The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stefani gets candid at the start of ‘Truth’ tour
The outcome of the unwelcome attention is an emotional story.
Gwen Stefani, who returned to the road earlier this month for her first major tour since 2007, will perform in Alpharetta on Friday.
To say Gwen Stefani has endured an emotional roller coaster of a year is akin to saying Donald Trump likes to brag. Ya think? The sometime-No Doubt frontwoman, sometime-coach on “The Voice” found herself thrust into an unwelcome spotlight last summer when she filed from divorce for her allegedly philandering husband, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, with whom she has three sons.
A few months and a country hunk later — she and “Voice” costar Blake Shelton began dating in November — Stefani delivered her first solo album in a decade, the magical pop-filled “This Is What the Truth Feels Like.”
The spunky fashionista, 46, behind solo smashes such as “Rich Girl,” “The Sweet Escape” and “Hollaback Girl,” returned to the road earlier this month for her first major tour since 2007 and, along with longtime musical pal Eve, will visit Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta on Friday.
Talking to reporters from her Los Angeles home a few weeks before the tour kickoff, Stefani was candid and chatty as she discussed her gratefulness at being able to share these new songs with fans and how she balances her personal and professional lives. Here is what she had to say: What fans can expect from her live shows: “This is the crazy part — I was flirting with the idea of touring, never thinking it would happen, but I never knew this year was going to happen; you couldn’t have written it. I feel so excited having a record coming out in real time and I have this
exchange of love with people and it’s been so healing. My goal is to get out there and connect with people and have this exchange of love and I feel like when I was at my darkest hour, it was trying to figure out, ‘What is the purpose? Why am I here?’ ‘What is my gift?’ And discovering that knowing that my gift is music and being confident in that and receiving these songs, I feel like it’s to share that now. As far as the stage goes, I have a brandnew band. … As far as picking songs, I feel so grateful I have so many to pick from. Now I have three albums of work, so it makes it so much more fun. … I want people to walk out going, ‘Oh, my God, that was that time in my life.’… The whole show for me isn’t about what I’m wearing or even how I sing, it’s about the connection. I want people to feel like they know me by the end of the show.”
How she’ll handle the emotions of the songs from the new album every night on stage: “These songs … I feel like they were really channeled. I feel like God just handed them down to me as, like, this kind of Band-Aid to kind of help me through this crazy time in my life. Every time I go out on stage, I have to do my very best. You can’t just walk through it. You have to be in it, and it’s exhausting. And I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t toured in seven years, because the last tour I did almost killed me, after having those two babies and then going on tour and nursing (an infant). So I think that it will be superemotional, but I think there’s going to be something quite — I don’t know — like satisfying and healing, and it’s going to be something that’s going to make me feel superempowered.”
How she balances her personal and professional lives: “I don’t really have that much control over it, if you think about it. People say whatever they’re going to say, believe whatever they’re going to believe. I know what the truth is. My family knows what the truth is. Everybody has their own opinion about me, which I have no control over. You know what I’m saying? I mean, my idea of heaven is to be able to write a song and have that be, like, the backdrop of somebody’s life growing up. These songs, they make memories for people. … And as far as my personal life, I think that’s something that always has been part of my journey and with (No Doubt breakthrough album) ‘Tragic Kingdom,’ that was all about my personal life, and every single song I’ve pretty much ever written has been about my personal life, and I feel OK sharing that. I think the only place I start to become more protective of it is really when you have children, because at the end of the day, you don’t want them to be a teenager and go, ‘Oh, my God. Mom, why did you say that?’ Or ‘Why did they say that about you?’ That’s where it starts to get tricky for me, but I’m really OK with everything else.”
Visit The Music Scene blog at AJC.com on Saturday for a review of the concert.