BUSH returns to Utah this month touring behind a new 21-track best-of album, Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023. The tour will stop in West Valley City on July 31, 2024, at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre. The tour is going well but at first, Gavin Rossdale, BUSH’s founding member, primary songwriter, singer and guitarist, wasn’t overly enthused about this project.
He didn’t want to give the impression that BUSH was putting a cap on a career that had seen the band sell some 24 million albums and amass 26 hit singles or that the band would just be coasting into the future.
“Our manager suggested that it was time to celebrate the milestone of 30 years, celebrate 26 hit records and just celebrate with everyone,” Rossdale explained in a mid-July phone interview. “And I was not, it seemed weird to me because I’m always obsessed about the next record (and moving forward).”
Much of Rossdale’s focus over the past several months has been on the next Bush studio album, which is on target for release early next year.
But for now, the band is on tour, joining fans in marking the 30th-anniversary milestone of a career that has seen plenty of success, as well as a few of the ups and downs that can be expected in a career as long as BUSH’s has had.
Formed in London in 1992, the group hit big with its 1994 debut CD, Sixteen Stone, which sold about six million copies. Showcasing a grungy but melodic, guitar-forward sound, Sixteen Stone spawned the No. 1 alternative rock singles “Comedown” and “Glycerine” and the top-five singles “Everything Zen” and “Little Things.”
The band followed that blockbuster bow in 1996 with Razorblade Suitcase, which reached number one on the Billboard magazine album chart while going triple platinum. That sophomore effort gave BUSH another chart-topping hit in “Swallowed,” as well as two more top-five singles in “Machinehead” and “Greedy Fly.”
The success continued with 1999’s The Science of Things, another million-selling release that included the hits “The Chemicals Between Us” and “Letting the Cables Sleep.” But the group’s fourth album, Golden State, was a commercial disappointment, and the group fell apart after lead guitarist Nigel Puslford and bassist Dave Parsons decided to leave the band.
Rossdale pushed forward. He formed the group Institute in 2004, releasing an album, Distort Yourself, in 2005, before going solo and releasing the album WANDERlust, in 2008. But neither album connected on anything close to the level BUSH had achieved, and Rossdale has admitted that throughout this time, he wanted to reform BUSH.
In 2010, he decided to do just that. Drummer Robin Goodridge re-upped, but Pulsford, who had tired of the extensive touring schedule of BUSH and wanted to spend more time with his family, declined, as did Parsons. Eventually, Rossdale moved on with the reunion, bringing in guitarist Chris Traynor (who was part of Institute and played on WANDERlust) and bassist Corey Britz (who also played on Rossdale’s solo album).
BUSH re-emerged in 2011 with the album The Sea of Memories, which featured the band’s most recent No. 1 single, “The Sound of Winter.” The band has released four more albums since then, evolving their music in a still-melodic, but heavier, more metal-infused direction, especially on the previous two albums, 2020’s The Kingdom and 2022’s The Art of Survival. And while the four most recent albums haven’t been blockbuster hits, they have produced another eight top 20 mainstream rock singles, and BUSH’s touring business has remained strong. This summer represents a new high point, as BUSH headlines large outdoor amphitheaters.
“There was a time where I hadn’t really stopped working, but I maybe wasn’t working effectively and we weren’t where we wanted to be. And then we started plotting a steady course on The Kingdom record, then The Art of Survival and now the greatest hits and the next record that will come out,” Rossdale said. “So it’s just been…stay consistent, stay focused, and let’s see where we get to. Now we’re finally, well not, but we’re back to headlining arena tours, which is quite, you know, it’s a big accolade when it’s not as easy (for rock bands) to be heard these days.”
Rossdale said the bulk of the next album is recorded, but he’ll probably do a little more writing to see if he comes up with any additional songs that deserve a place on the album.
“We’ve recorded 10 or 11 songs and we’re really good position,” he said.
For the next album, Rossdale, Traynor, Britz and Nik Hughes (who replaced departing Goodridge in 2019) re-teamed with Erik Ron, who produced The Art of Survival and a pair of songs on The Kingdom.
“He’s fantastic and he put things in perspective,” Rossdale said, noting that Ron excels at helping the four musicians find consensus and keep moving forward in the studio. “I think we work well, and everyone has such a huge opinion, it’s like just getting all of us to agree and being in agreement (is tricky). And that comes from just always prioritizing song and letting the song sing, so to speak. It’s a beautiful situation because everyone does different things, you know, all the time. Everyone plays guitar all over it and plays bass all over it. I put down keyboards on it. We don’t care who does what.
“It’s just so funny. If you leave the room, there’s every chance someone’s going to play your part better,” he added. “You come back and it’s like ‘I didn’t play it that well.’”
The new album, currently titled “I Beat Loneliness,” will continue down a similar stylistic path as The Art of Survival, according to Rossdale.
“Some of it is metal, but I don’t sing metal,” he said. “So it makes for a really interesting hybrid, where I’m singing, you know, you could easily put a metal singer who’s screaming (on a song). It would make perfect sense. But I’m not interested in that. I’ve always loved melody. I’ve always loved heavy. So I’ve just been finding a way to just link them even more.”
Rossdale still finds that the process of writing songs and finding something fresh to be exciting and honing his craft is pretty much a daily adventure for him. He figures he’ll keep writing songs and making albums with BUSH as long as he’s progressing creatively.
“I’m always trying to push myself to find something that makes sense,” he said. “It’s almost as if the more records you make, the fewer records you should make. Like I’ve always said, there are too many songs in the world and never enough great ones. So if I can challenge myself to write at a standard as I perceive as equal or improved upon what went before, then I continue.”
For now, though, it’s time to play concerts and celebrate the songs that have made BUSH one of the most popular rock bands of the past three decades. And fans who see BUSH this summer can expect a set list that leans toward the hit songs that make up “Loaded: Greatest Hits 1994-2023.”
“It’s going to be a mixture of things,” Rossdale said. “So it’s a lot of variation, a lot of vibe and a couple of surprises, all of that stuff.”
- What: BUSH in concert
- When: July 31, 2024
- Where: Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, West Valley City
- Tickets and info: livenation.com
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