For someone who doesn't consider himself spiritual, Gavin Rossdale uses words like "connected", "grateful" and "blessed" a lot. Living in the moment and choosing happiness is his mantra.
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And it's working. His alt-rock band Bush is touring again and poised to release an album and Rossdale, who is also an actor, says he's "in a good place".
Bush had 18 Top 40 hit singles in the 1990s. Singles Comedown, Glycerine, Machinehead, Swallowed, The Chemicals Between Us and The Sound of Winter all reached number one. Rossdale's distinctive baritone struck a chord and Bush's debut album Sixteen Stone, released in 1994, spent 43 weeks in the Australian Top 50, peaking at number five.
The band called it quits in 2001, returning in 2011 with The Sea Of Memories featuring hit song The Sound Of Winter which made rock radio history in the US by becoming the first self-released song to top the charts on Alternative Rock Radio.
Earlier this year Bush released Bullet Holes which is featured on the soundtrack to Hollywood blockbuster John Wick 3 Parabellum.
"People are still finding us, yes. The John Wick soundtrack gave us a whole new audience," Rossdale says.
"My kids came in playing AC/DC to me, and my 11-year-old goes "Dad, have you heard of these guys?' And I'm like 'Yeah, I think they've got a future'. What's old is always new to someone. It levels the playing field."
Aside from music, Rossdale is also known as an actor. Most notably, he appeared in the films Constantine (2005), Zoolander (2001) and The Bling Ring (2013). He was also a coach on The Voice UK in 2017. But it's music that remains his first love.
"I haven't really stopped playing. It's like a merry-go-round and I've done it so long, and it keeps coming around," he tells Weekender.
"I love it. It's like being in a dance competition for a very long time and you don't want to get tapped on the shoulder, you know? I live in this bubble, but it's a very comfortable bubble."
The only reference he makes to his much-publicised personal life is when he talks fondly - and proudly - about his sons.
"I have three boys and I realise that they've got to be good people. They need to be accountable. They are also three separate characters and it's intriguing, figuring out how to help and guide three different personalities as a single father," he says.
Rossdale shares his sons with singer Gwen Stefani, whom he married in 2002. They were divorced in 2016. It's not something he wants to dwell on.
"You choose things in life to focus on and pursue and I choose bliss over darkness and sadness," he says.
"I think it's actually a higher plain that I go to. That's about as spiritual as I get - well, unless I am spiritual after all (laughs).
"I am very professional and I give everything to my job. I try to do my best every night. To give my all. If I'm going to do it I may as well have the most fun doing it otherwise what kind of an idiot am I? I treat my career with care and reverence and focus.
"So many people come along every single night, I can't believe it. They're still coming. It's like 'Are you sure you want to come? OK, then let's have some fun'. And it's beautiful.
"I'm very grateful. I'm very mindful."
Bush has a new album coming out in February, he says, and it's called The Mind Plays Tricks On You. The band's shows, though, are a careful balance of old and new, with the weight shifting in favour of the old.
Rossdale, who has said in the past he always regarded Stefani as a muse, sings his lyrics "through the prism of each day".
"You can't have an obscure set list. It has to be what people deserve and what got us here," he explains.
"When I sing those songs every day, it's against a whole different backdrop of what's going on in my life. I can't possibly sing those songs in terms of what they were written about, it would drive me crazy.
"The songs have universal messages in them, crazy moments of release and tension and admissions of guilt.
"Every night the words mean something different. All I can do is live in the moment; sing in the moment. Every night is different and you never know what's going to happen. It just works."
