TODAY (Sept. 22nd 2014)

NBC’s hit vocal competition The Voice is back tonight

MATT LAUER: NBC's hit vocal competition The Voice is back tonight for a seventh season and it has a new leading lady on the coaches panel. Grammy winning superstar Gwen Stefani-- why don't I do that when they come up on me? She'll take her seat next to Adam, Blake and another first timer, Pharrell Williams. Gwen, good to see you. Good morning.

GWEN STEFANI (The Voice): Good to see you.

MATT LAUER: Welcome to the family.

GWEN STEFANI: Thank you. It's so-- what happened? Like all of a sudden, I'm on TV! Whoo.

MATT LAUER: I know.

GWEN STEFANI: It's like so crazy.

MATT LAUER: The big, dysfunctional family, you're part of it now. I'll introduce you to weird Uncle Al in a few minutes.

GWEN STEFANI: Okay.

MATT LAUER: Why now? Why did you decide to do a show like this?

GWEN STEFANI: You know what? It was all like spontaneous. Like I-- I didn't know I was going to have another baby. That was like a miracle like surprise blessing.

MATT LAUER: Seven months old now?

GWEN STEFANI: He's just turned six months, yep.

MATT LAUER: Okay.

GWEN STEFANI: And they called me like right after he was born and they were like Christina Aguilar is pregnant. Do you want to do the show? And I was like-- I was like, I just the hung the phone and after that I was like, my parents were over it and I was like, my life is so weird. And then it was filming like it was really, really quick.

MATT LAUER: I think I may have you told you this in an interview a long time ago, I have always been an enormous fan of yours.

GWEN STEFANI: How sweet.

NATALIE MORALES: No, seriously. When I first watched you with No Doubt, I thought, you seemed to me to be the kind of performer who could span generations. You had obviously a hard edge rocker side but you have a look and feel about you that could be almost from the forties and fifties. When you set out to find The Voice, are you looking for someone with that kind of range?

GWEN STEFANI: You know, I thought I was going to be looking for someone that was going to be really unique sounding. Like all the people that I love like growing up don't necessarily sing great.

MATT LAUER: Like who?

GWEN STEFANI: Someone like David Bowie.

MATT LAUER: Right.

GWEN STEFANI: He has a character voice. Do you know what I'm saying? But when you're there in the blinds and you're not seeing people and you're listening, sometimes those, kind of, incredible singers that maybe are soulful but I wouldn't think I would go for, I just couldn't deny it. And I was like, I have to press. So and I was just--because I can't do that. So I was like, you know--

MATT LAUER: And so you spin the chair around. And you know what happens on the show. Now sometimes after you spin the chair around, you then have to pitch that person to join the team Gwen. So let's pretend that I have just wowed you vocally. All right.

GWEN STEFANI: Okay.

MATT LAUER: I've wowed you just spun the chair around, pitch me to join team Gwen? Your best pitch.

GWEN STEFANI: Okay. What's up? Obviously you want to be with team Gwen. For that, you know, I can do this. No.

MATT LAUER: What can you do for me that the other coaches can't?

GWEN STEFANI: Well, you know this is the awkward part of the show. It's like I'm so great. But it's fun for me. Because I look back at all the things that I have done. And I'm like, wow, I have a lot of advice to give, like I've been in a band for, you know, since I was seventeen years old.

MATT LAUER: Right.

GWEN STEFANI: I've had so many different like varieties of being a band like I was in a garage band and then I was in a band that actually got on the radio, and then I went around the world on tour and then I did a solo career. And then you know I've recorded all these records. So there is a lot of advice to give to these people.

MATT LAUER: Did you have someone in the early days of your career who offered that advice to you. Did you have a mentor?

GWEN STEFANI: Not at all. Like it was just our procrastinations from going to school. Like it was what we loved to do, it was for fun and we were never trying to make it. Do you know what I mean? It was more about, this is super fun to do today, right now. And then we started getting more and you know we were nine years together doing that in the garage before we ever had any success. So you could tell we were doing it for fun, you know what I mean? And then I don't know how our quirky band got on the radio next to Nirvana at the time. You know what I mean? It was a really weird--

MATT LAUER: There's this recurring motif in your life. You are always going, I don't know how any of this happened.

GWEN STEFANI: I know who am I? How did this happen to me?

MATT LAUER: How are you going to handle doing this show, continuing musically and dealing with these three little boys. By the way, when Shakira was on here one time, she talking about sitting next to the other coaches. She says like dealing with little boys. You're used to it.

GWEN STEFANI: It's literally. No. Adam for sure. Except for its little boys but it's a little more X rated. Honestly, you guys get the like G-rated version on TV. It is crazy with those guys.

MATT LAUER: You can drag them to personnel if you want?

GWEN STEFANI: You know what, Adam is so inappropriate, it's crazy.

MATT LAUER: We're going to ask him that when he shows up. Congratulations--

GWEN STEFANI: Thank you.

MATT LAUER: --on everything.

GWEN STEFANI: It's so fun.

MATT LAUER: It's great to see you.

GWEN STEFANI: Yeah, you too.

MATT LAUER: And you can catch the season premiere of The Voice tonight, eight/seven Central time right here on NBC.

And we're back in fifteen seconds with an inside look at what makes Google go.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

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