Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live from Them Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It is Gwen Steffani Friday. We love celebrating new music.
We're always looking for reasons to celebrate. How about a
new album from Gwen Stefani. Yes, the album is Bouquet
and she's in town here in New York City. She's
got lots going on. I have friends flying in from
the West Coast to be a part of something going on,
something we weren't invited to hold lot. We'll get to
(00:25):
the bottom of this. Please welcome the one and only
Gwen Stefani. You deserve a standing, Oh a standing, Come
on in, Hi.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
You know you don't have He smells amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Shower.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
A couple of warnings. First of all, you got to
stay close to the microphone.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Those headphones you can know how to work. Let's see.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Another thing, is I'm kidding Like I'm literally I need
all the instructions in the world right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
This has been an early wake up call for.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well so far, you're doing well, but it's only been
ten seconds. When you walk when all guests walk past Danielle,
she sniffs, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Oh okay, you should have told me that earlier.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But you smell amazing.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Jason Derulo is the best smelling person I've ever ever
had come by me.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Oh really, you're out there. You smell beautiful. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
This is one of those things only a woman could
get away with, because if we had a dude sitting
in that seat, he was like, feel weird.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Attorney's involved. Okay, So, as I said before you came in,
we all need reasons to celebrate. Having a new album
is pretty darn good reason to celebrate.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I mean, it's been me right now, it's like the
greatest thing ever.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Okay, I'm gonna try being right.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I mean, you don't know how long I've wanted this,
Like I had this like this like little voice inside me,
going make our record, you can do it, And I'm like,
I don't think I need to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
How would I do that?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I have so many songs like.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
This is a gross comparison, But the need to put
out an album is it like the pimple that needs popping?
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
They feel like that. It felt a little bit more like.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It's really hard to it's it's a little more spiritual
than a pimple pops. Okay, it feels like it feels
like I remember the first time I wrote a song
and I was like I look back and I'm like, oh,
there's there's wings back there, Like I didn't know I
could fly.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And I wrote this song like not nobody taught me,
Like it just was. It just came out of me.
So it's like you find your gift inside you, your purpose,
and then when you don't do that for a while
and you just feel like I need to do it
again because that makes me feel like I feel it
makes that feel I'm doing something in the world good,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So I just needed to write music.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I felt like, you know, what's so important about what
you're saying? And everyone driving to work right now, coming
from a house to an office to a school to
prop kids office, and that wonder, well, what's what's my calling,
what's my thing? What do I have that's already on
board that I have not discovered yet? You discovered that song,
you discovered your.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Before that, I was literally like this floating like you know,
oh my god, I love Tony Like I'm like, you
know what I mean, like a girl that had no
nothing like I wasn't going anywhere. I was just just existing,
didn't have big dreams, nothing, And once I did it,
it was like, oh my gosh, this is like, well,
first I found identity, you know, through music, you know,
(03:32):
finding music like Madness and The Selector and all these
like underground SKA bands at the time, back in the
day when I was like fifteen, you know what I mean.
But then it was like when the songwriting happened, it
was like, oh my gosh, cause you gotta I mean,
people don't really know this about me, but I was.
