Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale recently talked about how Jim Morrison from The Doors had a big impact on his music.
During a chat with 107.7 The Bone, Rossdale looked back at his 1996 MTV Spring Break Rocks performance, where he kept playing guitar in heavy rain, even though it was risky. He said this experience showed his dedication and drive, recalling times when he lived with friends in a small apartment, writing songs and staying up late.
“Life often presents options, two doors. Life is always a question of how hungry are you, how much you really want it whatever it is, how much you want it. I was just in a Celestial moment and I could die, but wow, I was like, this is commitment. How committed I used to be prior to that when I was failing and living in my apartment with like five people having a great time staying up every night. I’d write songs all day [I’d sleep in an] apartment with people everywhere.”
Rossdale also mentioned how he was really into Jim Morrison. He visited Morrison’s grave in Paris and read his poetry and lyrics. Rossdale and his friends often asked themselves, “What would Jim do?” This question helped guide Rossdale in his music career.
“I was obsessed for a bit with Jim Morrison from The Doors and went to Père Lachaise in Paris, where he was tombstone is where he’s buried. I visit, I read his poetry, his lyrics. He was nuts, so we used to run everything by the committee of people, my best friends who I still have to this day. We’d say, ‘Well, what would Jim do?’ That was the rule we ran by. So in that moment what just in my DNA was what would Jim do.”
In the same interview, Rossdale talked about his concerns during the performance. He worried that the guitar and other equipment wouldn’t work properly because of the rain. He felt the guitar was like a toy because it was soaked, and he doubted it would play the right notes. Despite his worries, the performance turned out to be one of Bush’s best.
“So I just sang on and it was weird because when I was playing it felt like it was a toy guitar because it just was drenched. I was thinking that first of what I get electric I was thinking, ‘This can’t even be actually corresponding to notes because it just feels like fishing wire.’ But it did, and that was it. So I went through the correct door. I’ve been through loads of the wrong doors but that was a good one.”
He mentioned that while the rest of the band refused to play because of the rain, he decided to continue and played the whole song. Rossdale expressed his commitment by saying that if the fans were getting rained on, the band would endure it too.
“If the fans are getting rained on, we will too.”
Josh Homme also once revealed why Jim Morrison ‘couldn’t sing really good.’