Just days ahead of No Doubt’s much-anticipated reunion at the 2024 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival, Gwen Stefani is expressing some doubt over how she balanced her work and home life after starting a family.
In a new interview with Nylon, the singer-songwriter opened up about how things all changed when she and ex-husband Gavin Rossdale expanded their family and welcomed the first of three sons in 2006.
Around that time she had a second hit solo album, and subsequent tours, as well as her L.A.M.B. fashion line that she was trying to get off the ground. And then there was her band, which put her on the musical landscape that was itching to get back out with more music and shows.
Stefani admits now, with hindsight, that she ‘should have just been with’ her sons — Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10 — instead of focusing on her career.
The singer-songwriter now sees that she was ‘trying to please’ her No Doubt bandmates, Tom Dumont (guitar), Tony Kanal (bass) and Adrian Young (drums) by fitting it all into her calendar, which in the ends sounds as if it was all too much at once.
Gwen Stefani, 54, shared some regrets over how she tried to balance her career with her family life when she and ex-husband Gavin Rossdale began having children in 2006; she is pictured in The Voice promo in 2023
‘I was dead,’ Stefani said of her self-imposed workload, which only got more complicated when she learned she was pregnant again with second son Zuma.
‘I think everyone was disappointed,’ the Just A Girl star shared, in a reference to the band. ‘I don’t think they would say that. No one’s going to be mad you’re having a baby. But while I was busy, they were kind of waiting.’
It wasn’t as if Stefani didn’t want to work with the No Doubt guys anymore. In fact, they would reunite and tour with the hopes that it would inspire them to write would would ultimately become their sixth studio album Push And Shove (2012).
‘Except things change when you have two babies,’ she says. ‘There was nothing left in me. I had no ideas. I had so much insecurity. I felt like — help!’
At that point she felt like in between a rock and a hard place when it came to her work and home life, which made her feel like she was abandoning her family and motherly duties.
While ‘leaving her family’ to write music with the band, the Orange County, California native said she felt like a ‘loser’ if she ‘didn’t come home with a song’ later that same day.
‘I’d be like, “Oh my God … I didn’t have dinner with my family, and I didn’t write a song,”‘ she told the publication. ‘I wasted an entire day of my life trying to be in No Doubt again.’
While this was all going on she was also woking on her L.A.M.B. fashion brand, which can be a huge undertaking without having to try and navigate a solo music career with a band career, to go along with a family life.
Stefani admits now, with hindsight, that she ‘should have just been with’ her sons — Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10 — instead of focusing on her career when she was with husband Gavin Rossdale, whom she split from in 2015; No Doubt are seen in 2015
The pop star confessed how ‘things change when you have two babies. There was nothing left in me. I had no ideas. I had so much insecurity. I felt like — help!’; The singer-songwriter and the Rossdale, singer of rock band Bush, are pictured in 2006
In the end, Stefani began to create a cycle of returning to work sooner that she may have liked too or needed too.
‘I look at it now and think, “God, what was I doing trying to please everybody?”‘ she said after much analyzing and thought.
Ultimately, Stefani and Rossdale broke up in 2015 amid chatter that he cheated on her with their nanny.
Although initially distraught, she would find love again with Blake Shelton later that same year, which led to the couple tying-the-knot in July 2021.
Fast forward towards the end of 2023 and the members of No Doubt had already been in talks about the possibility of playing some shows.
Stefani now sees that she was ‘trying to please’ her No Doubt bandmates, Tom Dumont (guitar), Tony Kanal (bass) and Adrian Young (drums) by fitting too much into her calendar between her band career, solo career, L.A.M.B. fashion line and family life
After her split from the Bush frontman, Stefani found love again when she started dating country singer Blake Shelton, whom she married in 2021; they are pictured getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles in October 2023
By this time it had been around nine years since No Doubt had shared a stage together.
It’s been a long time coming,’ Stefani said of the band starting it up again. ‘It’s been something that we were going to do.’
All the chatter led to the band coming together in a Zoom call on January 16 to announce they were in fact reuniting to play 2024 Coachella in April.
But the speed in which they all came together for the Coachella gig seemed to serve as a sign of sorts for their eagerness to want to get back together and play.
‘I would say [from there] within 10 days or two weeks, we were booked,’ she said of the Coachella reunion.
No Doubt came clean and announced they were reuniting in a Zoom call on January 16
Since rehearsals began a few weeks ago, Stefani has been sharing teasers on Instagram ahead of the reunion at Coachella 2023
Stefani has shared snippets of the band rehearsing some of their hits ahead of the first reunion show on Saturday, April 13
While the festival kicks off on Friday, April 12, No Doubt will hit the Coachella stage on Saturday at 9:25 p.m., right before Tyler, The Creator is set to perform as the headliner.
So far the Anaheim pop-punk and ska band hasn’t shared any plans beyond Coachella, but Stefani says she remains ‘open to anything,’ a motto that has served her well throughout her career as a frontwoman of No Doubt and solo artist that dates back to the mid-1980s.
‘Most things have surprised me in life,’ she revealed, before adding, ‘One of the things I’ve learned is to be present in the moment and try to absorb what’s happening around me instead of looking ahead.’
No Doubt formed in the mid-1980s and eventually achieved mainstream commercial success with their third studio album Tragic Kingdom (1995), behind the push of hit singles I’m Just A Girl, Don’t Speak and Spiderwebs.
They would score more success with their fifth album Rock Steady (2001), which included other hits Hey Baby, Hella Good and Underneath It All.