Gavin Rossdale On Bush ‘Sixteen Stone’ Vinyl Reissue, New Cooking Show

The 1990s remain a fascinating period in the history of recorded music.

Today, the 90s signify the height of the compact disc as the preferred method of music consumption for listeners worldwide, a medium whose ease and convenience rendered vinyl temporarily obsolete virtually overnight.

Which leaves it as one of the only periods of recorded music where many classic albums were never released on vinyl, with major record labels opting instead for now antiquated formats like mini disc or cassettes alongside the almighty CD.

While sales of recorded music largely cratered following the advent of both online file sharing and streaming in the early 2000s, vinyl has nevertheless experienced a resurgence.

Record sales continue to soar, defying predictions of an imminent bubble burst, with extravagant box sets, limited vinyl runs and reissues offering fans a way to celebrate their favorite albums anew.

Originally released on December 6, 1994, Bush’s Sixteen Stone is now available on vinyl as a two LP set via Craft Recordings in six different color variants, celebrating the record as it turns 30.

“It’s incredible. It’s really fun. So much creativity,” said Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale during a recent phone conversation, looking back. “It’s funny. Because I’ve been enjoying it so much. My son is falling in love with all of the bands, specifically like Smashing Pumpkins and Hum. So, he plays it all of the time around the house,” said the singer with a smile, referencing a pair of Chicago-based 90s alternative bands. “It’s a bit like being at a festival back in the day!”

To date, Bush has sold nearly 25 million albums worldwide as one of the best selling rock acts of the 1990s, with Sixteen Stone reaching an astounding seven times platinum status in America alone.

The album spawned a whopping five singles, no easy feat for a band making its recorded debut. But getting it off the ground initially wasn’t an easy feat.

“Well, what happened was actually worse than that! Because we actually got dropped,” explained Rossdale. “There was a guy named Frank Wells who worked at Disney, who had signed us for distribution. And by the time the album was delivered, he had tragically passed away in a helicopter crash. So, when it went to the new committee, [the album] was deemed to have not only no singles but no album tracks either. And then we got dropped. So, it was brilliant,” he continued, illuminating the irony. “I really didn’t understand the implications. Because I was like, ‘Well, I lost my deal. Find another distribution deal.’ That’s when Ted Field at Interscope heard us on the radio and that’s when he came in and took over distribution of the band.”

Just about one month after the album’s release, “Everything Zen” would drop as its first single, with airplay on MTV and Bush’s “buzz bin” status soon driving album sales.

But it’s not the first song Rossdale wrote for the album. That would be “Comedown,” also the first song he ever tackled without a co-writer and one which would give the band its first U.S. top 40 hit.

“I’d always been in bands where I’d been just the singer. I was a struggling guitar player. I wasn’t very good. So, I tended to work with people who were,” Rossdale explained. “But, the thing is, when you write songs, you don’t have to be a great guitar player. You just need to know a number of chords that can hold your idea,” he continued, highlighting the age-old punk rock lesson. “So, I’ve never been a great guitar player. I’m pretty good now. I’ve got a pretty good feel. But it’s not about that. It’s about getting ideas across. And so I’ve found a way. And I just lucked out that it was ‘Comedown.’”

Fleshing out songs via strings and more has proven to be a great way for bands experimenting with new sounds to continually push the music forward.

While violin does adorn alternate takes of “Comedown,” it’s “Glycerine,” the highest charting Bush single, on which the orchestral arrangements loom largest.

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“That was really beautiful because I think that there was the suggestion that if we’re going to do a ballad why not put some nice strings on there?” Rossdale recalled. “And what’s beautiful is that Nigel Pulsford wrote those strings in commemoration of his father. And his father passed during the making of the record. So, he had the chance to do that for him.”

Over the last fifteen years, Rossdale has worked to address the world in his songwriting with recent tracks like 2022’s “More Than Machines” championing subjects like women’s rights.

But that desire to speak to the times was always there. On Sixteen Stone, “Testosterone” jabs at macho male stereotypes while “Bomb” addresses the actions of the Irish Republican Army in Rossdale’s North London home.

“They’re all clues. They’re all secrets. They’re all things to decipher,” said Rossdale of his approach to writing a track like “Bomb.” “It’s funny. Because I remember I had one song [‘Float’] that had the word vicissitudes in it. I was on the radio and this guy called. ‘Hey! What does it feel like having vicissitudes? I know you’re the guy that wrote ‘a—hole brother’ on the first record. You’ve really come along!’ And I was thinking, ‘Yeah, but you haven’t heard ‘Bomb.’ There’s loads of sophistication on that record,’” he recalled. “So, that’s what it is. You live with it. You put clues in there.”

For many artists, the constant desire for a blank canvas can lead to pursuits in areas like painting.

For Rossdale, discovering cooking became not just a new creative endeavor but a way in which to further engage with creative types, celebrating both the intimate conversations and new approach to music that can be found while sharing a drink over a carefully curated effort like a well-cooked meal.

This February, Rossdale launches the new series Dinner With Gavin Rossdale, one which ties together the musical and culinary worlds via great conversation, the occasional song and compelling storytelling (premiering February 13, 2025 via the Vizio app as well as the free ad-supported Vizio streaming service WatchFree+), with guests like actress Selma Blair, who details her harrowing battle with MS, tennis great Serena Williams, who joins Rossdale for “Comedown,” and legendary singer Tom Jones, with whom Rossdale duets on “It’s Not Unusual.”

“Storytelling is the basis of information networks, right? But, ironically, with me and my music, I’ve never done that. Because I don’t like being tethered in that way. So, they’re just sort of parables within parables or pieces within pieces,” said Rossdale. “So, storytelling, I think, is about the power of shared experiences – so that people know that it’s uphill for most. It’s really, really uphill. And that’s OK. The show is meant to be uplifting and inspiring.”

Working to continually push his group forward since reforming Bush in 2010, Rossdale has released five new albums of original material, leaving him in a unique position as he attempts to process the last 30 years via a rare look back at Sixteen Stone.

“One of my favorite things to reflect on is that it had no audience,” he said. “This was an album written in a vacuum by someone, or a band, who desired to be in the mix and desired to connect with people. And who were prepared to sacrifice so much of their lives to achieve that goal,” said Gavin Rossdale. “That’s what I hear. That’s what I’m impressed by: the power of the music. Sort of the propulsion of it, the sort of insistence of it, in the face of abject failure,” he continued. “Just to come up with that versus not come up with that obviously makes me really proud. Because we worked really hard on that record. Everyone involved is deserving of its success.’’