‘I’m Just A Girl’ singer puts family first but struggles to find words to tell her tale

By Darrah Le Montre, staff writer

Los Angeles, CA (RPRN) 6/11/09 — “It’s one thing when you have an infant, but when you have this two-or three-year-old going, ‘Mommy, what’s the deal?’ It’s harder. Kingston’s whole thing is, ‘I need, I need.’ He is insane right now,” singer Gwen Stefani says.

The lead vocalist for the ska-pop band No Doubt, the platinum blonde fashion plate has two kids with Bush rocker, Brit Gavin Rossdale and lives in Los Angeles.

In regard to nine-month-old Zuma, 39-year-old Stefani tells ELLE Magazine this month, “We’re just hoping for the best and that he’s not going to turn out to be a freak, but we’ll see.”

Also a successful soloist, the Anaheim-native gained recognition as the daring but accessible feminist who fronted ‘those guys’ in two-time Grammy-winning band No Doubt. In fact, one of their first hit songs, “Don’t Speak” off the epic album “Tragic Kingdom” in 1995 was guided by a dramatic narrative that captured the conflicting emotions of the band. Their third studio album, “Tragic Kingdom” detailed Stefani’s sorrowful breakup with bassist and childhood crush Tony Kanal and the hit-makers’ near disintegration early in their career. The video for “Don’t Speak” was the public’s first introduction to the internal drama that haunted them, but somehow never overcame the clan. She told The Observer in 2005, “All I ever did was look at Tony and pray that God would let me have a baby with him.”

Now happily married, Stefani says she’s no longer willing to put the group – who has won a slew of MTV Video Music Awards — first now that she’s a wife and mother. She tells Elle Magazine that the band is touring without a new album to promote because she was struck with a debilitating case of writer’s block.

“I might never be able to write another song,” she emotes. “Who knows? I did try. So here we are, going on a tour without a new record.

The first of those two aforementioned solo albums, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” arrived in 2004, when the self-proclaimed geek was working off the momentum of No Doubt’s booming follow-ups to “Tragic Kingdom.” The autobiographical “Return of Saturn,” which documented her early thirties, and “Rock Steady,” which returned the group to its dancier roots.

“Love. Angel. Music. Baby” and its accompanying clothing line with the acronym L.A.M.B. were huge commercial victories for the singer and named after her favorite things. (Aside from gold bling with a single moniker on them.)

It is reported that the clothing line, which now includes watches, grossed $90M in 2007. She expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion often making public appearances with her H-Girls in tow.

The currently overwhelmed trendsetter made her acting debut playing Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator in 2004 and was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by Cast in Motion Picture.

“What I’ve gone through is major, right?” Gwen announces. “I got married and had two human beings come out of my body — plus two solo albums and two clothing lines that were born during the same period.
“I’m still nursing! I’m a little sucked dry. Like maybe once I sleep through the night, maybe I’ll be able to write a song. That’s where I’m at.”

We can only hope she’ll be back in unequivocal shape soon, having grown stronger from her trials and remaining faithful to the group that made her a ubiquitous name and post-riot grrl icon, despite being the bane of healthy hair everywhere.