Teen People (August 2002)
Hella Great
With a new baby, an impending wedding and a breakthrough hit single – “Hella Good” – it’s no wonder the members of No Doubt are feeling fine in the summertime.
The members of No Doubt are screaming for their lives. They’ve been electrocuted, blasted with fire, and now they’re plummeting off the side of a 10-story building. At the last minute they’re whisked to safety by… Spider-Man? That’s right. Singer Gwen Stefani, 32, bassist Tony Kanal, 31, and guitarist Tom Dumont, 34, are spending a rare free afternoon at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, cramming eight rides – including the virtual reality Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – into a 90-minute field trip. (Drummer Adrian Young, 32, is off playing golf.) After going on one stomach-churning roller coaster twice, Tom asks the operator, “Don’t you have any Snow White rides?” Everyone laughs, but he’s got a point – they could use a break.
Since forming in California’s Orange County in 1986, No Doubt has ridden a career roller coaster that challenges even Universal’s wildest ride. There’s been the slow build to the top (hitting a peak with 1995’s multiplatinum Tragic Kingdom) and the sudden drop (2000’s critically acclaimed but commercially weak Return of Saturn), but now the band has thrown everyone – including its members – for a loop with its fifth record, Rock Steady. A juggernaut of New Wave, Jamaican dance hall and rock, the disc charmed critics and courted a new legion of fans with hit singles like “Hella Good” and “Hey Baby.” On the personal front, two of the tightly knit foursome have had or will experience life-changing events: This past February, Adrian’s wife, Nina, gave birth to a son, Mason. And in September, Gwen and her longtime boyfriend, Bush singer Gavin Rossdale, are set to marry.
TEEN PEOPLE: Will your wedding be like the one you dreamed of having when you were a teen?
GWEN STEFANI: In high school you’re really detailed, but now – I have no time to think about the candy almonds on the table. We’re getting married in London, and Gavin is taking all the wedding-planner meetings without me because I haven’t been able to be with him.
TP: What have you decided on so far?
GS: We’re getting married in the Church of England by a priest who was Gavin’s religious-studies teacher. But we are going to get blessed by a Catholic priest.
TP: Where does religion fit into your life?
GS: As a teen I was a Catholic girl from a really great family. I wasn’t having sex – that wasn’t the way I was brought up. And I pray, because if you take the time out to be thankful, it calms you down. My mom tells me, “Pray and you find peace.”
TP: Do you want to be a mom?
GS: I feel very romantic about the idea because I think Gavin’s going to be the most incredible dad. I’m excited about seeing him as a husband first. But if I got pregnant tomorrow I’d be like, “Yeeaahh!”
TP: How did you learn to trust each other – especially given the careers that you both have?
GS: Yeah, all those boy fans that I just want to get with! [Laughs] It doesn’t matter who you are – if I worked in the same McDonald’s as Gavin, and he worked at the fryer, there are going to be trust issues. Is he flirting with the girl behind the French fries? But we’ve been able to trust each other. I mean, we’re going to marry each other!
By now, Gwen’s pre-Gavin romantic history is a familiar tale: Girl meets boy (Tony Kanal), girl loses boy (in 1994), girl and boy are in a rock band and become superstars. OK, maybe it’s not that common a tale, but Gwen and Tony’s whirlwind romance was the stuff that songs are made of – hence the most poignant tune from Tragic Kingdom, “Don’t Speak.” Gwen wrote the heart-wrenching ballad after Tony severed their relationship and her brother Eric, the band’s keyboardist and songwriter, left the group to pursue a career in computer animation. (Eric worked on TV’s The Simpsons for two years). “Before that, I was a really passive person,” says Gwen. “My brother – I was his puppet. He would just kick me around, like ‘Gwen! Come in here [and sing for us]!’ When he left I had to start writing songs. Then Tony breaks up with me.
“I know it sounds cheesy,” she continues, “But I found out everything about me through those songs. Suddenly I was this independent person who was happy and didn’t have to depend on my lover. Before that, I never really had anything of my own. It was like, ‘I’m Gwen. Do you know who Gwen is? Gwen loves Tony.’”
TP: What were you like as a teenager?
GS: I was rebellious in the sense that I wasn’t into popular music. It was like, “I’m into ska, nobody knows what it is. I’m cool; you’re not.” I wasn’t a cheerleader, never had a lot of girlfriends – just one best girlfriend.
TP: Mostly you hung out with the boys in No Doubt. What do you cherish about each?
GS: Adrian is the punker. If Adrian wasn’t in the band, we could go way too far into cheesy. Tom is a really lovable person. Tony cares about everyone. I am so lame at practical stuff, like frequent flier miles, so Tony made a card with all my numbers on it and stuck it in my wallet.
TP: You’re such a style icon. Were you into fashion in high school?
GS: I was chubby, so I joined the swim team because I wanted to get skinny. I’d wear things that covered up what I didn’t like about myself, like baggy pajama pants because I liked the old-men prints. And in Orange County I was surrounded by gangs like the Chola girls who wore Dickies, tank tops and tennis shoes. The gang thing is so sad, but those girls had wicked style.
TP: Word is you’re going to start your own clothing line. True?
GS: I figure that since Andrea [her stylist] and I already design my own stuff, we might as well make a line out of it. But it won’t be out for another year.
Yep, she’s got style. That along with her dramatic, Every-girl lyrics led to the boys getting left in the dust when the band first kicked down the door to fame. It’s easy to understand why: Nearly everyone who comes in contact with Gwen falls in love. “She is the sweetest person,” says Eve, who collaborated with Gwen last year on the hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” “She sent me an earring that says ‘Eve’ with a heart and a gold chain with a paw print.” (Gwen also adores her fellow blonde superstar: “I had never worked with a girl before – let alone a rapper,” she says, “but Eve’s fantastic.”) Moby, who has also worked with Gwen (on his 2000 hit “South Side”) agrees: “I was expecting this larger-than-life rock star, but Gwen was so nice and down-to-earth.”
Meanwhile, No Doubt’s fans – particularly the female ones – have little trouble focusing on Tom, Tony and Adrian. At their sold-out show in Orlando, Adrian stepped onstage clad only in boxer shorts. “Take it off!” screamed a girl. He smiled, but kept his undies on. “I used to be a hard-core partyer,” says No Doubt’s resident nudist (he flashes his behind in the “Hella Good” video). “But Mason needs me. I am more cautious about everything now.”
So is Tom – particularly about the press. After one magazine article mentioned that his bandmates like to call him “the douche” when he drinks, he now faces the unfortunate stigma of being labeled some kind of booze hound. “I don’t like giving the impression that I’m a drunk,” says Tom. And he’s not: Instead of doing shooters at a bar, you’re more likely to find him surfing or hanging out with his girlfriend, Mieke, whom he met at an MTV party last year. “I know a good thing when I see it,” says Tom.
Tony’s still waiting to spot his good thing, but he’s in no rush to settle down. The most business-minded member of the band (he used to be its manager), he puts No Doubt first, his personal life second. “I think it would be very hard for someone to put up with me,” says Tony. “But when I find the right person, it’s gonna be all good.”
He may have more time to look. With half the band settling down, they hint that this could be their last extensive tour. “I’m not going to live a life where I am gone all the time from my kid and my wife,” says Adrian. “But I don’t know if I will be faced with a decision to make.” Instead, he employs the same one-day-at-a-time attitude that has always kept No Doubt going. “I don’t know if we will be together in 10 years or even next year,” says Tom. “We just take it as it comes, and that’s the best way to keep it going.”
And for now, it’s going hella great.