I'm dyslexic, so I have a really hard time in
school as a child, like trying to figure out I'm
(03:54):
just looking around and nothing. Everyone seems to be doing
something that I don't get, and I'm like, what what's
wrong with me? You know? And so that and it's
not like I didn't fit in socially or anything like that,
but it was more like, I'm it was just harder
for me. So I think that being able to find
music and have no rules, no spelling, no grammar, just
(04:16):
my heart and just trying to express myself and then
being able to do it and then those songs like
they speak back to you like they they could because
I feel like I receive them there. I don't feel
responsible for them. I pray for them, they come if
they're if, if they're meant to, and then when I
share them, it's like I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Like this vessel.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So that's that's why it's not like a pimples be
very fulfilling as well.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I just love the Going back to what I was
saying in a second ago is a lot of people,
include me, and a lot of us are still looking
for that yeah thing. I know in the past four
years your your world has been it's been this whirlwind
of incredible thing. You got married, I mean, you're you
have this new incredible life that that is that you
(05:08):
you were just open for. I think you have to
be open for it to happen. Any creativity that we
have that's in there, you got to be opened to.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That is true.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And there was a lot of you know, it's so
fun to be in the future of your life and
kind of be able to look back and discover like
how did those things happen? Like you know, from like
the first song, making the first song, first record, then
like going on tour and becoming like like we literally
(05:36):
did just a girl video and walked to the airport
and didn't come home for two and a half years.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Like we tour.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
We toured for so long, and I had never been
anywhere before that, Like I lived at my parents' house.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
What a house.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
It was really like extreme and then coming back and
being like okay, like I need to be a great
songwriter and I this is what I do and you
know what I mean, like uh, and also going into
like it was my return of Saturn, like Okay, I'm
twenty nine now, like who am I? Like reflection, you know,
and but each record has its own journey, and for me,
(06:09):
I'm really slow, like I'm a slow processor.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Like I feel like every project takes forever, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Until you start getting in that zone and then it's
just it's like rabbit hole like.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Facts, Oh you're taking time versus being slow. There's it's
the same thing, I guess. But this time was.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Like it was a little bit like and it wasn't
just the last four years. I feel like it was
more like the last eight years or nine years of
just you know, from like the explosion of like the
turmoil of losing my entire family, like my whole family
breaking up right and having to pick up the pieces
from that, and like how do you do that? Because
it's not just a breakup, you know what I mean,
(06:48):
it's a breakup of there's so many people involved and
you're responsible for that, you know, And so that was
just it was just an awful, horrible time and you know,
to then set only like turn the other direction and
see love, like what like that was just so unexpected.
It was such a blessing and unexpected one that just
(07:09):
turned my life around. And I don't feel like I
ever truly, and I know, I know my own life.
I never felt love like that before ever. So for
everyone deserves it and I think everybody can choose to
receive it and give it, you know, and be open
to it. But it was just like you said, being
(07:29):
open to it, I I didn't even feel like I
remember like everyone going, you're what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Like what are you doing with this guy?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You're I mean, you could feel the energy that it
didn't make sense that me and Blake would be together
because it didn't even make sense to me really, you know,
it's like it's.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So made it made sense.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Well, it kind of made sense immediately, like in that
weird like kind of like even to my parents. I
remember thinking, I know that they're gonna be like, what
are you doing? But I'm gonna be like what, It's
fine because when you see us together, you're gonna see
like I get to be me now, like I'm me,
and you're gonna like it. You're gonna like how we are.
So it was just a really amazing bless you looked.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
At your life like years ago and and someone said
one day you're gonna be on the farm and you're
gonna have this and you can have that, you would
have probably been like what, No, I still do it
all the time.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
And I remember one time, like when we first got
together and he would never ever take off his cowboy boots,
Like cowboy boots for me were like just like it
was a foreign word, do you know what I mean,
Like it was so far away from the reality of
(08:37):
my life that I never touched a cowboy boot before,
you know what I mean, Like it was.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
It was just so foreign.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It was so foreign supposed Yeah, and I and and
so long story short, I can remember the day that
like he they were like sitting there at the end
of the bed and I was like my God, I
just made out his one with like cowboy boots.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
That's so weird.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
But it was so right and being in Oklahoma, like
you know, like we were talking about traveling the world,
and that was one of the biggest blessings of my
life because you know, if you don't get to do that,
you don't grow like you do grow, but you stay
in a bubble, right, And so being able to see that,
especially through music, seeing that, you know, one of my
(09:22):
favorite stories. I'm totally like going from different subjects subjects. Sorry, yah, yeah,
it's so good.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Cocky no, I.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Went to I remember going around to all these different places,
all in Europe, and then you know it's crazy, like
it's insane. This is in the nineties, and we were
in Israel, right, and the Holy Land, like we were there,
and we were in a van and we had been exhausted,
this is no doubt, and this guy comes up. We
(09:56):
were in a van and all these like guys come
up with guns, right, like machine and kind of I'd
never seen a gun before. But we're in Israel, right,
and the guys are looking in the band to check
out like like a path like we were supposed.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
To go through this like I don't know a checkpoint
checkpoint kind of thing, and the.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Guy looks at me, he looks at me, he goes
don't speak, and he starts singing me.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
The song and I was like the guy with the
machine guy, and I was.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Like, oh my gosh, like this this guy knows me.
