Gavin Rossdale | Club Random

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Gavin Rossdale | Club Random"

Club Random with Bill Maher featured an engaging and candid hour-long conversation between host Bill Maher and guest Gavin Rossdale, released on June 8, 2025. The episode delves into a diverse array of topics, including the music industry, personal lives, parenting, technology, substance use, and opinions on fellow celebrities. Below is a detailed summary capturing the essence of their discussions, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.

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1. Reconnecting and Club Random's Legacy [01:51 - 04:11]

The episode opens with Bill Maher welcoming Gavin Rossdale back to Club Random, expressing enthusiasm about Gavin's return. They reminisce about the venue's past as a vibrant party house before it became the podcast hub.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher [02:34]: "I would love to have you."
• Gavin Rossdale [02:55]: "And I like your use of it better."

2. Navigating the Music Industry and Creativity [04:12 - 19:05]

Gavin shares his journey in the music world, highlighting the influence of Britpop and American bands like the Pixies and Jane's Addiction on his style. They discuss the creative process behind songwriting and the anticipation surrounding Gavin's upcoming record, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and musical integrity.

Notable Quotes:

• Gavin Rossdale [17:35]: "Whole new record coming that I think is really good."
• Bill Maher [18:04]: "You're talking about a song."

3. Personal Lives and Parenting Dynamics [19:06 - 28:29]

The conversation shifts to personal realms as Bill and Gavin delve into parenting. Gavin discusses raising his three sons alongside his ex-wife, who is deeply religious. They explore the challenges of blending differing belief systems within the household and the impact of technology on children's futures. Gavin expresses his fears about AI and the uncertain world his kids are stepping into.

Notable Quotes:

• Gavin Rossdale [15:57]: "My longest? Well, there was a time... ten year anniversary... three years now."
• Bill Maher [09:58]: "It's a very odd cognitive dissonance in your mind."

4. Technology, AI, and Society's Evolution [28:30 - 32:30]

Bill and Gavin engage in a thoughtful discussion about the rapid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence. They critique AI's limitations, such as its tendency to "hallucinate" factual inaccuracies ([30:03] Bill Maher) and ponder the societal shift towards valuing knowledge over wisdom ([30:42] Gavin Rossdale). The conversation underscores concerns about humanity's reliance on technology amidst diminishing interpersonal wisdom.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher [30:03]: "But just the fact that it can be wrong that much tells me we haven't really improved on humans."
• Gavin Rossdale [30:42]: "It's incredible because, well, that's always gone on."

5. Substance Use in the Entertainment Industry [32:31 - 75:12]

Substance use emerges as a prominent topic, with both hosts sharing their perspectives and experiences. Bill humorously describes modern drug combinations like "C2" (ketamine and cocaine) and debates their cultural impact. Gavin recounts his negative encounters with cocaine in London, labeling it the "least creative drug" he's experienced and discussing its detrimental effects on his songwriting.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher [73:47]: "This is called C2. It's a combination of ketamine and cocaine."
• Gavin Rossdale [75:12]: "I never connected to it, so I could."

6. Critiques of Celebrities and Show Business [75:13 - 105:35]

The duo offers candid opinions on various celebrities and the broader entertainment industry. They critique figures like Madonna, Charlie Sheen, and Kanye West, discussing their scandals, public personas, and the double standards in accountability. The conversation touches on the complexities of fame, personal conduct, and the often unbalanced repercussions faced by different artists.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher [32:33]: "Christopher was not having him at all... no political correctness in."
• Bill Maher [67:32]: "I don't know what you're talking about. Like, Guy Ritchie movies."
• Gavin Rossdale [74:27]: "Did I get it right?"

7. Reflections on Aging, Life, and Responsibility [105:36 - 115:05]

In the final segment, Bill and Gavin reflect on aging, personal growth, and responsibilities. Bill shares his retirement from touring after 42 years, expressing contentment with his current life centered around home and family. Gavin discusses balancing his roles as a musician and a father, emphasizing the importance of being a present and supportive parent without imposing his own experiences onto his children.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher [114:12]: "Rock and roll was not meant to be an old person's game."
• Gavin Rossdale [108:35]: "Nothing worse than a parent who forces their child to live vicariously through them."

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Conclusion

The "Gavin Rossdale | Club Random" episode is a rich tapestry of personal anecdotes, industry insights, and philosophical musings. Bill Maher and Gavin Rossdale engage in a dynamic dialogue that not only entertains but also provokes thoughtful consideration on topics ranging from the creative processes in music to the ethical dimensions of technology and parenthood. Their authentic exchange offers listeners a multifaceted view of two seasoned individuals navigating the complexities of modern life and their respective careers.

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Please Note: The timestamps provided correlate to the points in the transcript where the notable quotes occur, offering listeners a guide to revisit specific segments of the conversation.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, because that's what I would get.

[Bill Maher]

Club Random musical quiz question. What? Awesome.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Sex Pistols. Club Random.

[Bill Maher]

Is there a guest?

[Gavin Rossdale]

There is.

[Bill Maher]

I'm here in the room.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Hey, how are you? Pleasure to meet you after all these years. Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Bill Maher]

I'm seeing you around. I'm seeing you in the clubs, as they say. You still go to clubs, Kevin? No, not much.

[Gavin Rossdale]

What was the last time here? I was saying, this is really fun.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, this is a great club. Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And I hope I didn't screw. I don't want to screw it up to the point where. Because I wanted to come back when it's full of people. I was like, this is.

[Bill Maher]

I would love to have you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I was like, I mean, this was the party house for years before we made it the podcast house. I really want to get it back to that because I'm here so much, doing this that I kind of forget about it that way. You're right. All right, I'll throw a party for you. You live around here?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I live down the road. And what's weird is that actually, I heard this was Ben Affleck's game room.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, it was.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And I like your use of it better. Oh, I like your use of it better.

[Bill Maher]

Oh. First of all, it was full of. He was never here. You know, movie stars, they always say they're either on location or on vacation. So that's why he was. It was like a bachelor pad thing for him. And this room, everyone told me to tear it down because it was full of termites and mold, and it was just hard. This room was full of, like, video games, all on all that electricity.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You see, what's weird is that I lived in a house up the road.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really?

[Gavin Rossdale]

That Ben and Jlo had lived at.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, wow. They have a lot of houses.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And so what was the funny part was when I moved in, and they had the. You know, there's all the big phones with all the different labels on the names for the house, the rooms, all that. The one, you know, you have a phone, and next to the phone, there's all the different buttons for the rooms. Master bed, guest bed, blah, blah, blah.

[Bill Maher]

Fancy people. I don't have.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, but the best building was. It had that, and it had little Ben, and then we flipped it, took it off. And Mark Anthony, when he was there.

[Bill Maher]

Are you serious? Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I didn't even know that because it would mean it was my house. So I saw it, and I was like, this is.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. That's like having his and her towels and marrying somebody else, you know, who has the same initials on the towel. I always thought a funny movie would be. I mean, this is when I used to do more drugs than I do now. Although I do some now. Here's the premise. A girl gets a tattoo. She's like, you know, 17 or in love with some guy named Tony, right? So she gets a tattoo right above her pussy that says tony's little baby. And then she breaks up with Tony. Cause, you know, she grows. It always happens. And now she goes to. So I got to get this lasered off. And they say, you have a rare skin. You cannot laser this off. And then the rest of the movie, she has to fall in love with a guy named Tony. She has to find a guy named Tony and have him not see her pussy until she meets him. Now, how do you. How would you end that movie?

[Gavin Rossdale]

You're an actor. Well, Wino. Yeah. I would make sure. Johnny Depp having Winona, and then he changed it to Wino when he. When they broke up.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah. No, that would ruin the movie.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That would ruin the movie. Well, I would. I would. I. I would. I'd find two of them. Because there has to be some sort of.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Cliffhanger and a sequel. Because everything is about sequels. Nothing works unless you can do it seven times. Right.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you could if you really wanted to take this premise seriously. And why would you. But you could make the case that, you know, love is kind of arbitrary. It's like when people think, oh, I found the one true person. Oh, shut the fuck up. Like, everybody. Not everybody, but lots of people get divorced. You've been divorced. Okay. It's like. And then they. Or horribly sometimes somebody dies. Life goes on. We need to live in the present, and so we find some other one true person in the world. You know what I mean? And so, like, could you actually find just among the Tonys. I think you could just do.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, there's definitely more than two.

[Bill Maher]

But you need AI, though, so you're.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I mean, I think another way of looking at it is that also people have a hard time accepting that some people or some relationships have a time.

[Bill Maher]

Correct.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And we get so upset when they think that. That time, you know, so that's what.

[Bill Maher]

Because we ourselves go through passages in life.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So your 20 self is not really your 40 self. Now, sometimes the person you're married to, like two dragonflies who fly in tandem, you think that's a miracle?

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's pretty odd.

[Bill Maher]

I would say it's somewhat more of a rarity than the opposite.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Even though people do stay together, but being miserable and together doesn't count to me.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. That's a drag. That's a drag.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

What's the longest that you've been in.

[Bill Maher]

A relationship for what's today? I was in a relationship for five years when I was 20, 32 to 37, like, right at the time, you should get married.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

But I just wasn't ready, you know? And, you know, with someone who would have been a perfect wife, there was, like, nothing wrong with her. Like, really. I know people say that, but that's true.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And much, much later in life, I somehow found someone very. In the same way. I don't. I don't see any problem. You know, I haven't. I always say to her, I have no notes. I have no notes. You know, if I had, I would give them to you. But Your performance is perfect. It's been going on for years. It must be real, you know. How would you answer that?

[Gavin Rossdale]

What's my longest? Well, there was a time I was with someone, as they say, married for a long time. It's been a bit more.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Another rock star. Which makes it even harder.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. No, I think at the 10 year anniversary I said it's been the best six years of my life, you know. Yeah. Since then I definitely have bounced a bit. I have had a girlfriend for two years now who's been kind of fun, interesting, great girl. So that's been a vibe and something that. It's not easy, you know, there's something, you know. Yes. There's things that go on that you just. It's hard to feel settled, you know, especially if you're always doing stuff and, you know, going for things. It's just sometimes it can be hard. And you have loads of kids. I have loads of kids. That's the other thing. Loads. Yeah. Three. Three boys here. Three.

[Bill Maher]

That's a load.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But we think somewhere in our minds that as we get into these upper ages that we're going to. I mean, at least I thought when I was 20s, 30s, life would be. And I would be very different. I'm in 69. It's just not like it. The things you think are going to recede and going away, maybe they do a little bit, you know, your yen for, you know, strange as they call it, you know, it's a thing built into male DNA. It doesn't really ever go away completely. Maybe it does for some people.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, my favorite thing that goes away is the need to ever convince other people of something. I mean, as you go on, what's the point? I mean, you've done an incredible job to illuminate the amazing things through the years. You're showing. Really incredible.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I appreciate it.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Really incredible. So that is something so powerful. But man, it is such a. A wild time to be alive. In some ways it's the wildest time we've ever lived. There's more uncertainty.

[Bill Maher]

True.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But there's more joy and there's more pain, it seems. It's just.

[Bill Maher]

I say the same thing often. It's a very odd cognitive dissonance in your mind. I get this all the time when I'm out and people come up to me and they're like, you know, we're in a beautiful restaurant and they've just had an amazing dinner and they thought nothing of paying $1,000 for four people to have dinner. And you know, like, Bill, what are we gonna do? I'm like, I don't know, look around, is it that bad for you? Cause I get what you mean. Like part of your brain is like, oh my God. You know, if you like democracy, remember to like and subscribe because we may not be hanging around. Really existential. And also AI, I mean, things, plastics that we can't seem to stop getting into our body. I mean, there are things we've been.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Lied to for so long, it's incredible. That's what's insane because, well, that's always gone on.

