Did you think Don’t Speak would be such a big hit? Troy_McClure
I had absolutely no idea. It didn’t even represent what we were doing because No Doubt was such an uptempo, live energy band. Even the guitar solo has nothing to do with that song. The original version was written by my brother (Eric, keyboards), who lived with my grandparents; after they died, it became the band house. He stayed up all night eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking milk and smoking cigarettes and saying, “Oh, I wrote this last night.”

I ended up rewriting the lyrics and changing the whole song because Tony (Kanal, bass) broke up with me. It’s crazy, but that song is truly the heartbeat of who I am and changed everything. After it came out, we were driving through Israel and these guards came to the van with guns, which I had never seen anywhere before. One of them looked into the van and started singing Don’t Speak to me. That soon became normal.

No doubt Talk Talk’s included It’s my life after considering a version of the INXS song Don’t Change. Is there a studio version of that song gathering dust? McScootikins
No. We never recorded it. My memory is like the movie Finding Dory: everything is erased! – but I remember sitting with the band on (label owner) Jimmy Iovine’s little outdoor patio and talking about doing a cover. The rest of the band was against it, but we all thought It’s My Life would be good. Even though I didn’t write the song, it’s very much my story – as if it was written for me.

What did Talk Talk’s do Mark Hollis remember the No Doubt version? Were you able to meet him? stephenw1979
I didn’t. I think he probably thought, thanks for the check, because he got paid twice. I don’t know what they thought of our version, but I would love it if someone covered one of our songs. It’s such a compliment and gives the song new life.

What can you tell us about your Space Pants Saturday Night Live sketch? Segelov
Behind the scenes of that show is incredible. They come up with way more skits than they need and I’ve recorded a lot of stuff that never came out. When I was asked to do Space Pants, I was super nervous, because I’m not an actor and I’m a slow learner, and live TV is hard. I was convinced I would forget my lines, but I didn’t make a mistake and it was super fun. I loved the way the song rhymed “Final” with “Stefani.” I still have the pants in my closet.

What was it like in the early days in California with all the up and coming ska punk bands like Sublime? Miss you Bradley Nowell? Do you have contact with his son, who has taken over from his father as lead singer? scroogemcgrew
It was a really exciting time in Orange County when all the British ska stuff like the Specials, Madness and the Selecter were super underground in America and really inspired us. We ended up on the same bills with Sublime because we had the same vibe. Bradley was one of those people you meet who have a halo around them. He was super soulful with so much talent. It was devastating when his life was cut short (by a heroin overdose in 1996). I do know his son. It was such a small part of my life, but I still get asked about it all the time because that band had such an impact. I’m happy for Bradley. I wish he was still there.

You once said that you have seen wild and even traumatic things around you in the music industry. Do you want to address dark topics in lyrics? alex111111
I don’t remember saying that, but I feel like I had a blessed experience. I was very naive and people would say, “Oh, you were a woman in the industry,” but I always had a voice and people wanted my opinion. Yeah, they sent us back to the drawing board with an eight-track recorder and said, “Go back to your garage and write music.” But that only made us work harder. I’ve written a lot about my personal darkness. I have been through a lot of suffering, trying to find love, truth and an honest person.

My favorite song that you wrote is Simple kind of life, because it feels amazingly honest and vulnerable. Does inspiration or perspiration make a great Gwen Stefani song? taste
That song is a gift from God because I just received it. I was just learning to play guitar, started strumming the chords, ran upstairs and said, “Guys, I think I just wrote a song!” It’s the only song I’ve ever written alone or on guitar, but I love it. I can’t listen to the Return of Saturn album right now because there’s too much PTSD and too much truth in it for me. I revealed everything, but at the time I couldn’t even see it, but I’m so happy that song resonates with someone.

What drew you to flowers as inspiration for your new album, Bouquet? Kierralanni
Meeting my husband (country singer Blake Shelton) felt like a second chance at life, because when my family fell apart (Stefani was married to Bush singer Gavin Rossdale for twelve years; they have three children) it was a catastrophe . How do you figure that out yourself? But God put this other person there to love me. I know this sounds weird, but Blake and I got into horticulture together. We have a house together in Oklahoma and during the pandemic we came across this very old building on the land and there were some purple irises, which someone must have planted ages ago, but they survived. I wrote the song Purple Irises about that and what it feels like to find true love and the insecurities that come with not wanting to lose it.

Bouquet is apparently influenced by “hunting rock”. What is hunting rock? kwakwa2
The music I grew up with as a kid – going to church in the back of the station wagon in the 70s – was what you would call classic rock, but somehow it got the label of yacht rock: late 70s singer. songwriters, the Doobie Brothers and so on. Live music with background vocals. I really wanted to bring these new songs into that kind of atmosphere, so that it felt like there was no genre and no time. But there was no hunting! The songs on this album were written with pop writers and we initially wrote in a pop zone. But I felt like in the songs I was going back to high school and trying to put on my prom dress and saying, “Here I am again!” No, that’s not possible. You have to evolve. I wanted the songs, sonically, to represent more of who I am today.

Would you make an album of country duets with your husband? Keeganlynn
I’d love to do it. I never listened to country music, so even though Blake was super successful, I didn’t even know he existed before I met him. When he heard Purple Irises, he liked it so much that he ended up singing to it. I love singing with him. He is very modest and doesn’t realize how good he is. There’s something so attractive about that.