He knows me, like.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And one of those weird moments that you'll never ever
ever forget ever ever.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I love to only that serve because that's that is
the power of not only suffering, right, because that song
is about suffering and then writing about it and then
not thinking anyone would ever hear it. And then it's
I'm in a foreign land and some guy knows it
and he relates to it. And that's that's why I
wanted to make new music, Like how do I not
(10:49):
want to do that again?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You need more guns and more And then you are
in Oklahoma and Blake's frying a turkey for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
O here you, I'm guessing you own your own cowboy
boots and yes, well that's what's so funny about this
record too, because I'm wearing a cowboy hat and I'm
not wearing it because now I'm a cowboy or a.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Cowgirl, or that I'm doing a country record of course not.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
You know, it's it's an it's a love.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It's like a it's like putting on your husband's like
you know, and saying this is look at now, I'm yours.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
So yeah, by the way, Gwen Stefani, if you're just
turning us on and this will be played back later
on the best of Okay is the new album. It's
out today, which is kind of ironic that Blake has
music out today too.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
It was not planned, not at all all. Promise you,
I promise you because he just you can ask anyone.
He just cut that song like a couple of weeks ago.
He just cut the song a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Okay, what am I doing?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I want you to hear something.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Is there going to be healthy competition between the two
of you.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Can we just.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Pause for a minute and say I love you guys,
thank you for me so kind to me, like I'm
celebrating with you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh no, you've got lots to do. Okay, there's a
knob here that turns on. One of them, turns it up.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Check check tech one. I can fill you.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, Okay, so we're said, it wouldn't be funny if
we had Gwen Stefani come all the way up here.
She's gonna be all glammed up and we do nothing
but talk about her husband's new song, Are You.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Rob?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
That's where all the mixes go. It's a song about
my home state, Texas. Just bet so Froggy right there.
Froggy is he's on our show. He's in Jacksonville. He's
a huge, huge country program director.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Why are you just introducing to him?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
To me?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now? We've been ignoring him this whole time.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It's a process we go through. Sohen you hear first
heard textas you're like, oh my god, and I said,
they're coming here the same day as her album.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
This is kind of kind of weird. I think it
is so good. It's I know, Blake's on a new
record label. It's his first release with this new label,
and it really is a great song. And we're playing
at every single hour today here.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Wow, Froggy, this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And you know what, Blake is the actual unicorn because
like he doesn't even try, Like he's the most humble,
like just not trying guy.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
He just absorbs like love it's the craziest thing. So say,
like post Malone was the one that made him want
to make music again.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah. I mean We're just sitting there one day and
he's like, oh, post just wrote and wants me to
be on his song.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I was like, what, Like I've been waiting for that.
