The Kindler Gentler Interview-

By Jon Wiederhorn

When Americans first heard the Bush single "Everything Zen," back in

1994, it was hard to believe that all those churning guitars and

pain-stricken howls could come from anywhere other than Grunge City,

USA. English fans and the press found it equally hard to swallow that

the band members of Bush were actually Brits — even as the band

bottle-rocketed up the Billboard charts with its debut album, Sixteen

Stone.

Contrarians have accused Bush of immigrating to America to capitalize on

the post-Nirvana noise-rock scene, but the band actually fled its

homeland out of necessity. Vocalist-guitarist Gavin Rossdale, 29,

guitarist Nigel Pulsford, 31, bassist Dave Parsons, 30, and drummer

Robin Goodridge, 29, had all banged around the UK music scene since 1992

without meeting with much success. Then, as they were all getting ready

to throw in the towel, a contract offer came in from Trauma Records, a

tiny American label owned by Interscope.

The rest is SoundScan history. The band toured the U.S. rigorously,

Sixteen Stone exploded, and Bush soon became more popular than Nintendo

64 among alienated American teens.

In late 1996, the band returned to its homeland to write material for

its second record. Bush hired controversial knob-twiddler Steve Albini,

who had previously produced the Pixies, Nirvana, and Jesus Lizard (not

coincidentally, three of Rossdale's favorite bands), and started

recording Razorblade Suitcase, a ragged, spontaneous disc that features

tracks that rage (like "Greedy Fly," "Personal Holloway," and "Insect

Kin"), as well as more reflective numbers ("Swallowed" and "Straight No

Chaser").

Critics label Bush "grunge lite," and called Rossdale a Kurt Cobain

wannabe (*sigh*), but the group has garnered a diehard fan base (that's us!)

that could care

less about the musings of a bunch of overintellectual scribes. The most

recent fuel for Bush gossip isn't the way Rossdale wears his influences

on his flannel (he wears flannel?) sleeve, but his current squeeze — teen

idol and ska-pop

superstar Gwen Stefani from No Doubt. Rossdale hooked up with Stefani

while their respective bands were on tour together last year, and there

have been numerous rumors that the couple may tie the knot.

All romantic prognostications aside, Bush has confounded the critics.

Rossdale's ambiguous, pleading lyrics, and the band's insistent, driving

rhythms and scream-along choruses, have touched a nerve in American

teens that's just as sensitive as it was the day Cobain's body was

discovered. We recently talked to Rossdale about smoking pot, the band's

devoted audience, the sleep patterns of rock stars, the demands of life

on the road, and what it takes to turn a mellow pacifist into a raving

sociopath.