Gwen Stefani Feels Guilty For Not Quitting Music
Gwen Stefani performs onstage during day one for the Warner Music Nashville Lunch during CRS 2024 at Omni Nashville Hotel on February 28, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Gwen Stefani is reuniting with No Doubt for the first time in nearly ten years this upcoming weekend for Coachella. In a new interview with Nylon on Tuesday (April 9), Stefani reflects on her decades-long music career and how she is still making music, even while living the simple life with her hubby, Blake Shelton.
(Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
The 54-year-old singer-songwriter has released two albums in the last ten years: 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like and her 2017 holiday album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas. During this time, the “Spiderwebs” singer admits she recorded and shelved albums worth of material, wondering where she belongs in the world of pop music. Growing up Catholic and being more public about her faith in recent years, Stefani gives the songwriting credit to God.
Stefani tells the publication that she feels the most creative when she’s collaborating with someone. When it comes to making new music, Gwen Stefani feels guilty about it. The mother of three believes she has to justify why she’s making music or that she’s doing it in the first place. She hears, “You should just get on with your life,” in her head or in real life by critics. The award-winning musician actually feels “greedy” and unsure bout it.
Sounding unsure of herself, she still is able to tell Nylon that she just knows “that I was chosen. And it took me a long time to say that, and it still makes me cringe a little bit because it sounds conceited.” However, when it comes to genre, Stefani is sure she doesn’t land in the pop category anymore. She doesn’t even care what genre she will be classified as with her new music, calling the music industry “the Wild West” right now and “crazy s— happens.”
Beyond Coachella, there are no concrete plans for touring or new music, although Stefani is “open to anything.” The two weekends are going to be a “really nice bow to tie” on the band’s relationship. Confidently, Stefani knows when she and the rest of No Doubt hits that stage, it will be like no time has passed. She sweetly remarks, “It’s going to feel like riding a bike again. We’re going to be laughing, and we’re going to look at each other and go, ‘Oh my gosh — there you are.’”
No Doubt's 7 Best Songs Ranked
No Doubt is reuniting for the first time after nearly ten years, headlining Coachella this April. The ska-rock-pop band consisting of Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young last performed at 2015’s Rock in Rio. No Doubt was first formed in 1986, with Stefani’s brother Eric Stefani as a former founding member. He was the band’s keyboardist and officially left the band in 1994. With the rise in popularity of grunge music at the time, the band didn’t see mainstream success until their third album, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom, which featured hits like “Don’t Speak,” “Just a Girl,” and “Spiderwebs.” The band underwent a few hiatuses, as most bands do. The most recent hiatus, Stefani told Rolling Stone at the time, was due to her and bassist and co-writer (and her ex-boyfriend) Kanal growing apart creatively.
No Doubt About It
Stefani can’t stomach some of No Doubt’s music — literally. In a recent interview, she admits she avoids listening to certain songs because of the painful memories they hold, explaining that some of the songs make her feel sick. “I can’t listen to a lot of the songs because they speak so clearly to me.” She recalls the songs that have to do with regrets and mistakes she’s previously made. She specifically lists “Ex-Girlfriend” as a song that, even upon speaking the track’s title, she almost throws up in her mouth.
Stefani revealed earlier this month that even though the group hasn’t started rehearsing yet, two months out, she knows she has to relearn the lyrics to their older songs. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she guessed having to relearn eight to nine songs. For fans attending Coachella, Stefani “accidentally” revealed she is performing one of the first songs she ever wrote, 1995’s “Different People.” The band has six studio albums, and we ranked our favorite seven songs below.
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