[Bill Maher]

But plastics and AI haven't, right? And Trump hasn't. I mean, his anti democratic ways, okay, those things are all new. Lies are not new, but those things are. And if you want to like spend your life fretting, you could. It's legitimate. I don't have a problem with it. You have to like just choose to go. Yeah, but look at the dinner I just had and look at the restaurant.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, yeah. Otherwise you go crazy. I mean, there's no sense. But it is a very strange time. And for me, you know, as a father having my kids just now coming into manhood, 19 year old on Monday, a 17 year old, it's just like, just seeing what the future holds for them. It's kind of, you know, all these reports look like in 2035, AI, you know, people will be scared of AI robots, you know, people will have to hide from. It's just, it's a lot, right.

[Bill Maher]

I was saying on my show last week that I used to curse at my car because. And I have not liked cars generally. I've had some good ones. I have a good one now. I had a Tesla a few years ago and did not get rid of it because of Elon. I just, there was a car, Mercedes made a electric luxury car that was better than the Tesla. And you know, it cost twice as much. It should be very similar. Tesla's still a beautiful, wonderful car, but like the Tesla, this one is just, it's just way too much in my business. Way too much, you know, nagging me. It's like if I want.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It knows, what do you want to eat on the way home?

[Bill Maher]

It yells at me for this. The stupidest fucking shit. Oh, doesn't yours. Your car? What do you have an old car?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I guess you must. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

This thing. Oh, please. Like if I'm at the end of my driveway, if I'm driving out of my house, right, and the, you know, the street is there in front of me, Perpendicular to me. And if a car. I'm at the end of the driveway. I can see, I look, I've been driving since I was 17. I can see if a car is coming across and I'm not going to plow out while the car is passing me. But the car, I know, I see it. I'm a human.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Can you grade it? Can you like, you know, I mean, sort of give a beginner advanced and long time driver.

[Bill Maher]

And then I have a second like iPhone in the car because I use it as an ipod for music, right? So when I get out of the car, the car thinks I left my phone there. So it says, you left your phone? And I used to be like. And I'm not proud. I don't talk like this in real life. Irl. No, but I'd be like, shut the fuck up, you stupid cunt. Because it doesn't do every time. And now I'm afraid to call my car A because I know the robots are listening and I know they're going to remember that. And in five years or 10, it's gonna be, who's a cunt now, Bill?

[Gavin Rossdale]

They might kick you in your cunt.

[Bill Maher]

Now, I know for you British cunt is not a bad word.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, that's a compliment.

[Bill Maher]

But here it is. So when I call the car a cunt, you know, I'm being serious.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's not a good one because we don't do that.

[Bill Maher]

I don't certainly never did that in real life. I mean, but a car, you should be able to vent your things at the inanimate objects and I'm just afraid to do that. So there is a lot to be worried about now. Your kids are going to be fine. They're Nepo babies. Okay. Are they?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I suppose. I mean, I think by definition.

[Bill Maher]

Are they in the business already?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Are they streaming?

[Bill Maher]

Well, everyone's streaming.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They. I got two of them are really, really, really into music, which I. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, but they got that through the genes.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I've never really. It's. I mean, I. For me, it's really about letting them be individual and do what they want. And so they're very talented. But I feel terrified. Well, a little bit terrified for them.

[Bill Maher]

Are they true fans of Bush or.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think they understand the.

[Bill Maher]

What did they think? I mean.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Cause, well, this is the main theme, you know, ever since I had kids, when I first had kids. Have you written any songs about the kids? Of course I fucking haven't. But I said, but what I do have is like they're so opinionated that whenever I make a record, I want them to like it. Cause I don't want them to go to school or have their friends at school be like, well, you want the.

[Bill Maher]

Generation in general to like it too.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think they just know that. They know that it's quality. I hope they know that it's, like, legal.

[Bill Maher]

They do, by the way. I will say that to you. Like, there are bands. No one is gonna be like they were the first decade. Because it's just a thing for young. It's young people's domain. You just. Nobody does it. But there are bands that people think fall off or get corny. They don't think that of your band. And they're right. It's. And. And actually people think even though it doesn't. Hasn't, you know, your last record probably didn't sell what the first two did, but the fans actually think it's better. You know, they think the. The. The musicianship has, you know, stayed, you know, because your. Your fan base is getting older, so they're getting more discerning. So they want a kind of a top quality, nutritious serving of music. And I think they feel like you give it to them.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you. It's weird you say that, because I think in that way. I think in that way of it being, you know, to be surprising, just do good, good, good stuff, you know, and really, like, mind some. We have a new. Whole new record coming that I think is really good. And it's a great time because, yeah, you can spend your time worrying. I spend a lot of my time worrying or fretting, as you said. And then you just think of the pure, simple joy of just making something that connects to people. It's such an ancient concept. Even though I use mad technology to make it, intrinsically, it just starts with an idea. It's a blank. It's a blank space.

[Bill Maher]

You're talking about a song.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. So making a song, you know, it's like improving that silence. You know, like silence is one of the. Almost the best sound ever. So they're having the, you know, the kind of audacity to like, say, no, I need you to listen to this. It's an amazing job. And I just have so much fun mining these. The almost experiments I make in making songs just to get better at music. And I think that's what I hope comes through.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it does. Well, it does. Because like I say, nobody can be like, at that frenzy height in music. Comedy is sort of the opposite. It goes slowly up if you do it right where music is like, it just. It's a skyrocket and of course it fucks a lot of people up because of that, but. So you can't be there forever. But it's a good trick that people who even aren't like that big a fan. Nobody thinks your band is lame. You know where they think that of a lot of people from the past, you know, nobody thinks Pearl Jam is lame. Maybe you don't listen to them, but, you know, they never sold out like your band. You know, they, they, you know, they do stuff that does not. It's not pandering for sure, you know, to. There's no commercial like, oh, we're, we're going to do this one.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They've been supporting your. Your boy Bruce and his stuff going on. They've been doing Pearl Jam, been throwing some Springsteen covers just as a point.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Why is he my boy Bruce? No, I mean, because we're both American. I've never even met him. No, I mean, I'm a fan. Like everybody. It's the law.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's the law. It is.

[Bill Maher]

No, I am. I mean, I think he's one of the artists who is. Was around when I was young and again, like, I have stuff from, you know, he put out two years ago or whenever the last one was that I feel like fits nicely along with earlier stuff. Like if you play them back to back, it's not like, oh, that's later when they started to start. Yeah, that's a good trick.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I like your early funny stuff.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, like Woody Allen.

[Gavin Rossdale]

He, he. Yeah. What I like about him is that what inspired me about him the most, slightly fucked me up as a songwriter is that I heard that he always has four or five songs ready to go to make a record. So you never run the tank dry. You always to write enough so that you have like, for you material. Like, you know, I don't know how often you write or how it works, get material going, but, you know, it's nice creatively just to have that stuff in. Before I went on the greatest Hits tour that we just did last summer, I went in the studio and I just thought about Bruised Alpen. I was like, I'm going on greatest hits talk, but I've got to do something creative now. So I wrote a bunch of songs. When I came to finish this record now, these last few months, it was a nice process because I'd already done the Springsteen trick of having a nice few songs in the bank.

[Bill Maher]

Writers took the pressure off Writers have said that too, you know, like, of course, this is the old day when they were using typewriters, but leave half a page in the typewriter, right. So that when you start the next day, it's not that daunting. You know, you were in the middle of something and you're just going back. Yeah, I've never worked that way.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But, you know, how do you write?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, most of my life, I did stand up as well as my show. Stand up. Well, first of all, I just never purposely wrote. That's just not how some comics feel that that's the way to do it. Like, purposely get up in the morning and get a yellow legal pad and blah, blah, blah. Nah, I preferred to get high. Whatever funny came out. Try to remember it, like, sitting around, like, doing this, you know, and like, I don't know what we said tonight, but I'm sure there was one thing that would have been a great bit already, you know, and in the old days, I would, like, have made an effort to remember that. There was a time when I think I saved them. Oh, I did, like, all these what I would call cocktail napkins, because a lot of them were literally cocktail napkins. This is before cell phones, and if I was out having fun and something funny, I would write it down on the cocktail napkins. Of course, half the time you get home and you're like, what is that, Sarah? Yeah, that too. Or just something like, you know, wolves should pole dance. I'm like, what was I? I don't remember what the meant by.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, we see you getting after.

[Bill Maher]

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[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, my friend's dad, back in the day when we began, we were kids and we thought we completely emancipated from life and responsibility by deciding to be in a band meant the end of all work, all effort, all focus. We be in a band and it's all going to happen. Then he sat us down and he said, listen, it's all very well and good. You. You two want to, you know, now you, now you're gonna be in this band and make it happen. But just don't forget Tin Pan Alley. Five days a week, nine to five people go and write. So if you want to be serious, you have to do it like that.

[Bill Maher]

The Brill Building.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know what that is?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, exactly. That's what it means.

[Bill Maher]

New York, like where Carole King.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. And what they.

[Bill Maher]

Neil Sadaka and, you know, people like that. Same thing with the Motown Factory.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

So that Dozier Holland, that writing team that just churned out like so many hits. Smokey Robinson wrote a lot. You know, he was more than just the band, you know, recording artists. He wrote for other artists. And they would just. Yeah, they would. I mean, Berry Gordy was not like, you know, when the. When sits on your shoulder, let me know and we'll put out the record. He was like, okay, we're putting on a record Tuesday.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So I, you know, think of something and it's that there's something to be said for that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, it's been. It's been the mainstay of my. Of everything I've ever done. When that time to write, you just go do that. And the best thing about it is, like, not being precious just to write and write and write.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And just let it Be. And, you know, I mean, one thing, I think that as you. You know, as we get older, I have got better at editing. So I don't. I'm not, like, so, like, I'm not so sketchy. It's gonna be quite specific. But it was really good to stockpile that material.

[Bill Maher]

Editing. I'm not gonna say it's everything. Of course it's not. It's a lot.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It's more than you think when you're younger. At least that's what I found in.

[Gavin Rossdale]

What I. I read this great thing that Alan de Botton, who's this English psychotherapist, said. He says, if you're not embarrassed of who you were last year, you're not working on yourself.

[Bill Maher]

That's great. Who said that?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Alain de Botton.

[Bill Maher]

Never heard of him. He sounds like him.

[Gavin Rossdale]

He's amazing. He has a school of life which is this sort of, I don't know, psychotherapy center for wellness. It's really. You love him. He's really funny.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that kind of stuff.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You love him because he says stuff like, whatever you do, don't tell anyone everything about yourself. Nobody deserves that. Things like that. He's just brilliant. He's just brilliant. And he's saying, you know, his whole thing is that everybody is very, very broken. And everybody's slightly mental. Everybody has their issues, and everybody has their prisms of reasoning that are not always logical, and there's lots of conflict. And the fact that two people can cohabitate, can connect, is a miracle of sorts because it's so precarious.

