How Bush Conquered Failure and Found Success With ‘Sixteen Stone’

When Bush turned in the Sixteen Stone album, a couple of things happened. They were told there were no singles on the record. A short time later, they lost their distribution deal with Hollywood Records.

While some bands would have folded up shop right there, Bush kept pushing. “You have to remember that every single thing we did on that record was against the backdrop of abject failure and a complete zero success,” vocalist and songwriter Gavin Rossdale tells UCR now.

They had the last laugh when Interscope Records, led by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field, picked up the distribution rights for Sixteen Stone, which was finally released on Dec. 6, 1994. They dispatched five hit singles to rock radio and by the time they had wrapped up touring behind the album, it had sold millions of copies.

In the midst of the band’s current tour with Jerry Cantrell and Candlebox, Rossdale connected with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to discuss Sixteen Stone and what’s ahead for Bush.

These summer shows have been a lot of fun. What have you enjoyed about the experience?
I’ve been enjoying the good energy backstage. We’ve always been in situations where everyone is very cool. We’ve done a lot of co-headlines, we opened for Alice in Chains and have done some other opener things. It just feels really good having a harmonious backstage. You know, the Candlebox guys are great. I watched them last night for the first time and they were excellent. I see them every day and it’s a nice energy when you go to work and everyone is getting along. Everyone’s in it for the same reasons, you know, to have a great night of music. That’s it.

READ MORE: 75 Best Rock Songs of the ’90s

How did you bond with Jerry back in the day?
Obviously, there’s been a lot of respect over the years with Alice in Chains. “Man in the Box” was a pivotal song for me as a songwriter and a young musician trying to figure out my own aesthetic. It’s such a powerful, amazing song and they’re an amazing band. Tyler Bates is a very good friend of mine and I’ve written a bunch of songs with him. He’s great friends with Jerry, so he’s been sort of the bridge between us socially, a little bit. We’ve hung out a lot in that capacity. When we first went on tour together, originally Tyler was playing with Jerry. So there’s that social connection. He’s a great guy and an amazing musician. There’s some incredible history there. He’s such an interesting writer and frontperson. There’s not many guys like [Jerry]. We get along and we’ve been eating a lot together in catering. We seem to be on the same feeding schedule. [Laughs] I wore his shirt last night and he came on stage with us, to play “Comedown.”

You’ve got a new EP coming out this fall, Loads of Remixes, with new versions of some of your classic songs. What was the most intriguing thing for you about doing that?
I love when people do remixes. I think Corey [Britz] did a great job with “Glycerine,” Jason Butler with “Everything Zen,” you know there’s a mix from [Michael Shuman of] Queens of the Stone Age. He did an amazing mix of “Swallowed.” I did “Machinehead,” I was like, “This is too much fun, can I have a go?” So I did one. It’s so sexy and it’s really fun to have these reimagined [versions of our songs]. Remixes are so fun, I did “Machinehead” how I wanted to remix it.

Watch Bush’s ‘Everything Zen’ Remix Video

How did you land on doing “Machinehead” as the one you picked?
It was the only one that hadn’t been done and we had the stems for it. It was like, “Well, I’d better do that one then.” You know, the point is, I’ll just try it and if it sucks and doesn’t work, let’s pretend that I didn’t do it. So I did it and it worked. We had a fun afternoon and I’ve got a great engineer. We flew through it and I’m looking forward to people hearing it. I thought that Loads of Remixes was a hilarious title as well. [Laughs]

The intros for things like “Machinehead” and “Little Things” still really stick out on the radio. Obviously, the idea is always to hook the listener in quickly. But how did you figure that out?
It always [came] down to what we liked. You have to remember that every single thing we did on that record was against the backdrop of abject failure and a complete zero success. I just thought the chance to make a record was exciting for a small label in the valley of America in Los Angeles. It was the only option we had. I never had an actual concept of success. I didn’t make the songs thinking we’d talk about them 30 years later. I’d made the songs [before that] and tried to make them good, but it hadn’t worked. So when we recorded Sixteen Stone, I didn’t have the slightest idea of the potential. All I had was, “Wow, you’re going to get a chance to make a record. This is your legacy before you go back and paint houses for the rest of your life. Just feel [good] that you’ve made a record and you weren’t such a loser. You pursued music and you failed for many, many years.” Because as the story goes, that’s what it always takes.