What Okay, Well we.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Really should we should talk about your album. I think
we've given we've given mat Her like.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
We're married, we are promoting, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
The people, the people from your company are looking at
me like, can you talk about her album? There is
the business part of that, all right. So Bouquet of
course out today. There is a song in there. We're
going to play both someone else's and Bouquet. So I
went to an analyzed the lyrics for someone else's. This
is you're letting it all hang out about your past
marriage as well.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, listen, you gotta like share.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
We're tribal, right, Like we all need each other so
much to heal, to relate to each other, to understand
that we're not alone. That like this stuff happens and
then you can get better. And like I didn't intend
to really go back and like I don't want to
go backwards.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
In fact, a lot of the time when I was
trying to get this record, I was trying to go backwards,
like I was circling these cul de sacts of like
oh maybe I'll be like reggae again, or you know
what I mean, trying to be nostalgic and try to
find who I am. Like musically now that represents who
I am, right. But I think that with this song lyrically,
it wasn't even really my idea. We were writing a
(14:49):
lot with which I have, like the different co writers
that I finally landed in the right space with these
these people, and one of the girls, Madison Love like
SI the idea for this song, and I was like,
oh no, we're not going in the beginning to write
that's bad energy. I'm just gonna lie. But I really
think that it really works on the album because it's,
first of all, it's the truth. The second of all,
(15:11):
it shows how far this love has grown, like how
much I've recovered, how much healing, and like you can't
really see the light without the dark.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
There's more to it than that. It's so relatable because
so many people have been or are going through or
about to go through the same thing lyrics from somebody
else's Now, Okay, you know it's out. You can't hide
from it. It's great though, now that I've found the
real thing. You don't compare and I don't care that
you're somebody else's. And it doesn't even break my heart.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
This is the only negative song on the record, guys.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
All it is. It's actually positive.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
It doesn't break my heart to hear somebody else's And
I pray for them, whoever they are. Hi, you gotta
be honest. You know what people? You know people more
than ever we bs detectors. We know when people are
not being honest with us. How more honest can you be?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
And it makes you human, It makes you you know,
even though you know you're When Safani people go, she
doesn't have issues, she doesn't have problems, and then they
look at that.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Have you heard my record?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Oh my god, I've.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Had a lot of problems, right, So this album is
obviously we've heard some of it amazing. And there's this
song that goes back into your past. I'm sure writing
it feels good, getting it out feels good, but now
you release it and it's like, oh, people are gonna
ask me questions about how this goes. Your kids might
ask you questions, how are you navigating through that with
all of this new.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, I mean, this is the thing people are you
know right now, like you guys are my reality. Like
I'm in this room, I don't we don't know each other,
but like you know something about me, like I I know,
I've heard you, I've worked with you before. You know
what I mean, like, but it's very limited. But but
you are real to me, and I do care about you,
and it's real. But all of that noise whatever, I
(17:00):
know the truth of what happened in my family. My
kids know the truth of what happened in my family,
and my kids can see the joy in me to
be using my purpose, which is to write songs and
be truthful and to try to be contribute in some
way to this world and have a purpose because I.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Am not really very good at anything.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Else, but just kind of rabbit hole like diving into
these like these like obsessions with which what you know,
Bouquet's was my obsession for the last four years, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So I don't know, I don't. I feel like my
I was.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Built to sort of like it doesn't really get to
me too bad. Like maybe little things if if someone
says something that I read, maybe that is so the
opposite of my actual character. That can mess with you.
But at the same time, yeah, and it's just you
want to go slap them, you know what I mean.
It's you actually want to choke them and punch them, right,
(17:56):
But it's like at the same and correct them. But
at the same time, it's like reality's reality.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I'll tell you what scary our producer, Pretend he's that person.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
We've been working out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Also, Okay, there's a floral thing going on here, there's
flowers involved here, there's is bothering you? No, not at all.
Is there a connection that well?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I you know, I there was like a lot of
I think, not even just in this record, but in
my life, Like gardening has been a huge metaphor to life,
right and nature is I think if you just look
into nature sometimes you can be healed by that. I
think Oklahoma's done that for me in so many ways
because my nature was like the beach. I'm a California girl,
(18:45):
like we didn't have like we went to like you know,
the park that was connected is an elementary.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
School was a long way from home. It is, but
now it's your home.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
But I think the thing about like the idea that
if you plant a seed right and that hope that
you get right, whether it's you know, if I'm thinking
like literally planting a seed, which I do do a lot,
because mean Blake garden a lot together. I mean like
large scale, like it's our it's our thing, but it
feels and asks anyone that gardens, like they've done studies
on it, like people that garden have lived longer lives,
(19:17):
like because it gives you this like this peaceful, hopeful
thing that you're waiting for to see that blossom, right.