[Bill Maher]

If there's one thing I'm always, like, on my own case about, what I'm always testing myself about is, am I seeing this clearly? You know, like, you have to be. You have to, first of all, care. Lots of people absolutely don't care about their biases. You know, you can confront them and say, well, you watch Fox News all day or you watch MSNBC all day, you don't even hear the other side. Yeah, and I don't want to. They're not even trying to hide it. I just want to hear what I already think. And I don't want to let any new information upset that or, you know. And of course, I'm trying to do the exact opposite, which immediately alienates some people on both sides of that divide. But it enamors a nice portion who also appreciate that. But it does take actual effort. Those extremes are always encroaching on you and trying to get you to just come over to one of those Sides completely. It's so much easier and safer. You have a team and so it's like, you know, it takes some effort to elbow them all. Get the fuck away from me, both of you. I'm just gonna do it my way here in the middle.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's what you've done. That's the genius of what you've done over the years.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, finish your time.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But it is. That's the whole point. It's a sort of. I enjoy. I love going through popping between them all and because sometimes, I mean, I love watching FOX sometimes just to sort of be like, wow, okay, that's what, wow. You know, you just get this sense and then you switch then msnbc. It sort of feels a bit anodyne in comparison sometimes. And then onto cnn. I like going through them all and seeing what's up with that. AI is now much easier for actually ask ChatGPT what's going on. That's what's pretty crazy.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. But you do know that about 1 out of 20 times it does what they call in the business hallucinating. You're familiar with this term? Well, chatgpt, all AI just. They don't know why. But obviously something with the programming. But yeah, one out of 20 things, it will not just be wrong, but it'll be wildly wrong. That CHAT just GPT just decided to tell you, with all the authoritarianness that has. For every other thing that it's talking about as if it is this God. It is not a God, although we're treating it like that. So just know like 1 out of 20 times it's going to tell you the exact wrong thing. You're going to say, do you take aspirin for a stroke? And it's going to say, absolutely. And the answer is completely the opposite. I mean, that's an extreme example. I'm just making up. But.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And then you die.

[Bill Maher]

And then you die. But just the fact that it can be wrong that much tells me we haven't really improved on humans. We just put it in a different box and it's more dangerous.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I mean, honestly, it just assimilates all the information that's been put into it. There's no new thoughts, it's just every thought. The funny thing is you just wish that somehow in this incredible advanced world technology, the scope is so incredible and yet the wisdom is so lacking because people still can't get along. It's just wisdom is in short supply. Knowledge is everywhere. But wisdom is really hard to find.

[Bill Maher]

And also we have this 21st century revolution in epistemology, really, that's what AI is. I mean, it's just a completely different way of knowing things and being exposed to knowledge. And yet it's not like it came along. Well after we got rid of, like, religion, you know, that would make sense. But we still. We have this foot in the future way in the future with the robots and they know everything, and then most of the world, one foot in. Oh, no. It's mostly important who God is. And my God has a bigger dick than your God. And that's very important to me. It's so important to me I might have to kill you. Because you don't think my God is the God. I know. We all pretend. Some of these religions. I'm not gonna name anybody.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You are. The 99 are shit. There's a thousand gods, right? There's a thousand gods out there.

[Bill Maher]

Well, no, there used to be. That's Richard Dawkins. Great definition of atheism. You know, the great Englishman, I visited him at his home once when I was making religious. Yeah. Walked around in this yard. I was very excited. I still love him. He sat here, but, you know, he says, back in the days of mythology, yes, there were hundreds and hundreds of gods. And then slowly we, you know, got that down to one. And he says, I just take it one further. You know, first we believed in Zeus and Athena and Artemis, and then it was just Yahweh or Jesus or Muhammad, you know, Allah. And I'm just. I just took it one step further maybe. Why not? None.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Christopher Hitchens was my hero. He was incredible. You must have loved him.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, loved him.

[Gavin Rossdale]

One of the greatest men ever.

[Bill Maher]

Once gave the audience the finger there. Right on real time. Just Right. Not that I haven't done it, too.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But just growing up in England, he was always on tv, just in his, like, khaki suit with the white shirt and just, like, spewing brilliance and just putting people in their place.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And just.

[Bill Maher]

And not caring. I once booked him on the show with. Here's the panel. Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens, who are huge buddies, you know, and most deaf.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

And they were. I mean, they're. I love most. Most of. Much more than they did. They. I mean. And Mr. Def does have some. You know, he did have some theories. I don't agree with either. But, like. Like, Christopher was not having him at all. You know, there was no political correctness in. Well, you have a different point of view. He was just like. You know, he just. And Salmon Sal was trying to be more cordial but you know, it was the network I remember hated that show, but I loved it. At Chipotle we also have a playlist. Guacamole as it's being hand mashed. The sizzle of adobo chicken on the grill, the chopping of onions and cilantro. We call our playlist Real Order now. Chipotle for real. Meet the most capable CR V Honda has ever dreamed of. The all new CR V Trail Sport Hybrid. With all terrain tires and available enhanced traction control, it's built for wherever the day takes you. Heated front seats and a heated steering wheel. Ideal for winter drives and crisp early starts. And with generous cargo space, it's ready for big gear and even bigger getaways. The CR V Trail Sport Hybrid. Learn more at honda.com CRV Club Random is brought to you by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Summer's upon us. The scent of sunscreen, the crackle of a campfire. And that one guy who insists there shouldn't be a separation between church and state. Even though Thomas Jefferson is kind of rolling in his grave on that one lately. Some folks are trying to sneak religion into everything, like schools and courtrooms, even your doctor's office. It's like they're playing hide and seek with the separation of church and state and forgetting the separation part. America was founded by people who knew a little something about why religion shouldn't be be part of government. They learned firsthand how even the best intentions can lead to bad outcomes. Instead of having the ten Commandments in every classroom, how about we just stick to the ABCs and Sats? Because let's face it, the dinosaurs did exist and evolution is in fact a thing that happened. That's where the Freedom From Religion foundation comes in. They've been defending church state separation since 1978 in the courts and schools and wherever religion tries to take the wheel. If you believe government should serve everyone, not just the religious, join them. Go to FFRF, U.S. freedom or Textclub to 511511 and become a member today. Go to FFRF, US Freedom or Text Club to 511511 Text fees may apply.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Have you raised your kids with a religion? Your wife was Catholic, right?

[Gavin Rossdale]

My wife is serious. Extremely. Born again. Very, very, very serious on that stuff.

[Bill Maher]

Was that an issue?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I mean, actually, at the end of our marriage, no, I was. Listen, I found it when I was a kid. I had to go to school and we'd do prayers in the morning. You have to go to before you go to class, you sing Hymns.

[Bill Maher]

What. What religion is it?

[Gavin Rossdale]

This is Christian Christianity. Just Church of England.

[Bill Maher]

Church of England. Okay. That's.

[Gavin Rossdale]

So it's the one where you can get married, remarried. Because that was what he did. It was. It was rewritten from the Catholic.

[Bill Maher]

Is this the bishop of. What's he called?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Waterson. Was changed, wasn't it?

[Bill Maher]

Who's the head of the Church? Of the church. What is he called? The. Isn't there. Archbishop. Canterbury Archbishop.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Is that who the head of the church is?

[Gavin Rossdale]

I suppose. But my. What I was saying was that when I would be in there and in the churches, I just. I never connected to. I was like, come on. It's not. We're not all really. We just. We all know, don't we? We don't know. We do know.

[Bill Maher]

How old were you when you knew that? I just knew something even a 10 year old can get.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I just thought we all. It was like, we're all in this together, right?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, then. And I never felt very disconnected from that. So it was always very. I was never disrespectful to it. I love churches, I love hymns. And I think weirdly, ironically for me, music is that even though I'm not remotely religious, I think the Bible has some incredible writing and I find myself using lots of biblical references and I sort of like it because I'm like, so what? They're just words. So I get so. But it's not my. I don't connect to it. I think it's. It's not. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Musical quiz question. I mean, what awesome Sex pistols. What awesome 1960s number one hit record was. The lyrics were straight out of the Bible book of Ecclesiastes to everything turn, turn, turn. You don't know that song.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I do. I know the song.

[Bill Maher]

There is a season turn, turn, turn and a time. You know.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Beautiful song.

[Bill Maher]

Beautiful. And they just took the lyrics right out of the Bible. Right. I mean, that was sort of the.

[Gavin Rossdale]

So no, what was interesting is that I don't agree.

[Bill Maher]

Not that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I like it. You know, it's this beautiful song, but. Yeah, you do that. You know, you always the same. Were you always the. You always had the same feeling?

[Bill Maher]

No, of course I was. I was scared shitless. I was a young Catholic boy who went to. Had they, you know, forced us to go to catechism and go to confession and like I was sinning at seven. Like, what fucking sin could I have been committed? Bless me Father, for I have sin. I embezzled, I committed adultery. I cheated on my seven Year old girlfriend, you know, it just was. I was so scared, so scared that I just didn't question anything.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's awful.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I mean, that's what they normally do. And I mean Catholic. I mean, catechism was just lump in the throat. Cause it was once a week before mass, I went to a regular, you know, public school. So. And this was so different public school. I had enough anxiety, but I could get through that. This was like different. These were kids from other schools. There was like 60 in the classroom that were taught by nuns. They didn't know who I fucking was. Like, they gave us things to memorize, like a hundred questions about religion. Look, who is God? Where is God? Like all these, you had to know that's what catechism means. They're teaching you the religion of. So you have to memorize. Oh, God is everywhere. And like, I was just a nervous wreck. They were gonna say, question 68, you know, what happened to Jesus Foreskin when he was ascended to heaven? Did it go with him? You know, and I would just be a nervous wreck. So I don't remember. It wasn't a matter of questioning it. It was a matter of just. I don't want them to punish me or, you know, be mad at me because here on earth it sounds bad. And also I'll go to hell. You know, I believed in hell. I believe in Santa Claus torture.

[Gavin Rossdale]

This is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, five years, three years earlier, I believed in Santa Claus. I mean, we're talking about very young minds here.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And what was the transition? When did you were like, when were you like.

[Bill Maher]

But when my mother told me about Santa Claus, I should have made the connection and went, oh, well, if you'll.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Want anybody else to tell me anything else and tell me, mom, this Jesus.

[Bill Maher]

Guy sounds a lot like it. He's like, he has superpowers and you know, he do all these things. But I just was a ball of fear. So it wasn't until I was a young teenager where I started to actually think about it. And then luckily my father stopped going to church when I was 13. So then I was sort of like, I didn't have to have the fear and I could think about it more. I still didn't become an atheist right away. Not at all. I just didn't. I just thought the religion part more and more. I thought, okay, well this is bullshit. But. And then at some point I just thought, oh, you know what? In for a penny, in for a pound.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I mean, Stephen Fry is the other English you have. Like Richard Dawkins, Hitchens and Stephen Fry, who are the three kind of most. I mean, suppose Ricky Gervais is incredible about. Oh, so funny and his whole breakdown and analysis of being an atheist is pretty incredible. So those guys. So it seems. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And Russell Brand, I think was. But of course he has his own problems now.

[Gavin Rossdale]

He's busy.

[Bill Maher]

He sounds like he would have been one of your mates.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, the funny thing is, is that I, when he first came to la, I went up to him and I saw him out somewhere and I did try and say hello to him and sort of welcome him to la, but he seemed very busy. It wasn't. It didn't. It was sort of. It didn't. It didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't connect to hanging out with him. I was like, listen, you're here and you're new if you ever want to hang out, whatever you're doing. But he was on a trajectory at that point. He was like, he'd just done get him to the Greek. He'd been known. He had the MTV aws, remember they fated him, they had his brand and it was just like this sort of superstar presenter style and.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I'm. I'm. Okay, maybe all that was true. But I would also say you have to be really full of yourself to think it wouldn't be cool to hang out with you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you. He was busy. He was busy. He was on his. He was on a trajectory, so.

[Bill Maher]

But he, on his trajectory took him to jail. I mean, I, Maybe he's not in jail, but he certainly threatened with going to jail. And he sat here and like, I don't know if I've ever enjoyed one of these more. I mean, he is so funny and he's so erudite.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, he's incredible. Yeah. So, I mean, it was just like a mental ping pong game. I felt like, wow, I am really. Someone's really hitting the ball back over the net and you know, look, I love everybody who's here, but people like you who are British, always gonna be smarter. Close to my age. I'm sorry, we've just lived longer. We just have had more interesting experiences. I know that makes us the bad guy. We know things more just because we lived more days. It's just more interesting. I mean, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun being older.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think it is. I like that David Bowie quote. He said, like, what's strange about getting older is you become the person you should have been all along.

