YM Magazine (April 1997)
Absolutely No Doubt
Being in a group can be like a soap opera! Find out how sudden fame, serious jealousy, and a gorge guy named Gavin almost broke up the hippest band in the land.
It's been a most major week for No Doubt. Their Tragic Kingdom album has hit number one, they've rocked out on Saturday Night Live, and they've had a private tour of the White House. But even with all that under their belts, the Anaheim CA, quartet is stressed about tonight's concert, their first full show in a few months.
Backstage at Rockland Community College in New York, the band members chill out different ways. Bass player Tony Kanal is taping a scene with his camcorder. Drummer Adrian Young is hanging with his girlfriend, Christine. Guitarist Tom Dumont is digging through his huge bag of free diesel gear, trying to find something cool to wear for the show. Singer Gwen Stefani, meanwhile, has the college's gym all to herself - a starstruck staffer was only too glad to open it for her.
Anyone who's seen No Doubt's babe of a lead singer high-kicking it in their videos or in concert will find it hard to believe that there was ever a time when Gwen wasn't in great demand-or in great shape. But she remembers it differently. "I was fat all over," she says of her teenage self.
You're probably thinking Yeah, right! But Gwen insists that she's forever battling her weight-in fact, this very minute, she's working on dropping the five pounds she's piled on during her vacation. But she's not stressing over it. "I'm enjoying being a little chubby," she insists. "I love life, and if I want a rad slice of pizza, I'll have it!"
Right now, Gwen has good reason to love life. After ten years of struggling for stardom with her best buds and bandmates Tony, Tom, and Adrian, she couldn't possibly be happier-or luckier.
Rock Romance
"That's my boyfriend," Gwen says as Bush's "Swallowed" comes on the radio. She used to play the "we're just good friends" game whenever Bush singer Gavin Rossdale's name came up. Till now, she's admitted to having had only three boyfriends in her life-the most significant of them having been Tony, No Doubt's bassist, who was her prom date and main man for seven years.
Gwen was guyless - and heartbroken - after Tony broke up with her two years ago. She tried to deal by writing songs about her feelings; many of those tunes, including "Don't Speak," ended up on Tragic Kingdom. But as hard as she tried, she just couldn't get over him.
"Then I met Gavin," she says. "And that one night was all it took for me to say 'Okay, I need to move on.'"
Her first close encounter with the Brit babe came around Christmas '95, when No Doubt was booked as the opening act for Bush's tour. "The first thing he said to me was, 'You're gorgeous,'" she remembers. Gwen, though was not impressed. "I wasn't looking to go out with a boy in a band-especially one who's that good-looking. I'm usually attracted to guys with good personalities, ones that make me laugh. That's what I think is sexy-not some dude with flowing curls who's tall and gorgeous."
But once she got to know him, she just couldn't resist: within days the singers were smooching. "I couldn't believe he liked me!" Gwen says. "I'd been down about the Tony thing for so long that my self-esteem was way down too. And suddenly this guy thinks I'm great-and he has a British accent!"
Last year, as their bands went on to rule the charts(It was Tragic Kingdom that bumped Bush's Razorblade Suitcase out of the number one album slot), Gwen and Gavin continued to date but kept their private lives just that. When the Bush-No Doubt tour ended, their separate schedules put distance between then and put their relationship sort of on hold. "We kept it quiet-if we didn't even know what we were, why tell everyone we're girlfriend and boyfriend?" she says.
Long-distance Love
Though being separated from her sweetie on a daily basis bums her out, Gwen works hard to keep their romance alive. She has a photo of Gavin taped inside her makeup box, takes her cell phone everywhere so she'll never miss one of his calls, and even phones other Bush members to track him down when she just has to hear his voice. Still, she can't wait for the day when they can do "real stuff" together, like, "watch TV, go to the movies, and just hang out."
Until recently, No Doubt had all the time in the world to hang out. Together since they formed in high school in 1987, Gwen, Tony, Tom, and the group's founder, Gwen's big brother Eric Stefani (Adrian joined late), were beginning to think they'd never make it big. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1992, pretty much bombed. Three years later, they forked over the money themselves to put out another CD, Beacon Street Collection, with also went unnoticed. Frustrated, Eric bagged the band to become a cartoonist.
Then came the release of Tragic Kingdom. Incredibly, the first single, "Just A Girl," rocked the charts, followed by "Spiderwebs" and "Don't Speak." To date, Tragic has sold more than 5 million records.
The only glitch is, their sudden success has caused more internal band problems than all their years of struggling ever did. For nearly a decade, nothing could come between them. But for a while last year, it seemed like Gwen's overnight superstardom might tear them apart. Suddenly, all people were interested in was Gwen's singing, Gwen's clothes, and Gwen's bindi (the Indian jewel on her forehead). The press treated No Doubt as if it was just a girl-and three anonymous background boys. Naturally, the guys felt like they'd been kicked to the curb. "For so long, we were all equal," explains Tom. "Then we have a hit, and it's like we're Gwen's backup band."
The group bravely addresses the situation in its "Don't Speak" vid. "We made a video about breaking up at a time when we thought we might actually break up," says Gwen. "It was so real. We were fighting while we were filming."