READ MORE: Top 100 ’90s Rock Albums

I didn’t know if the story would ever turn and that I would get a [record] deal. I would go out to night clubs in London all of the time as a kid and I’d see all of the A&R guys. All of them. I’d see them across the room and everyone else would be having a good time and I’m thinking, “Oh, that fucker’s got my future in his hands! Doesn’t he realize, if he signed us, we could do something? I could be in that friend group, I’m fun!” Of course, nothing ever happened and they share never shared any drugs with us. They didn’t buy us any drinks and we didn’t go on holidays with them. They didn’t take us out with their expense accounts. I was used to being a bit of an urchin, a bit of an extra. I couldn’t get a break. That was it and I was used to that. So when I got a chance to make a record, I jumped at that chance. That’s as far as I could see. My imagination couldn’t take me any further than, “Okay, we’ll do a cool intro.” That’s it.

Watch Bush’s ‘Machinehead’ Video

You’d been through so much that at the point you are being told that there’s no viable singles on Sixteen Stone. You have this resolve that’s been built up and I’m guessing you’re not going to give up.
That’s funny, because you know, there was four or five months after we handed the record in where we lost the distribution deal. I spent the summer and the next few months just working back in London and everything did die away. I wasn’t surprised. Nothing had really gone right, so I was like, “Well, at least we made a record.’ We lost the distribution deal, okay, I didn’t know what that really meant, truthfully. Outside of just knowing, “Oh, so we don’t have a record deal now.” I was really confused by it. In November when I came to America and met Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field, because “Everything Zen” was becoming a hit on the radio, that’s sort of when everything changed. It deeply changed and it hasn’t been the same since. That was a pivotal shift where it went from a band that was not working to a band that suddenly had a crazy slipstream of work. We were suddenly in a whole different stratosphere.

How did you deal with the success when it came?
We just didn’t stop touring for a couple of years. For two or three years, we just played and played in all of the clubs, over and over. It was a lot, but it felt for the first time [like we were getting somewhere]. Before then, it was such a disconnect. Because we couldn’t get a break, so it was just hard to just always be wanting to prove yourself. What was so cool about having a hit song and playing the clubs is that every night, you got a chance to prove that you could do it. I think that may be why I love playing live so much. Every night, I get a chance to prove I can do it. When people come to shows and they’ve named their son after me — which happens a lot [Rossdale chuckles] — I just think, “Thank God, I’m still singing and thank God I’m still doing that.” I want to be a good role model for someone, if you name your kid after me. Thank you for not naming your kid after some loser with two records and that was it, they fucked off, you know? But the staying power and this connection with people, that makes you feel really good. You know, it was much harder to exist in life as an abject failure than it was to exist with some kind of audience.

What’s up ahead as far as the next album?
We did the record. It’s recorded. Part of my psychiatric process of doing this celebration of the greatest hits [with the Loaded compilation and current tour], is to have a new record. It just felt better to have a whole new record, so we recorded 10 new songs. I’m sure we’ll add a couple more. I like the idea that the body of work is done. It feels really good to know where that is and I know how all of those songs would fit into this lineup. It’s interesting, because it’s like having another stable of really strong racehorses that are gently training and being groomed, looked after and fed. A lot of TLC and they’re ready to do the business. I would probably think at the beginning of the year. We thought we’d have a single out for this run and then it was like, “Hang on, just calm down. One thing at a time.” I’m super excited about the record, because I feel really proud of it. I wrote a bunch of it and there are some collaborations with the producer we worked with. I made sure and got those out of the way and then did a bunch of stuff myself. Because if I don’t do the collaborations, everyone’s like, “Well, what’s it like if you collaborate a bit?” So we started with the collaborations and I’ve got a couple of killer songs, so I’m super excited.

Watch Bush’s ‘Nowhere to Go But Everywhere’ Video