[Bill Maher]

What is it? You become the person you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You should have been all along.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that's so true. Yes.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And you sort of. But that's.

[Bill Maher]

That's so true. He said that. Yeah, that in a song.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, but, you know, the thing about it is that it's also. There's also something that clarity is. It'd be. You know, youth is enough. Come on. Youth is enough. There's like, give us something. Give us one edge. Give us one edge left. It's the final edge, is the experience.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. And. Well, it's a little more than that. Because you're actually happier. Because you're more.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Try some of them.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, please. Because you're more comfortable in your own skin.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And like you were talking about something before.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Less about what? People convincing people of something. You don't need to convince people.

[Bill Maher]

I know people have bucket lists. Right. But an even better. That's a thing. Those are things you want to do that you haven't done yet. My list that I treasure is the things I used to do that I don't do anymore. That's the great list. Because I used to do so many things that were tedious or I didn't really want to, especially when I was really young. Of course, you have to work any job they offer you. You can't even eat the food you want to because it's too expensive. If you're poor, you know, that's. And as you get older, you just eliminate so many things that you used to do that. No, I'm not doing Christmas at all. How about that? No gifts, no parties, no showing up anywhere. Just another day. Because that's how I really feel about it. That's awesome. That, to me, is better. There's really nothing on my bucket list.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. I don't have a bucket list. I find that's a weird concept, bucket list. Because then I think it's so sad when. When you've done something, then I. Yeah, I get it. Sometimes people come and see my show and they say, this is my bucket list moment.

[Bill Maher]

Right? Oh, yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

We're going anyway. Come back next year. I got another record. What are you talking about? This is ongoing, darling. I need regular sushi.

[Bill Maher]

But that's for them thinking about you. They're thinking about.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, the funny thing is, is that I'm really proud of where we began and proud of being from the 90s. But. But it's the funniest thing when people go. When you know. Cause it's this mixed thing. Obviously, it's really amazing, right? But when people come into the show and they say, oh my God, it's so great. It's like being back in the 90s, think, hang on, the fuck am I like a relic? It's like, I'm not a.

[Bill Maher]

No. But, you know, I always.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I understand it, I don't mind it, but it's just.

[Bill Maher]

But there is something about the 90s. And of course I was my 30s, so that's what. In the 90s, a lot of people. It's their more formative years. But I always thought of your band as sort of like the British answer to grunge. Which was the prevailing wind over here for at least the last middle or the middle part of the 90s, you know, the Seattle sound. And I felt like you put the British spin on that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Mine too.

[Bill Maher]

Really? Were you influenced by it?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, I think there's a really exciting music. You know, at that time in England there was what we call Brit pop, which is the bands that, you know, Wham. Not. No, off the Wham. Blur. Oasis.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, Blur. I remember them.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, Oasis. Oh, yeah. More Beatle ass.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, just that the Brit pop sound, it was like suede. And they're very proud of it. And I didn't mind. I liked it. But what I didn't like about it, for me, I preferred the American stuff. It didn't allow for a big performance. Like, I like. I grew up like the Sex Pistols, like post punk. So I like a little bit of Wham with my. With the guitars, with music. And so those bands didn't have that. So I just. I like Jane's Addiction, I like Soundgarden. You know, I like all the. It was so exciting to me. And what they did as well is that at that time the rock music for me was. I didn't know Judas Priest, Iron Maiden growing up. I knew these big bands, but I didn't know them well.

[Bill Maher]

Those are heavy metal bands.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, but it was like. It was Guns N Roses and so all these screaming bands. So I. So it's only when I heard the Pixies. The Pixies were the band that really kind of woke. Slapped me in the face to where I could fit in the landscape of music that was to do, you know, off kilter lyrics. Quiet, loud music, you know, quite a bit loud, but. And just talk about how you feel and your complaints. And therefore go against that whole Sunset Strip, Poison, Motley Crue, that style of sort of. That. Mine was more sort of more Calder culture. Ginsburg.

[Bill Maher]

I certainly don't think of you anything like those bands you met?

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, no, but that's what I mean is that. Is that those. You ask me, those American bands, they sort of liberated me to see. They sort of were so inspiring as to how you could make rock music without screaming and being spandex and with, like, hairspray. Do you know what I mean? When. Again, not if you want hairspray again. I'm really permissive. I'm from London, so you can do anything you like. We're very open for everyone. So if you want to wear spandex and do your hair, have at it.

[Bill Maher]

No, I feel like the Zeitgeist of The middle, late 90s was angst. And I'm not sure why.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, you know what.

[Bill Maher]

It's what they were. But I mean, like, don't you think there's been some.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Cause one thing that has really connected to me is that it's. It's funny because, like, angst on its own, without sort of some kind of qualification can be seen as like, navel gazing or something like that. But if it's angst, it's existential. You talked about it earlier. There is an ennui that goes with people and with existence and with trying to get things right and how to get people right, get your job right. It's really hard. And I found that when people talk about grunge music, it was really more. So much about the lyrics. It was always about the lyrics and about that approach of, like, being more sensitive, more open. And now it almost has come full circle where, you know, mental health is being discussed. Suicide rates are astronomical. Servicemen and women, suicide rates, astronomical. Gun problems, drug problems, geopolitical issues. It's just, as, you know, better than anyone. So it's great to have music that you can get lost to and someone can, you know, that. I made the record I Beat Loneliness, it's called. And it's this thing that people, I think, have been struggling, and it's just great to provide something that people can listen to and get lost in and is a form of armor. Because I see music as sort of armor and weaponry and sort of make you feel good and lift you up, elevate you, you know, when you listen to it. Right. And sort of understand you.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. It's very rare to find a person who doesn't have music of some sort in their life. We all have different bands, of course we should. But it's very rare to like, a human who, like. No, I don't listen to any music. Right. I mean. I mean, it's always. It's something. It's almost like a need as not obviously like to live like food and air, but like there is something very primal about. I mean, poets. You know, part of it is lyrics. You know, do I have a lot of poems memorized in my life? No. Even though I had a. Old enough to have a traditional good education where we learned certain poems and Shakespeare and so forth. But that doesn't stick in my mind. But there's a thousand pop songs where I could sing along every line. Because I've heard that hundreds of times.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, and obviously now I can like a song if the lyrics suck, if the song is great. I can. I can't do it in reverse if the song isn't good. No amount of great lyrics. None. No.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You agree, right?

[Bill Maher]

You gotta, like.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's gotta be. Everything's got to be on song, you know? Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, there are umpteen number of songs that. Where they just are not even trying with the lyrics. I mean, I love the Beatles, as we all do them more than any, but I mean, they would, I'm sure, be the first to admit some of it is just gobbledygook. I've said it before.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It got better and better, though. For me, it did.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, at the beginning, it wasn't gobbledygook. It was just what teenagers in 1964 were interested in. Love me do and I love you and, you know, I'll be true. And they were very young and those were the songs and they were Tupac.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Singing I want to hold your hand.

[Bill Maher]

What?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Where's Tupac singing I want to hold your hand? It sort of feels a bit tweed.

[Bill Maher]

You want to hold your.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Where is your hand?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

By the way, whose hand is that?

[Bill Maher]

Your hand is on my twat. I mean. I mean, once you go to wet ass pussy, that was crazy, wasn't it?

[Gavin Rossdale]

And I can't.

[Bill Maher]

You know, it's. How. How much further can you take it?

[Gavin Rossdale]

None. There's nowhere else to go.

[Bill Maher]

No, it's so funny because.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But wasn't that incredible that it became. It's an anthem for women and younger women and.

[Bill Maher]

Gavin, how do you interpret the message of what ass pussy? If you had to put it in layman's terms, I mean, it's a poetic. Of course, work of art, but what ass pussy? What is she saying about what ass pussy does?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, it's very.

[Bill Maher]

We should aspire or that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think it's the greatest haiku ever. Or the third greatest haiku ever.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it would need 14 more syllables. Isn't the haiku seven?

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think, yeah. It's the shortest haiku ever.

[Bill Maher]

Haiku. I know. I'm not an expert on haiku, but I know it has a lot of rules. I know haiku has a lot of rules, like exact and some. You know, sometimes there are, as people will say things just in their trump. Does it sometimes. And it is a haiku. It's like a short thing and it doesn't have to make sense, but it just sounds like a haiku. Somebody turned a whole book of somebody's sayings into haiku. Maybe it was Yogi Berra, somebody like that, but. So you're drinking good. Some sometimes rock stars, their later years become so evangelical about the opposite because they have had the experience of being around and doing it too much.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I'm still a lot.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I don't remember.

[Gavin Rossdale]

A lot of fun.

[Bill Maher]

I don't remember.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I'm a lot of fun all the time.

[Bill Maher]

I remember ever reading anything about you and drugs, but maybe I missed it. Like, I never. You never seem to, like, go overboard with the drug thing, like so many musicians do.

[Gavin Rossdale]

There was a connection. I'm trying to find the joke between me and Freddie Mercury, but we both are very clear with our band names.

[Bill Maher]

I always thought that was what I meant, but I, you know, I didn't want to be in polite. And that was the era when you, of course, had to, like, sneak in, you know, your. If you wanted to tell a dirty joke. I mean, the Beatles did it with, you know, in Penny Lane, there's some line there for a fish and finger piece, and I'm not sure what it means, but I know it's dirty. And in Girl, the song Girl, it's on Rubber Soul, they. The background, you know, the. The backing vocal, the harmonizing vocal. They're singing tit. It just sounds like one of those things you sing when you're in the chorus, but they're saying tit. And then they did a sound effect of smoking a joint. But, you know, it had to. You have to really be clever to fly under the radar of the sensors. Now you're just like. My new Zingle is called Wet Ass Pussy. Deal with it.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They had me. There's a. What's it. What's the line? There's a. On our new single, on the song that's coming out, it gives two lines. It goes, I see. I see stars when I. The system. I see stars when I fuck.

[Bill Maher]

Right. That's great.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And then they go, thank you, and they go, so we better do a safe. We need to do a radio version. I was like, what are you talking about? They said, someone suggested, what about I see stars when I make the system flick? I see stars when I change the system. I was like, so the line about the man, we're gonna change to suit the man. No, it makes no sense. So we'd have beeps, like really good loud beats if they change. But, well, who cares? I don't. There used to be a time where you couldn't have come on the radio. You know, I like that word come. It's a really great word. C U, N. Well, absolutely. But I also like the Absolutely. I'm English, I think.

[Bill Maher]

Come. Of course.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Of course. Come on. You can't.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, come is a great word, but.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You don't allow it on the radio. They don't like it when you're singing them, which is really puritanical and it's really strange. And also more reflective of the person who's saying it's a bad word. It can be. There's many explanations for come.

[Bill Maher]

Would it make you think less of me if I admitted that there are times when I have texted someone come over and spelled it C U M?

[Gavin Rossdale]

What?

[Bill Maher]

Would that make you hate me? I couldn't blame you if it did.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I would make. I think that is being direct, isn't it?

[Bill Maher]

I think it's being clever.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, it's definitely like.

[Bill Maher]

In fact, it probably went over their head, the dumb bitch.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You should have just sent with a ass pussy soundtrack. Then that would have been really good a meme with that.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, my God. What do you think about Kanye? What do you think? That there's a guy. I mean, if wet ass pussy is as far as you can take it sexually, I gotta think that I'm a Nazi. I mean, there's punk and then there's just like, wow. And still they let him get away with it. I mean, even I'm a Nazi. And a T shirt with the swastika on it. That's how powerful music is. It's like, yeah, but I still like his old records. You know, Michael Jackson just. I mean, once Oprah came out on the side of. These kids aren't lying. I just thought things would change. No, he's got a show on Broadway. It's just like, I like those records. And you know what? I'm the first one to say, I can separate the two. I play R. Kelly. I'll play anybody. The record didn't rape anybody, you know?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I wouldn't play them in the first place. Actually, R. Kelly.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, he has some great R and.

