Gavin Rossdale

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Gavin McGregor Rossdale (born October 30, 1965)^[1] is the lead singer and guitarist of the British rock group Bush, and the current lead singer and guitarist of Institute.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Bush
- 1.2 After Bush
2 Personal life
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Kilburn, London, England, to parents Barbara Stephan (b. Scotland) and Douglas Rossdale (a doctor of Russian Jewish descent); they divorced when he was eleven years old and he was raised primarily by his father and aunt (his mother remarried and moved to Florida). He has an older sister, Soraya, and a younger one, Lorraine (daughter called Jade).

Rossdale modelled briefly, producing some embarrassing fashion shots with good friend Marilyn. Gavin learned to play bass guitar after hanging out with Soraya's boyfriend who was in a band called The Nobodyz, but switched to rhythm guitar. At 17, he had left Westminster School, played semi-professional football until side-lined by an injury, and formed a band called Midnight (formerly Little Dukes), which produced a couple of singles and a bunch of publicity photos. In 1991, Gavin moved to Los Angeles for 6 months, lived where he could, and took whatever part time jobs were available, including production assistant on video shoots. He spent some time in NYC with his good friend Bill MacAdam before returning to England inspired to start a new band. He hooked up with future manager Scottie Mac (SSM), whom he had met in LA, around this time. In 1992, Gavin formed Future Primitive, whose original line-up (under the name The Diceheads) included screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, who left to pursue a film-making career. The band changed its name to Bush in the summer of 1994 and released the promo Sixteen Stone.

[edit] Bush

Gavin was the lead singer/songwriter for the UK post-grunge rock band Bush. Their first album, Sixteen Stone (1994), was a huge commercial success. Almost overnight, Bush went from playing small pubs in London to headlining arenas in the US, the result of extensive, non-stop touring. However, some critics labelled them as an inferior derivative of bands such as Nirvana and Pixies, and this criticism followed them throughout their career as a band. In particular, Rossdale's throaty singing voice and random, stream of consciousness-style lyrics were dismissed by some as an imitation of Nirvana's lead singer, Kurt Cobain. Although the band reached superstar status in the U.S., they failed to have much impact on the Brit-Pop riddled UK charts, the lone exception being their single "Swallowed", which reached #7. A change in record labels, management and an extended hiatus did not bode well for the band, who unofficially split in 2002.

Bush's albums include Razorblade Suitcase (produced by Steve Albini), The Science of Things, and Golden State, none of which matched the sales success of the debut album, Sixteen Stone.

[edit] After Bush

In 2004, after Bush had been on hiatus for two years, Rossdale formed Institute. Their first album, Distort Yourself, released September 13, 2005 achieved moderate success and the single "Bullet-proof skin" was used in the motion picture Stealth.

Rossdale was featured on the Sony Pictures XXX soundtrack in 2002 with a song called "Adrenaline." The song was also the official theme song for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s Unforgiven pay-per-view event in September 2002. He also guest appeared for Blue Man Group's "The Current" and features in their video for the same song.

In 2005 Rossdale appeared in the motion picture Constantine (2005) playing the villain Balthazar. Rossdale has also appeared in the films Zoolander (2001), The Mayor of Sunset Strip (2003), Little Black Book (2004), and The Game of Their Lives (2005).

[edit] Personal life

Rossdale has homes in Primrose Hill, London and California, and is a regular on the celebrity tennis circuit in the latter.

According to Boy George, in his 1995 autobiography 'Take It Like A Man', during the 80's Rossdale enjoyed a long-term homosexual relationship with drag queen pop-star Marilyn (singer). George recently described Rossdale as "very flirtatious and ambitious. When I was writing Take It Like A Man, Bush were well on their way to rock stardom and he appeared at my house to persuade me not to include him and Marilyn". Rossdale strenuously denied the allegations, claiming he and Marilyn were "just good friends".

In 2004, it was revealed that he was the father of Pearl Lowe's 16-year-old daughter, Daisy Lowe. Rossdale and Lowe had a former relationship and Rossdale had been the godfather of Daisy.

On September 14, 2002 Rossdale married Gwen Stefani, lead vocalist of the ska punk band No Doubt. During an August 8, 2005 appearance on the radio show Loveline, Rossdale said that he and Gwen preferred to keep their relationship entirely out of the media. He also said that he grew up in a chaotic home, and stated that having a stable environment for his family was important to him. On May 26, 2006, they welcomed a son, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Kingston weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces (3.4 kilograms).^[2] ^[3]