.

"It's weird, because I'm so part of the whole process and literally part of the lyrics.

"It's fun because you can play each other your new songs and you can see how they developed in the studio and with the producers. I've sung on a few of his tracks on the last record. We ended up doing a song together on stage in London, which was fun,but was actually kind of awkward.

"The new one he didn't want me to sing on because I've been on everyone else's record.

"I'm played out now. I'm like the side sausage. We've never been too creative with each other as far as collaborating, but hopefully in the future.

"It will come naturally when it happens. Now we just give each other opinions about certain songs and show our support."

And Gwen revealed she and the group still get a thrill from the rock and roll process of recording and touring.

She said: " I think the recording process and the writing process are becoming more and more fun and we're better at it, and the touring process is becoming harder and harder. And it's harder to kind of live the lifestyle once you've done it for a longtime.

"Leaving home and being away and not seeing your family, it's just such an extreme way to live."

"But I'm still looking forward to touring. I just wish we didn't have to do it for so long. It's like having too much of a good thing.

"If you love to eat chocolate but you just eat too much and you get sick, that's how touring is for me.

"The boys kind of keep me sane. You'd think they would make me insane. But it's so weird. I honestly can say they're my best friends and when we're not on tour that's one thing we did on this record differently.

"When we weren't on tour and we were writing, we went out every night and we went clubbing and dancing. We acted like we were on tour still, but we incorporated that.

"The daytime, we would spend writing and the night time we would go out and celebrate. So it kind of kept a really cool flow happening."