[Gavin Rossdale]

B is very hard for me. I know people love it and I'm like, very. I don't mean that that's a correct opinion. No, just for. What it does to me is. I just find it really hard in the same way that if I played someone who loves R and B, if I played them my record, they'd be like. They'd run.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I know most.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's just, you know, music goes into two categories for me. Either you're magnetized by it and connected to it, or it's just down a sieve. You just. Oh, right.

[Bill Maher]

It's complete Personal One or the Onion. That's why I think record reviews are the stupidest thing in the world. Because it's like you cannot put something in writing that will affect how I feel about this record. I can only.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Where were you in the 90s?

[Bill Maher]

I have to. It still goes on. I still have. I just have to hear it. No amount of writing will change my opinion that much. I either like it or I don't. And I'll pretty much know that the first time I hear it.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I used to read the newspapers in England. The Melody Maker, Enemy, growing up. And sometimes I'd read reviews of bands or descriptions of bands that were so esoteric and removed from. I couldn't even understand what was happening. And then I'd be like, I gotta hear this. I gotta hear it. Be like, I don't know how you got from that to that.

[Bill Maher]

Undeniably Always works. Way to have a horrible record collection is to do it by what you read in a record review. You will have all the records that are, like, important. This is. I don't want important records.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's a lot of fun.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just a young man in the 22nd row. I just want to.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Sounds like a library. You don't read a book. You know, a library of unread books.

[Bill Maher]

Right. But no, I just. I just. I just want what I like. And it's. It's, like, important to me. And if that's. I mean, look, the R. Kelly thing, he does have, like, some great. The. The lyrics are always comically awful, but that almost makes the song better. But he does have a. Some really great sort of, like, yeah, R and B songs like, of that era. And then a slew of shit. And then I Believe I Can Fly, which doesn't really sound like any of the other songs he's ever done, but that's probably his biggest Hit. And it's like such a crossover hit. I mean, it should have been done by Michael Jackson or somebody like that. It's so. I believe.

[Gavin Rossdale]

What is it you think, as a man, like, as women? It's like these guys that blow their lives up to this. We're seeing right now in Diddy Trial. We got. Yay. Having a lot of problems, finding himself all the right things to say.

[Bill Maher]

No, he's having a great time.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You think he's having a great time?

[Bill Maher]

Of course. I just think. I think it's ridiculous that look, you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Know, he's sorry now, though.

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm just saying you can get away with certain things if you're. If you know certain parameters in life. One is being a musician. I'll also just say in passing, I think if. Say, I don't know, Michael Buble put out a T shirt that said I'm a Nazi and paraded his wife naked on the red carpet, I feel like there would be more feedback. Blowback, rather. And both. I mean, I just think, you know, some people, it's just, like, so arbitrary. Who gets to get away with what? I mean, I've said it before. I don't mean to pick on him, but Charlie Sheen has done, like, so many more cancelable things, like super cancelable, like AIDS and, like, beating up hookers. And hookers. And, you know, and yet he's just a scamp. And other people have done really not that bad.

[Gavin Rossdale]

California rolls at a stop sign, basically.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. You know, masturbating. And, you know, I see there's a special coming out, a movie, I guess, about Pee Wee Herman. Do you remember Pee Wee Herman? And I remember when. I mean, I didn't know him, but he would come into the improv when I was working there, and it was, oh, a big star came in and, you know, he was always in character. So I had zero relationship. He seemed like a nice guy. And, like, the career just wouldn't. Of course, he did a kid show. I get it. But the career just went. Just completely disappeared him. I mean, like, disappeared. Like Trump disappears. People just, like, over masturbating in a porn. This is the days when people went to the theater. The theater. A movie theater. And was jerking off in a movie theater. That was his big offense. He was caught doing that and just gone. It's never to be heard from.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, Louis CK said that everyone has their thing. Everyone has a thing.

[Bill Maher]

Another, you know, masturbator who, like, overpaid. Okay. By his own admission, it wasn't cool. And although you know, comics, it's different, it's a little complicated. And they made it like. No, not complicated. I mean, this me too thing was a great.

[Gavin Rossdale]

He's one of our greatest comics we ever have.

[Bill Maher]

He's fantastic. I love him.

[Gavin Rossdale]

One of the greatest.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, he's finally gonna do my show and I think he's got something coming out in October. But, you know, I mean, and he fought his way back to like certainly having a very, very hugely successful touring career.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I buy his shows in Tesla, but.

[Bill Maher]

He still has to do everything without the aid of a studio or something. He's so toxic from the masturbating that we can't go near this because no one else.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Masturbation.

[Bill Maher]

Speaking of cum, they're still cum. They might be cum on the contract. We can't sign a contract with this guy. I mean, it's just so ridiculous. And to his great credit, he says, well, you know what? I don't need the middleman. And maybe. And that's of course, more and more the way it's going in show business. I mean, haven't recording artists put out songs, like directly through Starbucks? And isn't that a way to do it? Like you can sell your thing without microplastics?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, yeah, I, you know, you still have a label? Yeah, just, you know what I mean? It's like we, yeah, we do have a label. We have a great label, but our label is now based in Germany. It's complicated. I mean, it's just. Well, the funny part is it never stops being a fist fight. Never stops being. I don't know what it's like for you, but for me, I'm like medium really good working musicians, successful. It's still a fight. It's a fight. It never stops being a fight. There's no. It's always, I told you it ever would. I don't know, but I just was thinking that one day stop less, you know, I was like, coldplay don't have to go through this shit, do they? Chris Martin.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, sometimes. A lot of it. I mean, it's. It varies.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I mean, it's a healthy thing, right? We like the fact that it's fucking grit and determination. There's this sort of unseen necessary quotient, like out wherever you're with stand up comics, musicians, actors, you need a, you know, steel. You need to be kind of made of steel to just. To sustain. Right.

[Bill Maher]

Anything, including about what you're just talking about. I mean, I, I can relate to that because, you know, again, I just stopped touring. But I did it for, like, 40 years. And, you know, the last 25 were all in nice theaters. You know, this wasn't comedy clubs anymore. You know, I was selling a good number of tickets, enough to, like, always tra. Travel private. Couldn't have been that bad and still make a lot of money. But I still, you know, noticed, shall we say, oh, there are guys who are half as funny as me who sell twice as many tickets. And that's okay, because the last thing in the world I think you want to do is have, like, gotten 99% of what's good in life and start bitching about the 1%. Like, yeah, you know what? There isn't absolute justice in show business. In fact, there's very little.

[Gavin Rossdale]

None.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Gavin Rossdale]

There's none. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, Madonna had that great line that she said when Kanye went up to Taylor Swift, remember, famously in Yankee.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It was horrible.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And again, if Michael Buble did it. I don't mean to drag Michael Buble into this. I'm sorry.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Come on, Michael Buble, admit it. If you did it.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I just feel like it would have been more of a tangible event anyway, when he did that. Oh, what were we talking? What was I gonna say?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Boo Blake of Taylor Swift and Kanye on stage.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but why. Why did that work?

[Gavin Rossdale]

What was she saying about, like, the. Madonna says something about.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, Madonna. Her comment after that was, don't go to an award show expecting justice. And I just thought, what a perfectly succinct, exact wise thing to say. And yet for Madonna, who doesn't seem like, no, she's probably very. I mean, she's certainly a. Or she's certainly a genius. First of all, her record called the Immaculate Collection is not mislabeled. When Madonna made a record, it was fucking usually great. I mean, even into this century.

[Gavin Rossdale]

She's incredible.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I mean, ray of light was she's incredible a while ago, but not. And then I think there was one after that. And, I mean, there's some.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I love how she just fucking lives her life, how she fucking wants, and everyone else can fuck off. It's fucking great, don't you think?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I do. But I also think she's that typical what I think of as rock star for so long, that, like, what's really in that noodle of hers is just a lot of nonsense. I mean, there's some stuff that isn't. But just. Just when you're that insulated from having to deal with reality, there's a lot of nonsense in her head. I mean, I'M sorry. I just think there is. And also, you know.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But she looks so fun. She's always having fun.

[Bill Maher]

She does not look fun.

[Gavin Rossdale]

She doesn't look fun. I feel like I think she looks having fun. You don't think she looks like she's having fun?

[Bill Maher]

She may be. I don't know about the people around her. She does not.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They're all dances and, like, everyone's laughing and dancers are great. Cause they dance and then they laugh about it. I feel like they dance and they laugh about it.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know if she really can, like, let go of who she is enough to, like, just be one of the people. And that's okay. I mean, she enjoys being a diva and she earned it. But there's a price to pay for that, I think, which is you don't get to like, sort of be down and dirty with a bunch of people. And, you know, everybody's always gonna be walking on eggshells and like. Should I kid her? Well, I guess I should. But if it goes wrong, you know, you're out. Yeah, I'll be thrown into the sea where they put Bin Laden. You know, we want something where people can, like. I'll just disappear, you know, I mean, that's my impression of her. I don't know, but she just looks cold as ice. I just never thought. I thought she was very pretty, but not sexy. Like, I never got the sexy vibe off her because I just felt like she'd be like directing me to do something.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Bill, get it right.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Bill. That is not. This is not working.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I could be all wrong. These are just surmisals. I don't know. Maybe you know her. I don't know her.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I've only met her a couple of times. I've had a couple of funny. Couple of funny dinners with her a couple of times that were just.

[Bill Maher]

Is she nicer to you than Fuck Face? Brandon Russell. Russell Brand.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I went for dinner with her. It was crazy. It was like me, Guy Ritchie and Gwen and the four of us having dinner together.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that makes sense.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It was really funny. And, like, I really love being around people that, like. It was really fun to be disarming and be funny and make jokes. Because I didn't get the sense that that was happening a lot, right? So for me it was. I was like. And I remember. I remember, like, you know, they weren't really drinking much, but I was. I was like, yeah, wine. And so I was having the wine and I just. I just remember at the end, Madonna standing I think behind me towards the end of the dinner. So I was like thinking. I was like, I think that's the end of dinner. I think that's the end. So we sort of the signal. So I wasn't giving off the dancer vibes. If I was a dancer and I could have, like, done the moonwalk, I would probably have lasted longer.

[Bill Maher]

But I was out not making any judgments, just. But so the dinner ended when Madonna decided the dinner ended.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Cause that's what I would get. And again, that doesn't make her a bad person. I'm just saying that's who I would guess was gonna call the evening at whenever.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, the funny story about that is. Is that I ended up nicking her housekeeper. Her housekeeper was working there that night. She ended up working for us for 17 years. And then when I got divorced, that then said housekeeper came with me where I went. So it was housekeeper.

[Bill Maher]

How did you do that in.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I don't know. What happened is that when we went to Madonna's house, that housekeeper was working for her. And we had the dinner. And then after that, then when we were looking for someone to help us, it was like she was in between of working at Madonna's house. And then something happened or. So anyway, we inherited her, and she was with us 17 years. And then when I moved to my new, more Bill Maher flavored life, I took her. She came with me, which I always really loved. She's lived. She came with me. It was so sweet because she just came with me. I didn't know where I was gonna Lived in Bel Air, actually.

[Bill Maher]

So I guess. Yeah, so I guess when rich people get divorced, they go to Bel Air, they have to fight over the housekeeper. Nothing privilege y about that. We're just deciding who owns this human.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think I share. I think it's a much better insight into, like, it was my. One of my. It was a beacon of light and a dark time.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's very poetic if you put.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That in a. I am a poet. I am a poet.

