The Orange County Register (June 2nd 2016)
Gwen Stefani talks about her life and album before her tour kick-off
Gwen Stefani is ready to get in front of live audiences and share the music from her third solo effort, "This Is What the Truth Feels Like," which came out in March and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making it her first chart-topper as a solo artist.
On Wednesday, from the comfort of her Southern California home, Stefani participated in a teleconference with journalists from numerous media outlets to talk about her latest album, forthcoming tour, which kicks off in Massachusetts on July 12 and wraps up with two nights at the Forum in Inglewood Oct. 15-16. The 46-year-old singer discussed how recording her latest album was therapeutic for her given the events of the past year.
"I was trying to save my life and get through something I never thought I'd have to get through," Stefani said of working on the album.
Last year, as No Doubt embarked on a small trek of summer festival dates and the news broke of her split from her husband of 13 years, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, Stefani said that she was suffering in her own personal hell. She added that the songs that appear on "This Is What the Truth Feels Like" felt like God had handed them down to her to help her through the crazy times.
Even before then, she admitted to feeling insecure about her songwriting and felt a lot of pressure in between her second solo effort, "The Sweet Escape," in 2006 and No Doubt's 2012 record, "Push and Shove." She was trying to balance work life and motherhood and said she often felt guilty for "letting everyone down."
After taking a break to have her third child with Rossdale, Apollo, in 2014 she was offered a coaching gig on NBC's "The Voice," where she met her current beau, fellow coach and country music star Blake Shelton, who also serves as a muse for a bulk of the material on the new record.
"My confidence was coming back slowly," she said. "When my life unraveled last year ... it's like, sometimes really bad things happen just so really great things can happen. And I think that's what happened to me. It was like a wake-up call. It was like, 'Get back on track and stop being insecure about writing and your gift and what you're here for and stop being selfish and share what you've got.' That's when it was really hard because I just wanted to get under the covers and eat pizza and cry, but I went to the studio and that's 'This Is What the Truth Feels Like.' That's what this record is and that's what I'm going to celebrate when I get on tour."
Stefani said that getting back up, out on tour and in front of the fans that have supported her through thick and thin, feels satisfying and healing. She's been reaching out to fans on Twitter to find out which of the new songs to include in the set and promised lots of fun costume changes since "My whole life is 'What am I going to wear?'" she said.
Stefani also worked with music video director Sophie Muller, who has worked on numerous No Doubt and Stefani's solo music videos. They've been filming footage all over the country for visuals to go along with the songs that will be played on the giant screens during the tour. Muller also directed the video for her latest single, "Misery," which debuted earlier this week.
"She was the one person that I remember sitting here, being so embarrassed about my life and thinking 'God, you know, I have to turn this into something beautiful, I have to make art out of this somehow because if I do I know Sophie will be so proud of me,'" she said with a laugh.
"We got to do what we loved the most, which is fashion," she continued. "It was like an art project ... how many outfits and looks can we do in one day? It was kind of like doing a Vogue fashion shoot, but to music."
Reports that the tour is struggling to sell tickets in some markets were brought to light earlier this week as popcrush.com published screen grabs from Livenation.com showing lots of available seats for the first few dates of the jaunt. When a reporter asked about that concern, Stefani said that she didn't understand exactly what he was asking and a publicist intervened and moved the teleconference along.
Since Southern California, and specifically Los Angeles and Orange County, are Stefani's home turf, the two nights at the Forum in Ingewood have sold much better, though a large number of seats remain available for the second night.