YM (March 2001)
Gwen is queen of cool!
Anyone who says being a rock star is a boys-only deal can kiss Gwen’s butt. After wowing crowds for 14 years, No Doubt’s outrageous star answers ym readers’ burning questions.
What the world needs now is more rockstars. Or, to be precise, more rock stars like Gwen Stefani.
Whether she inspires you to max out your girl-power side or just dye your hair hot pink, Gwen has a knack for pushing people to be a little more fabulous. She’s got all-out energy in performances and amazing personal style – who else could start a bindi craze or get braces just for the fun of it?
“Why do the good girls always want the baaaaaad boys?” she purrs to the audience during her performance of “Bathwater” at the My VH1 Awards show, her tight platinum curls, blazing red lips and belly-baring blue sailor suit popping out in the sea of dancers waving gold pom-poms. After the performance, she hops back to her trailer, which is nestled between Creed’s and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’. A fur-coated Macy Gray stops her after performance to say hi.
The crazy part is that in real life Gwen’s actually a 180 from her public persona. So watching her at the VH1 Awards, it’s hard to believe this was the girl who showed up to our shoot the day before in a pink hoodie and baggy pants, her hair dragged back into a casual ponytail. “I can’t believe this is my life,” she says. “How did this happen?”
Here’s how: No Doubt formed in the mid ’80s and struggled for years to get their generally happy music heard in a time when radio was whining through all the angst the grunge scene could pump out. Gwen recalls, “We didn’t care that we were kind of the nerd band for a lot of years. We had to do it.” The band didn’t have a hit until they released their third album, Tragic Kingdom, in 1995 – the one with “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak.”
But in addition to chart success, No Doubt’s hot lead singer inspired a wave of Gwenabes who copied her kick-ass tomboy meets gorgeous-girlie style. Even up through the release of the band’s latest record, Return of Saturn, pretty much anyone you asks still seems to agree that Gwen’s cool. “Everyone always says I’m a role model, but I don’t take it on,” she says. “I’m just trying to get through like everyone else.”
Well, “everyone else” is pretty intrigued. Right before her Fashionably Loud sound check at MTV, Gwen’s taking a breather in her New York hotel suite overlooking Central Park. She pauses over the gourmet chocolates the hotel has laid out on a table to grab a water bottle, and hands me one, too. (Later she tries to foist her chocolates on me so they won’t tempt her.) Sitting in her rock-star suite, I tell her that hundreds of ym readers posted questions for her on our website. She leans forward in her chair. “That’s crazy. What do they want to know?”
As a teenager, were you as creative and unique as you are now? – HOPE STEINMANN-IACULLO, 13, Staten Island, NY
I would have been considered the least likely one to be doing this. A lot of rock stars come from those dark places and it seems like it’s a prerequisite, but I grew up in a normal, traditional Catholic family. I feel really lucky to have had that.
In school I was always passive. I wasn’t a cheerleader or in the choir. I was really bad at school. I struggled really hard with math and spelling (and still do). I hated it in a lot of ways. I didn’t have a lot of friends; I was a one-on-one kind of person. The only thing I got into was art class, because I could draw. I was also really dependent on my boyfriend for my happiness. My personality and goals were pretty much surrounding him. After he broke up with me was when I wrote all those songs – “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak.” That gave me a lot of power and confidence because it was a creative thing I didn’t realise I had in me.
When you perform you exude a sense of individualism and a strong personality. Does this come naturally to you? – REBECCA WEBB, 18, Perth, Australia
When I first started performing, I didn’t know what I was doing but I knew I really liked it. It evolved naturally. I get on stage and it’s definitely another side of me. I don’t walk into a party and become the loud one taking up all the space in the room. On stage I can go into a whole other world and I love when that happens. It’s like I’m watching myself from the outside.
There are those horrible nights when I feel fat and ugly or like a dork. I can do everything – eat right, work out, not talk a lot, stretch – but it’s just the worst show. Or I’m on my period feeling like I can’t believe I have to do this. And then. Whack!, the audience throws me into shape and I come off in a great mood.