[Bill Maher]

A beacon of light in a dark time as we pour ourselves more liquor.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But this is a very clean liquor.

[Bill Maher]

It is, but what are you pouring in there?

[Gavin Rossdale]

What's that little elixir you have?

[Bill Maher]

This. This is called C2. It's a combination of ketamine and cocaine. No, but I heard about that. That's the new drug. Did you hear that?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Which one?

[Bill Maher]

I think it's ketamine and. No, ketamine and molly. That's like. I think they call it C2 or 2C or something.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I think it's a gay weekend, isn't it?

[Bill Maher]

It's not just gay. Drugs are not just for gay people. No.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Kennerine. My older sister, I'm being facetious but my older sister used to. He did a lot of ketamine through the clubs. So it began with him in the gay clubs. But anyway, I digress. What is this new, this new combo?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, correct. I mean I think a, a big change in the last decade with drugs.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Is that, is it your Ciroc? Is it your.

[Bill Maher]

No, I, I, I am not involved. I have not done anything except have a few drinks a week and really only a few joints a week. I just save it for here and a few other places. But no, no, those days are over. I mean that would just scare the out of me to do anything like fentanyl or ketamine. Anything. I wouldn't do anything.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Ketamine has also been used for psychoactively like a psychiatric stuff.

[Bill Maher]

All of them come from LSD did. All of them came from somebody with.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Legitimate trying to help someone.

[Bill Maher]

And sometimes it does.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean LSD help people. You know, anytime people are sort of trapped in their mind by you know some of. We have a lot of mind trapping mechanisms. Yes, drugs can help a lot. Ayahuasca. I mean people are often, I mean, not to mention what it did for my record collection.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Sure. I mean Bill Hicks is the king of that. Like, you know, the idea of like, you know, drugs opened up everything dropping. If you wanted, if you wanted to like take all the people out of your recollection that weren't stoned when they made those records.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You, you have achieved silence, sir. Apart from some Christian polka music.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I mean it also can have the opposite effect. You could do well the drug. I mean certainly. I know like the Eagles talk about how they were when they were trying to make their last record. They were just, there was just too much coke.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know the thing is that I found like I grew up in London where cocaine is really was like that. The cocaine in London is like you said the word cunt earlier. That people use that cocaine is just like, like when you walk into a restaurant in California or in America and they put a glass of water down. That's what it's like in England with cocaine. People are just like. Especially in London right now. But yeah, still people are crazy. So.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But what I found about it to me is that it's the least creative drug I've ever experienced in my life. The Worst when I read. I mean, I've probably never. Most songs I've written, I'm not, you know, usually so. But I remember trying once, you know, because in England, you know, sometimes just out of, like, out of manners, you end up doing two nights of cocaine with your friends. You're like, oh, okay. So you stay up for a day and a half and I write something. And it was always the worst shit I ever wrote in my life. And you have those conversations. It's just such bullshit. So I never connected to it, so I could. And it makes everything sound. It's like the Zoasis records where they're really skinny, they listen to a lot of. Cocaine is really bright. You know, people just get. It's not bright enough. It's not bright enough. You know, it's too basic. They get this record, it's like, yes, this is terrible.

[Bill Maher]

Because it's not really cocaine that's the problem. If you were doing pure coca leaf, I mean, this is what I'm told.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, you could have had a bigger career.

[Bill Maher]

You had a. You have a great career. No, but it doesn't have that speedy effect on you. They've been doing it, chewing it in the Andes for centuries. And it was just more of a good high. And getting back to what I was going to say about. In the last decade, they have found ways, of course, because there's money in it, to sort of perfect these kind of drugs for the common person. Not just the person who's like, you know, 24 and body can handle it, and they're out on the weekend and they're just gonna abuse their body and somehow come back the next day like nothing happened. Which you can do at 24. But what about the guy who's 40 and 50 even? Yeah, they found a way. They just perfected, like, microdosing acid, microdosing mushrooms, these things like, oh, this amount of ketamine and this amount of ecstasy. It's not like over the top. It's not going to last all night. You can come, you're just going to feel fucking amazing for an hour, and then maybe you do a little more. I think that's what's going on now again. I know people will be like, oh, how do you know all this, Bill? You see, because I talk to people who do it, but I don't do it. If I was their age, I would, trust me, I'd love to be doing this. I would love to be doing this.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's your bucket list.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but it would put me in A bucket. That's the problem. It's my coffin list. So, you know, I mean, do I Wish I was 26? Not really. Because I knew what was in my head at 26 and so painfully stupid, I couldn't go back there. But I mean, if hypothetically, say, there was somebody in my life who was.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Don't you feel sweet? Don't you feel, like, protective and empathetic towards that person who is just fucking trying to figure it out against all the odds that life threw at you? 26?

[Bill Maher]

Not really.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You don't.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I just hate myself for being so stupid, for just not for.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But everyone's stupid. That's the beauty of you. That's the luxury of youth. You're meant to be stupid.

[Bill Maher]

I know, but I just think of how much easier so many things could have been and how much better so many things could have been if I just wasn't stupid. That's stupid, you know? Yeah, a lot of, like, not knowing about women. I mean, that's a lot of. What?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. If Auntie Martha had ball, she'd be Auntie Arthur. You know, it's just like, you can't. It's Uncle Arthur. You can't.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you probably, you know, just sort.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Of, like, coulda, woulda. I think it's beautiful. I think it's beautiful to be able to sort of have perspective on your life that at that time, you were blind. But why should you be able to see at 26? You're right. Why should you be.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you still can't see. I mean, we just see.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Why should it be any different? Like, I think it's great. It's like the natural evolution of people, and it's wonderful. I mean, you, of all people. Jesus Christ, you. I. I can tell, you know, you have an incredible life. You set up an incredible life. So, yes, I think you made your way through.

[Bill Maher]

No, very lucky. I mean, first of all, I love where I live. Despite the fires and despite the taxes and, like, there's a lot of bad things. It's true.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's sort of about la.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Oh. It's magical, but it's still the best. I mean, why do you live here? You could live anywhere in the world. You're not even from this country. But you want to live here. Everybody wants to live here.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, what happens?

[Bill Maher]

It's amazing how everybody. You think people who don't live here, they live here. Johnny Depp lives here. I know. You think he lives someplace exotic.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I did.

[Bill Maher]

Angelina Jolie. I know. She's got a Thousand people own all races. She lives here, okay? They all live here.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, you know what's the weirdest thing is that when I was a kid I grew up in North London in a regular little house and. And. But when I used to think how much I didn't want to be there, I used to dream of Los Angeles. I had no reason, no rhyme.

[Bill Maher]

I wish you had a reason. This is where Hollywood is.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I know, but when you're a young kid, it's like you know about Hollywood, like being an atheist. It's like. I didn't know why. I just thought it was nonsense. I just thought it was nonsense. So when I thought I eulogized about la, I didn't actually. I wasn't sophisticated enough to know that it had. I just saw it as a Mecca. It just was easy. And it sounded like everything that was. I was in love with skateboarding. So that's one of the time I thought that Santa Vera Cruz, San Diego and LA were all the same place. I didn't know, you know, So I was just far away. And the wildest thing is that la, I am like the living American dream because I came over here, I signed a deal. Cause I was inspired by the Pixies. I signed the only deal I was offered, which was in the Valley. I didn't know where the Valley was, so I was in London and I signed a deal in the Valley and through the radio station here, KROC in LA gave me life and I began. And it's.

[Bill Maher]

Oh really? They were the ones who played your record. So funny bands in the streets.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Kevin Weatherly. Kevin Weatherly. So he's the one who has been huge in my life. And then I fell in love and we were always going to live in London. And then as soon as my then wife got pregnant, she was like, we're going to be in la, we're going to be at Cedars. So that was it. I moved for my kids. And now since I'm divorced a long time, 10 years now. And in fact I was never married now because it was an old. I'm virgin again.

[Bill Maher]

That's the Catholic church.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I'm a virgin.

[Bill Maher]

The Catholic Church, we don't believe in divorce. We believe in saying things never happened, these three kids.

[Gavin Rossdale]

So. But I love it. And I have this beautiful thing. I have my family and everyone in London and I'm lucky enough to get to go to London a few times a year. But really I live here. Whenever I come back here, I feel this is where I'm meant to Be. I meant to be where my kids are, but I love the light, I love the space. I love everything about it. I'm really. I'm in love with. And I wouldn't want to live in New York. I like Parson. I prefer Brooklyn now. I don't like New York as much as I used to. It's just. I prefer Brooklyn, which just feels like a gentrified New York, just a calmer New York. I love Brooklyn.

[Bill Maher]

So when you go to New York, you go to Brooklyn and what's in Brooklyn? What do you do there?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Just a great hotel and it's 10 minutes away. William Vale, really cool hotel.

[Bill Maher]

Away from what?

[Gavin Rossdale]

From the. From the city.

[Bill Maher]

If you have to go to work by subway.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. No, no, I mean if you. If I go Jones beach, that is from there.

[Bill Maher]

You know what?

[Gavin Rossdale]

I prefer it.

[Bill Maher]

I prefer it Jones Beach. You go to Jones Beach?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, when I'm doing a show. If I come to show, of course.

[Bill Maher]

I remember seeing shows at Jones Beach. I grew up in New Jersey.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right, right. So we're. Yeah, we're playing the Garden this summer.

[Bill Maher]

That's awesome. The Garden, always.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That.

[Bill Maher]

That's awesome. To be old like you and still play in the Garden, I mean. Cause rock and roll.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's a lovely way of putting it. Rock and roll is a lovely way of putting it. Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

Rock and roll was not meant to be an old person's game. I mean, I was around not the first wave of rock and roll, but I was 12 in 1968. Okay. The Beatles were still playing. That's when I first listened to music. And no one was. I remember no one was thinking that would go past 40, let alone.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Surely you'd be dead at 40.

[Bill Maher]

You wouldn't be dead, you'd be. But no one thought Mick Jagger would be doing it at 80.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I don't know about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he finds so much. And he's engaged to his 39 year old with a 4 year old kid. Gotta love him. He knows how to live now.

[Bill Maher]

I always wonder how to live. We have to wonder how much Mick is ever engaged. I mean that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Philosophically, sure, but engaged enough so that he sustains the life that he wants.

[Bill Maher]

He's right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

He's like. He's figured life out. He figured it out.

[Bill Maher]

He is one of none. Because first of all, his waistline has not changed.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No size 28. We had the same stylist once and so we found out they all have size 28 waists.

[Bill Maher]

Who's all the Stones? No. Maybe in their heyday.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, up until. I mean, everything for me is pre Covid having the stylists, but, yeah, they know. Well, he was definitely size 28. What's Keith.

[Bill Maher]

He's not a size 28.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, Mick was.

[Bill Maher]

I can't believe we're arguing about Rolling Stones waist sizes. Boy, this is a gay show.

[Gavin Rossdale]

But.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but no Mick. But Mick Jack. I mean, yes, first of all. Also, they never lost their hair. Even the one who got cancer didn't lose his hair. It's amazing. They were, like, born rock stars, you know, so they. I always say this about the Stones. When they were young, they were skinny and ugly. And when they were old, they were skinny and ugly. And that's what worked for them. Them. You know, they weren't the Beatles. They weren't the sweet little do, do, Do. They were the bad Boys. Which in a way, is, you know, cooler. Not that the Beatles aren't the coolest, but, you know, I mean, they certainly had their thing. And to think that somebody could do it at 80. And. And the reviews were good. Of their last. You know, they were on tour now, or they were very recently.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It makes you feel. Already feel like jumping to save someone when you hear that. Like doing that show. And it, by the way, incredible. I saw the videos of him dancing and doing it. So for me, it's obviously. For me, it's great. My lineage. Right, because you'll be there on the conveyor bell. You'll be there in 12 minutes, 15 minutes I'm there.