Making Up
Luckily, the "Don't Speak" video has helped clear the air and allowed the group to go back out on the road, where they're sometimes forced to chill together 24/7-which isn't always easy for Tony. Being in a band with an ex-girlfriend who's just become a mega-star and hooked up with an English rock hottie can be a major adjustment.
At No Doubt's next gig in Asbury Park, NJ, Tony's standing before a door marked "group's dressing room." Next to it, there's another door marked "Gwen's room." Tony is not amused. He asks a concert staffer to rectify the situation. "Can you take that down and put something like 'number two room'? This makes us feel weird."
Later, Tony opens the door that still bears the "Gwen's room" sign and finds her talking about the shortlist of men in her life.
"Don't include me on your list," he says. "I want to remain anonymous."
"We were inseparable for seven years," Gwen pouts.
"Until you met Gavin," he shoots back.
"Shut up!" she groans.
"That's exactly what happened," says Tony, who's kind of teasing, but not really. "Everything was awesome until, 'Oooh, big rock star. Well, Tony, he has a private jet. Bye-bye!' That's how I remember it."
"I really love you a lot," coos Gwen as he walks off. Then she reminds him, "We're number one!"
"You're number one," he says over his shoulder.
But all the traces of resentment and jealousy vanish when the band takes the stage. In concert, they're simply unstoppable. At the end, delirious fans chase them across the auditorium as they head for their dressing rooms.
Backstage Gwen lets it all sink in. "There was this kid sitting in the front row wearing a Gwen shirt that he'd painted himself," she begins. "He was singing along with every word and crying . I smiled at him and said 'It's okay.' I wanted to say, 'I understand; I've done that too.' When you see someone like that, you realize how long they've spent listening to your record and how it's going impact the rest of their life. Whenever they hear No Doubt, it will bring them back to this time period. That's really special."
NO DOUBT'S DUDES
Here, the lowdown on the boys in the band
Name: Tony Kanal
Age: 26
Instrument: bass
Personality profile: He's the serious, business-minded babe of the group. When the others got frustrated and wanted to give up before the platinum success of Tragic Kingdom, Tony was the motor that kept the band going.
Romantic status: Single. "I'm not looking for a serious relationship right now-I just want to meet new people and have a good time. I'm into intelligent girls who can give me my own space."
Stage style: "I like Dickies jumpsuits, workman suits you can get at stores like Kmart, and gas-station-attendant suits. I have about 50 of them."
Fave tunes: Anything by The Artist and Weezer and "any old school hip-hop"
Name: Tom Dumont
Age: 28
Instrument: guitar
Personality profile: He's the kinda quiet, self-effacing, all-around nice guy who digs surfing the Net (he handles the official No Doubt home page).
Romantic status: Taken. He met his steady of two years at a club in Orange County, CA. "She's cool about the whole band thing. I had another girlfriend who couldn't handle it, and that was when we weren't even famous yet."
Stage style: "I usually wear collared shirts-they're very California. I'm the nerdy character on stage; I love surf shirts with stripes and ugly colors."
Fave tunes: Anything by ancient heavy-metal heroes such as Black Sabbath or Rush. (He once played in a heavy-metal band called Rising with his sister.)
Name: Adrian Young
Age: 26
Instrument: drums
Personality profile: He's the closest thing No Doubt has to a party animal. A total jokester who popularized the crew cut with devil horns last year, you'll usually find him making fart noises or playing b-ball-but probably not taking a shower. "I've always been a slobby, stinky guy."
Romantic status: Taken. He hooked up with his honey almost four years ago while playing a show in Chicago. "She's smarter than I am-I don't know why she goes out with me."
Stage style: "I'm getting into the mod scene-Fred Perry shirts, green flight jackets, stuff like that." And he's way over last year's smeared-lipstick thing: "That was a tribute to my girlfriend, who's an ex-Goth."
Fave tunes: Abbey Road by the Beatles, Reggatta de Blanc by The Police, and Adam Ant's Greatest Hits.
Gwen Speaks
We got the girl to gush on sex, love-and more!
What were you like when you were in high school?
"I had bad style-my brother bought my this Godzilla T-Shirt and I used to wear it every single day with a pair of really old men's pajama trousers."
Describe your first kiss.
"I was in ninth grade at the time. I kissed this boy, Brad-I don't even know his last name-on a family trip to Catalina Island in California. We kissed on the beach, in the sand, and I remember thinking, Omigod! This is so weird-I can feel his braces! My family left the next day. I wrote him three times, but he never wrote back."
What's your greatest vice?
"I'm a big slob. The makeup artist at the YM cover shoot was making fun of me because my makeup case is so disorganized. I didn't have a cap on my lipstick, and she was all. 'You don't know how many bacteria are on there!' "
Are you close to your 'rents?
"I'm very much into my family. We sing together all the time. My sister and I do 'Edelweiss' from The Sound of Music, and on the Fourth of July we sing campfire songs."
How serious are you and Gavin?
"When you get older you don't date someone just to hang out. I would never go out with a person who I don't think I might have a future with. All Gavin and I want-I don't know if I have the right to talk about what he wants 'cause we haven't been together long enough, but I don't think he'll be bummed-is a family and a house. I'm not saying that we're going to do it together, but we do dream about it."