Who were your musical inspirations as a kid? – SARAH MYERS, 17, Iowa City IA
There were a couple of people I looked up to, Angelo Moore from Fishbone and Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers - the bands I used to go and see when I was in high school – were larger than life, in control of everyone there, including me. I can remember just being mesmerized by their energy and the way you could get seduced by them. I thought, God, if I could do that…
How did you get into music? – BRITTANY JIBBY, 14, San Jose, CA
It was just a group of friends who liked the same music and wanted to be in a band because we were so fired up by the bands we loved. My older brother, Eric, started the band. He was really talented and I lived through him, so that’s how I got into it.
Why’d you dye your hair pink? – ELIZABETH LAGNO, II, New York
I saw a poster of this ’50s girl with light-pink cotton candy hair and I was like, “Oh! I want to do that someday!” I finally did it because I was depressed – we thought our record was done, but then we had to write three more songs. Plus, I had just turned 30, and maybe me and boyfriend were fighting. It ended up way brighter and more hot pink than I was expecting. I never intended to keep it, but I really loved it and then I kept it for a year.
What hair dye did you use to get that awesome shade of pink? – KATHY BYCZKOWSKI, 16, Chicago
My friend dyed it for me and used Fudge and Manic Panic.
Where do you get your fashion ideas? – KRISTINA ROGERS, 13, San Jose, CA
Really it’s whatever fits or makes me look the hottest. All sorts of things inspire me, but often I copy everyone else. I’ll see a cool girl on the street or go to concerts and copy girls who copy me. Girls will looks o good with my old hair and I’ll be like, “I’m doing that again!” As far as stars, Deborah Harry was so ahead of her time with the whole girl-in-a-guy’s-world thing. Madonna’s amazing – I think my favorite period is the “Borderline” phase. And Björk is so creative and unique. I’ve copied her loads of times.
Are you still going out with Gavin Rossdale? – CASSIE DOLL, 16, Lawrenceville, GA
Yes. He definitely understands my passion, and we enjoy each other’s music and inspire each other to keep going. That’s cool to be able to talk about. The only hard thing is there’s not enough room for each other in our lives a lot of times. Like if he were just a normal guy he could come hang out with me in the studio. We are both so passionate about what we do, so that’s the one hard part we’re trying trying to learn how to deal with. But we’ve made it for five years, so who knows what’s gonna happen.
How do you deal with your relationship being in the spotlight? – LESLIE KETTERMAN, 16, Angleton TX
Compared to my last relationship, it’s been a lot more private because giving up everything about Tony and me was really hard. People don’t know the whole story, they know like 14 songs of it, I started to feel like if I tell everything then we’re like Barbie and Ken – it cheapens what my real relationship is.
However, there are a lot of pretty straightforward songs about Gavin on the record. I don’t try to edit myself. We give each other the freedom to write whatever we want. Certain things are like, “WHAT? You write that?” But we both understand where it comes from.
When we go out in public we have fun. We were at Universal Studios CityWalk and kids were everywhere – we like running into them because they gave us our life. We would have never met each other. It’s pretty amazing, and we feel really lucky.
Do you put your own ideas in your videos? – LEIGH ANN METZLER, 16 Ocean City, NJ
I always have an idea of what I want to be. For “Ex-Girlfriend,” I knew I wanted braids. In my high school there was this girl Mercedes that I wanted to look like in that video. She had white skin, reddish-blond hair, skinny eyebrows, and really red lipstick. She’d put powder on during the whole of class and never take off her mascara – she’d pick her eyelashes apart with safety pins because she’d just keep putting on more mascara.
The “Simple Kind of Life” bride character was based on a John Galliano fashion show with Kate Moss in these huge dresses. And in the “Bathwater” video, I wanted to be more what I was on the VH1 Awards, like Liza Minelli in Caberet, but it just kept changing.