[Bill Maher]

No, but in 20 years or something. And then. But why not?

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, of course. And the funny thing is, is that.

[Bill Maher]

Just don't do it in a wheelchair. So, like, there are people like Phil Collins, and I love him, God bless him. Or I've seen other people do it. Like they break their leg out there. Don't do it. Just cancel the show. Do it like the kids do. Like, I love that. The Gen Z people. Like, I have a headache canceling the show. It's like, really? Did you ever hear about the show must go on? They just don't give a. Don't tell Chapel Ron about the show must go on or any of these kids. It's like, if I have a hangnail, we cancel the show, and the kids deal with it. God bless them.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Do you cancel the show as much have you done?

[Bill Maher]

I have never. I never missed a show on either Politically Incorrect or Real time. That's over 32 years. Except the two they forced me to miss when I quote, unquote, had Covid Because I would have endangered the entire city. So. But stand up. I personally never missed a show. Stand up. Never missed a show. Except two, because the plane broke and so I couldn't get there. Never once canceled or missed a show because, yeah, there were times when I felt shitty. There's no business like show business.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I did last week of my last tour on just this one. Flu. Had flu. That's the worst.

[Bill Maher]

Well, flu.

[Gavin Rossdale]

God, when you feel like. And you have to just be hard to do. Get up. It took half a bottle of sake every night just to kind of get.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, so you did it with the flu. Of course you did.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

God bless you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, there's no other way. Wow. There's no way. This is what it is. You can't fucking cares. No. By the way, no one cares. Be good. We paid money. Be great. These are all my memories. We're depending on you, you know, it's like you have a responsibility. I like that, you know? You know.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, sometimes it's a hard call because if you do the show. Sick. Yes. Congratulations. We appreciate you being a trooper.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Didn't sound like it used to. It doesn't sound like it used to.

[Bill Maher]

And I say this from personal experience because in 1984, I was opening for Mr. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Hold your applause to the end. But yes, I love Frankie. He was always great to me. And it was a big. I was 28, it was a big feather in my cap to be opening in Las Vegas, Nevada for Frank. But it was a two week gig and you know, it's very dry in Vegas and singers get something called Vegas throat.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Oh, okay.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, Frankie had to cancel like half the shows. I remember. And he was doing everything. Remember he was taking. They said, they gave one day. He said, yeah, they gave me a steroid.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I, you know, I had one the other day. I took a steroid, dexamethasone, because of my.

[Bill Maher]

And it. And it helps.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's weird. I was like, give me the Lance Armstrong. I want the cocktail. I want to fucking. I want to be the strongest guy in here.

[Bill Maher]

You're like the pregnant woman.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I want to pick up. Up. I want to pick up the audience.

[Bill Maher]

You're like bringing a woman who didn't want the epidermal and so the epidermal now.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was, I was all about it, but it's funny, you've taken four hours before. I was like, what's going to happen? I was like, I thought it was like the. You Know. Remember the Incredible Hulk was incredible. I know. $6 million, man. Right? Yeah. To get annoyed.

[Bill Maher]

But didn't that steroid keep you up all night? You. Can you sleep?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, yeah, it was a little bit. I was a lot of fun. I was a lot of fun.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Even with the flu.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. Well, because once you've had that adrenaline, the next morning you wake up, you go, it's. Did I get. And you go, oh, no. And you go, do you got that sort of haze around you when you go into.

[Bill Maher]

How long are you ever on the road without being at home? How many days in a row?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I just came back from five weeks, I'm about to do seven weeks, then I've got two and a half months, and I've got 10 weeks. So I have a lot coming up. I'm just kind of overwhelmed by it. But it's something.

[Bill Maher]

But you'll be away for 10 weeks without being home at one time. That's tough. Yeah, I've never had that.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's a lot. And I'm, you know, every night different. Like, you know, same for you. Like, actors is different because they. They get to go to a location.

[Bill Maher]

What do you do on the days? I mean, you can't perform every night in a row.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, now they have me on a show because we do acoustic shows in the day. So we do this VIP meet and greet. And I have this idea of we'd be nice people. You know, they come in, they queue up, they pay a bunch of money, they line up and they have this picture with you. They're always fumbling with what they want to say. They never get across how they feel. It's very emotional for people.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And you have to respect that. And I say to them afterwards, I said, look, I know you didn't say what you wanted to say. It didn't come out right.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And you were more tongue tied. Let's just have a moment. I'm gonna sing a couple of songs for you. So we have a special moment, 100 in a room. We have a great moment with us. And this is just for you, just for now.

[Bill Maher]

How many songs do you do?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Just two. But it means I gotta warm up in the day at 12.

[Bill Maher]

I'd rather see two like that than. And, you know, like then. A lot of bands for the whole hour.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. Oh, you like it? Let me play one more.

[Bill Maher]

Because that's a experience you'd never really have otherwise.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, they're just. They're. They're one offs, they're deep cuts. We play them and. But what happens is that they just, they. My time on tour, it's not miserable. It's incredible on stage. Incredible with people. The rest of it is miserable because I have to be silent. No, can't speak.

[Bill Maher]

Save your voice.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, it's just like the easiest way to do it.

[Bill Maher]

So what do you do on the day off? That's what I'm asking. Like the day between gigs.

[Gavin Rossdale]

The day between gigs. Usually we, we have our tour manager, Yvette. She's amazing.

[Bill Maher]

I'd go home. But you don't.

[Gavin Rossdale]

She. Well, no, we can't. We're too far away. So she. We get always to the place we are and really I, I go off and I play tennis. I play tennis a lot. So it gets me away from there. I'm usually so out of it. I've come in, I've got like, you know, it's been on the bus for 12 hours, but I go somewhere and I do something different and I sweat a bit and I have a day off. It feels like this. Remember those. When you're your kid at school, even though the days are great, you have that sense of your day off is so important. And then by Sunday, by the night, like, oh my God, I'm back tomorrow. Silence in the morning. So it's a really. It's not, you know, I'm really grateful, but it's, it's. It just takes a. It's a lot of focus. Like the only. The way that I don't go crazy on tour is to, is to just really focus so heavily on the show that I'm like an athlete. That's for the match, the game.

[Bill Maher]

Of course.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's all it is. And if, because if I lose sight of that, that it's just another thing, then I'm lost.

[Bill Maher]

That's the gold. It's the golden goose.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

It pays the bills.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Makes everything else possible. Yes.

[Gavin Rossdale]

So that's what my whole thing is about. What did I do yesterday? What's the all set list?

[Bill Maher]

And it's what you can count on because it's you. I mean, you do. You've been in a lot of things as an actor, but you can't count on them that somebody has to hire you. This is, this is what you control.

[Gavin Rossdale]

If my kids, Amazon Bill was dependent on my acting career, there would be no Amazon Bill. It's like, yeah, it's.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but it's not your main thing. It's your hobby. No, you can't.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Like, I enjoy it. I'm doing A movie coming up soon.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Gavin Rossdale]

With a girl I worked with a little bit before Christmas, before Christmas, before COVID Janelle Shirtcliff. And I did this film Habit. And I'm doing another movie with her coming up, so. So I'm excited about that. I like the process. Someone else had to think of it. Writers, they have to think of all that stuff. And it's such a holiday to have someone that thought of something first that I get to reinterpret. Because I think it's magic how actors make words come alive off of a page. It's something super special that I really like. And somehow I just. I'm an adrenaline junkie. So I like that moment where the camera can they go, okay, keep rolling and camera and action. And if you up, you've got like a hundred people who have to reset. So I like that thing. The responsibility of not only trying to be great for the film, but not let people down. I did a. I went from one. I did 100 million dollar movie. I worked on a million dollar movie. I was downtown at a bank. It was called how to Rob a Bank. It didn't really end up being a great movie, but it was a great process. And we shot this downtown. I played a bank robber. And I remember this moment where I was like, all the extras are lying on the floor. And now it's a marble floor. There's lovely old banks, right? And I thought, you know, I don't like to be stuck up, you know. So it was like these people on the floor. And I was like, oh, you know, how you doing? You know, she's like laying down as a hostage. I said, how you doing? She goes, you know, it's. Are you right now? They must be cold. She goes, oh, no. It's such a pleasure to work with an actor who knows his lines. I thought a poor thing, where's she been? But yeah, you know, you work on a independent movie, you have to know your lines, know your marks and not up.

[Bill Maher]

Well, not just an independent movie or any movie. Any movie. I remember doing a.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, some actors will show up, don't know their life.

[Bill Maher]

I remember doing a movie of the week web in the 80s I did, you know, I was on sitcoms and we have some of the posters around here of my horrible movies. And I remember this actor who I was kind of like, you know, impressed to work with him because he remember had. Had been on some show when I was a kid, like a TV show when I was 10 years old and now I'm 28 and I'm working with him. So I was like, I kind of excited and like his day had passed. He was not on tv, right? But he was still an actor being hired. He was probably 45 now or something. And he had a scene and I was. I had done my scene, so I was just watching. And he could not get the line. I mean, he could not remember. He either. Just didn't put in the time to memorize it. And it just. Every time you don't do it, it gets worse. There's more tension on the set and everyone's looking at you like, you fucking loser. We could have been home by now, but you didn't learn your lines and you're just. And now you're getting mad and you're cursing and it's getting awkward. Because sets, as we know, are very tense places.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And the makeup trailer is the center of all activity. You'll find out everything is going on in the movie by going getting your makeup done. And the best advice is to keep quiet and listen.

[Bill Maher]

I bet you the makeup people know all the everything, right? Because that's where they go. And they're bitching. I can't believe he did that right? And that kind of shit. And they're hearing it.

[Gavin Rossdale]

My favorite thing is the first movie I did was this film called Game of Their Lives. And it was an ensemble piece. And David Ansport, amazing director, amazing guy, but the chaos and the madness of a big ensemble cast. And we had this amazing soccer player, Eric Ronaldo. He used to play for B Bayern munich. He was USA's top scorers. He's incredible footballer, but he had this real. He had a. You know, he was doing the soccer stuff and the choreography, and he was getting a little bit too comfortable in his role. And. And David was running the movie and Wes Bentley was the star. And then Wes, the only one who wasn't a soccer player. The rest of us were all soccer players. That's how we got the gigs. So we were all pretty proficient in soccer. But Wes, who was the star of the movie, wasn't. And Eric and Beauty, right? Wesley, he's an incredible actor. And he. There's this, the greatest moment, most hilarious moment, where I was just learning how on a film set you just shut your mouth and know your lines, was Wes had set up this free kick that he could do that he was comfortable with. But Eric was really upset that he had taken away the directorial reigns of this piece. And it's like, dude, let him take the fucking kick. Who cares? But he took the kick and then they had this fight. And then Eric took the ball, and as Wes, he threw the ball at him and he hit the star. And everyone was like, oh, my God, it's like mutiny. Like, what is this chaos? So I learned on my first movie, just know your lines, know your positions, and shut the fuck up. Just shut up, be good and go home. Because, like. And those ensemble pieces Jerry Butler was in, it was fun. You know, I met a lot of it. He was. He was a great. He's a great. He. I always watch his movies and support him because he's a lot of fun.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I gotta tell you something about English movies. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Like, Guy Ritchie movies.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Snatch.