And I think that I wanted to use that like
idea in the idea of of of healing and finding
love and how that love grows and blossoms and changes,
you know, and and it will die out and it
(19:38):
will rebloom, right. And so I think that like even
like a song like Purple Irises talks so much about
the insecurities of love and like, you know, I have
this love, but I'm getting older. What if he doesn't
think I'm cute? Like what if he doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
What if it gets taken away. Oh my god, I
finally got it. It could go, you.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Know, And so that song kind of talks about getting
in your head and but yeah, that's why I think
going down the road of like the flower thing is
just because it's so real in my life. Like we
we picked these purple irises when we were in twenty
twenty and we were on the ranch and it was
like pandemic and the kids. We found these irises that
had been like, you know, lost, like someone had planted
(20:17):
them like a hundred years ago. You know what I mean, Well,
where are these from? Like we picked them, we transplanted them,
and then years later like they took over the garden.
And so it just it just shows like love grows,
you know this. Yeah, that's why, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, I tell you why.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I know.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
We only have a few moments with you. So we're
gonna play two songs. So okay, when we're done, No,
they're going to drag you off to some insignificant thing.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Wait, could we play three songs?
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Cheer for the Elves as Oh my god, good idea
and one of my favorite albums, your Christmas album, Thank You, Heay,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Danielle just want to do that now because it okay
not to talk about Blake again. But you know that
Blake covered Cheers for the Elves. He did, Yeah, he
put it on his Christmas record.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Isn't that cool? Charge from a premium? I was just honored,
you know, honored.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Look, Bouquet is out today. What are you doing this weekend?
And you're in New York City? You've got things going
on New York.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, you know, Actually what today is?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Today?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Friday? I think tomorrow I'm in the city.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I'm going to do I'm not saying it, but I'm
going to say it that I'm going to be doing something.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Well you still really haven't said it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I mean, maybe just get get creative. What do you
think it could be.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
It's got to be some kind.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Of in the city. I have a new record and
there's a party. Is it going to be a party
of something?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I know people who are big fans of yours are
flying in from the West coast because you're doing something
and they're coming to it, and they're big fans, super fans.
Probably you need security because these people are like, all right,
so there's something going on. She can't talk about it,
but and she still hasn't, so do you have like.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
A location of the thing anything? I just want to
wait till La wakes up. All right, okay, yeah, I'm
so considerate.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Thank you. I'm grateful for many things in life, and
one of them is to be able to bring the
gift of our our favorite artists to our listeners who
are listening right now and now they're like, okay, I
needed I need to dig deeper into this album, you know.
Thank you for the gift of your smile. Thank you,
and we're so we're so just grateful for you waking
(22:20):
up in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Thank you for being my first interview today and being
so nice.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
The next one will pale in comparison. Might as well
just going to cancel that stupid thing. All our best
to Blake, even though this is about you with us
today and we're always here whenever you always have to
see it at the table.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Thanks for playing my husband's music all least this time.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You got to go in of course. All right, okay,
you get you get to choose the order in which
we play these. I have somebody Else's and I have Bouquet.
Which one do you want to hear?
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Let's do bouquet just because that's the title track of
the whole and it's and then we can go negative
after that.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, you'll be in a car being with away.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
When we.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Never heard this song on the radio.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Oh yes, oh, do we have any video going here? Okay,
we love to get video or photos.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And rounds different on the radio. When you play blick song,
it sounded like a frickin' hit.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Tell what like what?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Here's what happens. We send the sound from here down
the hall to we call it the meat grinder, and
it changes everything and it comes back and plays out
in the air. It sounds different. We've had artists come
in and go, my entire guitar solo is hidden. I
can't hear it anymore, the meat grinder. So I hope
we hear your vocals on this. This is so thank
you so much for coming in, Gwinn, thank you for
(23:38):
having me, Gwen Stefanie.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Everyone that's listening to my music all these years.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Not only is your smile infectious, but your smell is delicious.
And this is bouque.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
When