How did you get to work with Moby on the “Southside” video? – JENNIFER RIVERA-VEGA, 14, Philadelphia
When he asked me to do it, I don’t think many people knew who he was. He was very underground. I didn’t even really know who he was but my boyfriend was into him. And out of all the girls in the world, he called me to come sing. I felt very flattered; he’s a really sweet guy. I sang a bunch of stuff on the track, and then he didn’t even use it on his album. i was heartbroken and he sent me a basket of soaps. But then he did a remix and asked if I wanted to do the video and I love doing videos. I’m usually colourful and cartoony in my own videos, but they wanted me to be the extreme of that. I was a little concerned I was going to be mocking myself. The video is kind of silly and I originally thought it would be more serious, but it came out awesome.
What is it like hanging out with guys 24/7? – JESS ROSE, 13, Oldsmar, FL
I’m always on tour with all my boys. For the My VH1 Awards, I had dance rehearsals with all the girls and we had so much fun. I miss out because I don’t do that often. But there’s definitely a difference between girls who hang out with girls and girls who hang out with guys. The guys in the band are my best friends. Once in a while I feel a little left out when they become extreme guys, trying to womanize. On our tour we had an after-party every night. I kind of didn’t fit in because it was all these girls who just wanted to be with the guys. They’d want to hang out with me, but couldn’t seduce me so they didn’t know what to say to me. It’s really awkward.
Do you face discrimination as one of the few girls in the punk music scene? – CHRISTINA NOEL JETER, 17, San Diego
Early on it was definitely weird because there weren’t a lot of other girls in bands where I lived, especially in the ska scene. The people who worked at the clubs just assumed I was a tagalong girlfriend or a groupie. I’d get up on stage and the audience was just like, “Show me your tits!” I had nothing to show anyway! But they’d be aggressive and that was a challenge. We had to really prove ourselves. Then after the show they’d be like, “You were great!” My whole goal was to get up there and not be a girl or a guy, but just get the audience off and make sure there were still guys in the pit. That made me feel really good.
What do you think of the music that’s out now? – SARA BEESLEY, 15, Marblehead, MA
These days it’s kind of depressing – I call it fast-food music. It’s so corporate and manufactured.. It’s a shame for everyone getting into music for the first time. Growing up, I was so into Fishbone and Madness – unique and homegrown bands. They wrote their songs and didn’t have a look constructed for them. It’s just different from some 40-year-old man sitting in a room calculating the right lyrics.
What inspires you to write songs? – KATI KRAKER, 14, New Berlin, WI
It’s pretty weird how it happens. When we played KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas last December a new band called At the Drive-In was very original and I thought, Oh My God, I need to go write something. It’s like I see great people and I think I gotta be greater. I’ll get together with the band – they’re really talented – and when they get excited, I get excited. Also, when I’m just playing guitar or reading books and poetry. I’ll read a beautiful line and it’ll trigger so many things about my own life. Going through fights and breakups also inspires – but I wouldn’t say go fight with your boyfriend! I feel all the same things that other girls feel. I only know that because when I write my songs, girls go “Oh, I feel like that!” That’s my big comfort.
Every song is different. For “Simple Kind of Life” I sat in a room with a DAT player going and the song just poured out. But “Don’t Speak” was written over years. After Tony and I broke up I rewrote it, because the other words really were just kind of made up. “Bathwater” was written last minute, just for fun. I didn’t think it would ever make the record let alone be a single. But it’s a fun party song.
What advice would you give to girls who want to pursue a musical career? – VICTORIA LAMAS, 13, Adelanto, CA
Being a girl shouldn’t even be an issue. The music is the most important thing, and everything else is an extension of that. So if you get all caught up in your look and the name of your band and stupid stuff, well, that’s just the whole wrong reason to be in a band. Getting a record deal shouldn’t even be the goal. Chances are you are not going to be commercially successful.
It has to be something you have a passion for, like you can’t help yourself. I would say write songs, and try to get live shows. If people show up, you’re lucky. And if you’re good enough, eventually someone’s gonna go, “Wow, that’s inspiring. Let me help you out.”
As a band, we’ve never done this for any other reason than we just loved to. We all went to school and had jobs, but every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night we got together and played music. It wasn’t because we wanted to be rock stars. It wasn’t because we thought we were talented or good. We just did it.