[Bill Maher]

Come on. I cannot watch, like, docs without the subtitles, right? I mean, it might as well be in Chinese. I mean, can't you people learn to speak English?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. No. You know, not really. Well, yeah, we just don't want to include you. You're not invited. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I gotta tell you something. This is true. I was in London in 2007 making the movie Religious, and it was there for New Year's Eve, and I was out on New Year's Eve, and I remember I had lent a young lady my coat, so I was freezing, and I needed to get my driver, and I didn't know where I was, and I had to tell him. And I got on the phone. Cell phones were. Thank God we had him by then, because otherwise I never would have gotten my driver and found my hotel that night. But he and I could not make each other understood. I had to get the girl whose code I had given to get on the phone and translate for me so that I could get. So that he could understand where I was and get the car there. I don't know what. What that says about the world, but it just.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Savoy.

[Bill Maher]

Maybe that. Maybe that we think we're more alike than we are and we're really still very far apart. Or maybe I'm just reading into it, but it was. It was like, wow, if I can't get this done in London, I am not going to Vladivostok. I'm just not, you know, I'm not a traveler, though. You like travel?

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, I can't stand it.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really? Yeah. I'm a homebody. I just. I just really.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I love a home.

[Bill Maher]

I was. I tell you something, Gavin, I was on the road for 42 years, and last year was my last year. I've only been off for six months. And I mean, 42 years, you would think. And I was conflicted about stopping, even though last year, the whole year, I was kind of counting down the gigs. I just had enough of hotels that don't know how to do shit anymore and just. Just getting paid.

[Gavin Rossdale]

What do you used to do in the day? Like, out of. Like, what's your day?

[Bill Maher]

I only did weekends, so there was no day. I flew in the morning of the morning, the afternoon, Friday night, flew in right before the show started. The great thing about a private plane. Went right to the venue with the luggage, did the show, then went to the hotel, then went out, then woke up the next morning in that city. Yes. My dearest friend who travels with me, we'd have breakfast in the hotel the next morning. Breakfast, like, at 1 in the afternoon. When I woke up, I'd have to kill a few hours. Then we'd fly at afternoon to the second city, do that show, and then fly home after that show. So I was never anywhere. I know.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They said to me, how. What kind of. What do you want to do this year? Just. I want to tour until I get a jet, and it doesn't matter.

[Bill Maher]

But doesn't that schedule sound good? Two cities.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I would do it. I would.

[Bill Maher]

Two cities, but only staying over one night.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Genius.

[Bill Maher]

So I. So I loved it. But even that became too much. And even though I've only been off six months, like, I can't imagine right now doing it. Like, I just. I wake up on Saturday, I'm like, oh, I don't have to go to Cincinnati today. And I love Cincinnati. I just don't have to go there. And it's just, like, joyous. I'm home. I can go feed the ducks right now. In the pool again?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I tell these ducks, you can sit on the side of the pool, but you can't go in. And they take advantage of me.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You have to work all those years so the ducks could have a place to be.

[Bill Maher]

I have ducks and also groundhogs here that have ruined the lawn, but I let them because everyone needs to make a living.

[Gavin Rossdale]

And it's a great complex you have.

[Bill Maher]

What am I, a suburban dad? I want a perfect lawn. To who? Impress who? My fucking teenage daughter.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I'll triple my lawn if I like.

[Bill Maher]

My teenage daughter who doesn't exist. What's she gonna say? Dad, are your lawn's embarrassing. So you live close? Yeah. Oh, wow.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Like, 15 minutes.

[Bill Maher]

And do you live with someone? Is this.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No, I live with my kids.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you live with your. All three.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, I live with my 18 year, my age, soon to be 19 year old. On Monday. He lives with me exclusively.

[Bill Maher]

This is cool with mom.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Oh, that's a whole nother podcast. But yeah, well, I think we're in the wrong podcast for that. But no, he, he lives with me and I look after him and then the other two come on and off. So they're there now. They're all there now.

[Bill Maher]

They switch time between parents between.

[Gavin Rossdale]

With me and their mum and it's, you know, they, whatever the situation, you know, it's, it, it's not ideal, but I mean it's funny because they have such a diametrically opposed lifestyles and I say, isn't that amazing? You know, you have. Because obviously over, you have these views, extremely religious views, and over here you have an extremely non religious view. Isn't that beautiful that you get to make your own decisions of what that means? But I do have an older one.

[Bill Maher]

Well, if you need a tag team partner on the religion thing, just send the kids over here because the kids love me and I'm sure your kids are amazing.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know they are. Yeah, we'll see how that pans out. The most important thing for kids and nothing worse than. I know you're not into parenting, but. But nothing worse than a parent who forces their child to live vicariously through them, their inadequacies or whatever they're doing.

[Bill Maher]

It happens a lot.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Oh, it's just like let them, let them be who they are.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They're not you.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know, that's it. So I, Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And if they're, and if, I mean it wouldn't be odd if they did have musical talent and, but I find.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It, I promise you. I tell you what's interesting. I'm a really big cook. I love cooking and so. But I also don't know how to delegate. And I'm not sure if I've been a good father in the sense of forcing them to do chores and forcing. I just being a bit more laid back about things. So when they're with me, I make food for them because I can't be bothered to ask someone, hey, I've got 16 steps on this dish. Help me with steps seven, eight, nine and ten. They're not interested. They do their thing right in the house. But what's amazing to me is that they all, well, the two older ones, I mean, will then go and cook at their mom's place.

[Bill Maher]

What they learned at your place, what.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They mirrored, not even what they asked me, what they saw. And so they. So that, to me is more valuable than, hey, let's cook together. It's just that they were just like, soaking up what they wanted to, and then they go off and do their thing. And that, to me is. That's the greatest.

[Bill Maher]

You're right. I've never been interested in parenting, but I always have been. No, it's true. It's okay. But I've always thought that if you are a parent, one of the most important things you can do is you just have to accept that while they're children, they are not going to express the proper gratitude. It just kind of comes with being a kid. And because they're kids, you have to let that go. Now, I'm basing this on having young girlfriends, but I do think it's very true.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Who haven't thanked you appropriately. And I had a problem with that.

[Bill Maher]

But I know they love me and I know they.

[Gavin Rossdale]

They meant to thank me.

[Bill Maher]

And they. I know they, you know, it's just not part of their.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You know what? They probably thank you in the absentia, you know, when you're not there. You know what? Bill was so great. They damn, that sushi was good.

[Bill Maher]

When they get older. Absolutely. But I really feel like that is true with kids.

[Gavin Rossdale]

To me, the most important thing with my kids and I, you know, I'm a musician, so what the am. I meant to talk about kids, but I ended up having a load of kids make them likable. Because to have an unlike, say to them, be funny and be. Be polite and be funny, and life is going to be so much easier for you.

[Bill Maher]

Because if you are likable, how about I get. Can I add one?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

Humble, right?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Be fucking humble. You know, that's what is so I feel lacking in the obnoxious. Whether you're obnoxious of the left, obnoxious of the right, it is like a lack of humility. And I say that as someone who, when I was younger, did commit sins of lack of humility. But isn't that brag.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Cause that's diametrically or intrinsically connected to the lack of knowledge you had.

[Bill Maher]

Correct.

[Gavin Rossdale]

The knowledge you gained.

[Bill Maher]

Well, the lack of knowledge and the preponderance of insecurity. It was, I think, more insecurity.

[Gavin Rossdale]

You're like, same as everyone, you know?

[Bill Maher]

I know, but when you're young, you. That is how you compensate, right? For like, maybe if I act like I'm a big deal, then people won't notice that I'm not. And I'm afraid I Might never be. That's the big fear. But you might never be.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Everyone is broken.

[Bill Maher]

Everyone is broken. Everyone is broken. You're not. You don't seem broken. You seem perfectly there.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I'm perfectly present, but. But I have scars.

[Bill Maher]

Who doesn't? Of course. No, I went through life. But no, it's whether the scars are rendering you somebody who is. I mean, you don't strike me as not present. You don't strike me as crazy. You don't strike me as egomaniac. You don't strike me as anything you could be.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But. But, I mean. Yeah, for sure. Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

Like a good dad.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. I'm obsessed with my kids. They're incredible. And it's a really. I. You know, we all have our own things and I enjoy them a lot, but I also have this incredible thing between doing the band and that takes so, so much time. I don't know. Do you think about things like, is it important to have meaning in your life? Like, for me, reflecting last few years, it has been important for me to know my place and to know my contribution to myself and to me making sure that, yeah, I was in the right thing, doing the right. Doing the right thing all the time and having this artisan life of devotion to music. And it really helped me to make what I think is a really good record because it's just so full of gratitude, humility about it. Like, you know, knowing there's. I'm just a working musician, but, like, what a gift to make songs that people could listen to.

[Bill Maher]

You think Looking for the Meaning of Life. That's what inspired this record? That's kind.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, it was just the idea of.

[Bill Maher]

Like, you have one thing right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Did I get it right?

[Bill Maher]

But Plugin. Oh, what's. It's coming out in July.

[Gavin Rossdale]

July, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

What's it called?

[Gavin Rossdale]

I Beat Loneliness.

[Bill Maher]

I Beat Loneliness. That's a great title.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

That came to you just while you were doing something or you were.

[Gavin Rossdale]

It's one of the first songs that I wrote and, you know, I always wait.

[Bill Maher]

It came to your head?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yeah. It's not a very convoluted system. I get a bit of music that I like. I play it in my house. I have a studio in one of the spare bedrooms. I tricked it out a bit, so it looks like a studio, but it's really. It's a spare bedroom and the closet is actually got a window and where I sing. So it's very modest, but it just. Yeah, I just like to create these environments where I Think about things and. Yeah, so things. So when I got that phrase, you know, I'm just singing along to the track that I've made. And when those things I sing these things, you just know intrinsically if they're right or not. You know, like you might sing, you know, blah dee blah, or you might say, I be loneliness. You find, and it just fits. And that almost set up the aesthetic for the record, all the intention of the record. And it's wild how it came together because it looks very complete and very thought out, way smarter than I actually intended it to be. It's one of those funny things that the sum of the parts is way greater than the individual efforts that went into it. Suddenly, look, this sort of journey of this record that is very exciting. And I think that I will be.

[Bill Maher]

The first online to buy it. I'm going down to the record store, to the EMI shop on Willpole street in London in 1962 and I'm gonna buy this record. But, you know, I don't know, I'm anxious to hear the lyric to that song because, you know, you're a rock star, you're a good looking guy. I'm guessing you beat loneliness a long time ago, but you're still having problems.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No one does. I don't.

[Bill Maher]

Please come back here, will you?

[Gavin Rossdale]

Yes, I want to come back.

[Bill Maher]

I was very flattered that you wouldn't do this show.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Oh my God.

[Bill Maher]

It's a, you know, videos mutual.

[Gavin Rossdale]

I was like, I thought, I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna, A.

[Bill Maher]

Lot of people are scared of me. They think I'm terrible. I'm. Am I terrible? I'm not terrible.

[Gavin Rossdale]

No. I think that you're absolutely, absolutely you, you're very. A straight shooter. Which people aren't straight shooters. So you've built.

[Bill Maher]

That scares some people. It scares some people.

[Gavin Rossdale]

That's their shortcoming. People are scared of a, like.

[Bill Maher]

But this, this show, anybody can do because, you know, it's just me getting high, real time sometimes, you know, celebrities be like, well, I, I, I don't think I'm smart enough to do that show. And I don't say it, but I always want to say to them, you're correct, you are not smart enough to do that show. This is different. This is just two people shooting the shit.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Well, on that front, I always remember that line Christopher Hitchens that we spoke about. We both love who. You know that aphorism that people talk about. They say everyone has a book inside of them. And he said, yeah, everyone has a book inside, but most of the time, that's where it should stay. Just to bring Christopher in. The ending.

[Bill Maher]

All right. Gavin Rossdale. That was so much fun.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

It was a pleasure to get to know you.

[Gavin Rossdale]

Thank you. It was really fun.

[Bill Maher]

All right.

[Gavin Rossdale]

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