Gavin Rossdale is a British musician and fledgling actor. He was the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Bush, and later Institute, and is now pursuing a solo career.
Background[]
Gavin Rossdale was born in Kilburn, London, to parents Barbara Stephan and Douglas Rossdale. His father was a doctor of Russian Jewish descent whose surname was originally Rosenthal. His parents divorced when he was eleven years old, and he was raised primarily by his father and aunt. His mother remarried and moved to Tampa, Florida.
Onstage with Bush
Rossdale learned to play bass guitar after hanging out with his sister Lorraine's boyfriend, who was in a band, but he switched to rhythm guitar. At 17, he left the Westminster School, and formed a band called Midnight (formerly Little Dukes), which produced a couple of singles and many publicity photos. In 1991, Gavin moved to Los Angeles for 6 months, lived where he could, and took whatever part-time jobs were available, including production assistant on video shoots. He spent some time in New York City before returning to England where he hooked up with future manager Dave Dorrell, whom he had met in Los Angeles. In 1992, Gavin formed Future Primitive, whose original line-up included screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, who left to pursue a film-making career.
The band changed its name to Bush in the summer of 1994 with Gavin as the lead singer/songwriter for the British post-grunge rock band. Their first album, Sixteen Stone (1994), was a huge commercial success. Almost overnight, they went from playing small pubs in London to headlining arenas in the US, the result of extensive, non-stop touring. A change in record labels, management and an extended hiatus did not bode well for the band, which unofficially split in 2002, at the time that he married No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani.
In 2004, after Bush had been on hiatus for two years, Rossdale formed Institute. Their first album, Distort Yourself, achieved moderate success and the single Bulletproof skin was used in the motion picture Stealth. Institute broke up in 2006, after just one album.
In 2007, Rossdale announced on his website that he was working on new music for a solo album. That same year he covered John Lennon's Mind Games for the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Later that year, Gavin finished recording his first solo record titled WANDERlust.
As for his acting career, in 2005, Rossdale appeared in the motion picture Constantine (2005) playing the villain Balthazar. Rossdale has also appeared in the films Zoolander (2001), The Mayor of Sunset Strip (2003), Little Black Book (2004), and The Game of Their Lives (2005). He also co-starred in the heist film How to Rob a Bank. In 2009, he appeared on the drama series Criminal Minds as a rock star.
Criminal Minds[]
Gavin Rossdale portrayed a goth rock star named Paul Davies, who on stage presents a vampire-like alter-ego called "Dante" and gets involved in a series of murders in the Season Five episode "The Performer". In the next episode, "Outfoxed", he makes a brief appearance portraying an unnamed rocker.
Filmography[]
- Criminal Minds - "The Performer" (2009) - Paul Davies a.k.a. Dante and "Outfoxed" (2009) TV episodes - Rocker
- How to Rob a Bank (2007) - Simon
- Battle Olympia (2007) - Skyline Athlete
- The Game of Their Lives (2005) - Stanley Mortensen
- Constantine (2005) (VG) (voice) - Balthazar
- Constantine (2005) - Balthazar
- Little Black Book (2004) - Random
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien - Episode dated 21 October 1999 (1999) TV episode (as Bush) - Musical Guest
- The Comic Strip Presents... - The Crying Game (1992) TV episode - Footballer
External Links[]
For an up-to-date Filmography: imdb.com/Gavin Rossdale
Notes[]
- Rossdale's half brother is the Bishop of Grimsby.
- He was his daughter's godfather before taking a DNA test in 2004.
- Rossdale also plays USTA Tennis at a 4.5 men level.