"Psycho Babble"
October 16, 1999


Bush's Gavin Rossdale reclines on the couch and spouts about nightmares, extreme ugliness and public executions...

Q: Can you urinate in front of another person?

"Totally, but I prefer the cubicle option. When you go into a toilet you do that thing where you look eye-level height and above, and that's it. But cubicles are better."

Q: If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one ability or quality, what would it be?

"I would not let what's past eat me up. I wouldn't try to change yesterday."

Q: Who do you admire most? In what way does that person inspire you?

"Anyone who's blind and goes about their business. If you're severely handicapped or blind, you'd have to overcome things that we never really have to think about. I admire the blind."

Q: Would you rather be deaf or blind?

"What a horrible choice! It's a sick choice! I'm too busy thinking about the person that'd think up that question to answer. I think they're both equally as horrible. It's too traumatic a question to answer. People with callings of genius could make music while deaf but I can't really see Lemmy doing it."

Q: Would you be willing to become extremely ugly, physically, if it meant you could live for a thousand years at whatever age you choose?

"I'm gonna live for a thousand years anyway. I was at the crossroads and I sold my soul. So I'm beyond that question."

Q: Have you ever hated anyone and, if so, for how long?

"I used to hate too frequently. Now I specialise. I try to deal with my hatred. If I read people slagging me off then I hate them forever. Anyone with a little bit of punk in them should be aware of hatred, but I can't think of anyone right now who I hate really."

Q: What was your most enjoyable dream? Your worst nightmare?

"My most enjoyable dream would be the Caligula-style parties that I get invited to a lot. They don't happen enough. My worst dream when I was a kid was I'd always dream about falling and dying. I was always falling off buildings and just as I'm about to hit the ground I wake up. I was obsessed with dying, obsessed with death. I still am, but that's because I'm so obsessed with life. Even though I'm going to live to a thousand years, I might be dead before that."

Q: If you could choose the manner of your death, what would it be?

"I always thought that death while shagging wouldn't be a bad one, unless you were the one who stayed alive. It'd have to be quick definitely, a machinegunning or something. It's be quick but you'd go out in style. I always think I'm gonna die anyway, even when I'm sitting here. Every time I get on a plane, which is quite a lot, I always think, 'Oh well, I'll be dead now'."

Q: Have you ever come close to death?

"I had an aborted take-off just before Woodstock. I was on a plane from LA and the plane was taking off and it skidded literally at the end of the runway because one of the engines blew. The tyres caught fire and we had the fire engines out and we had to be towed back. What's so weird, in this day and age, is how accepting people were of it. Then, when we were getting off the plane people were hysterical, crying and crying and crying. I hadn't really thought about it that much because we hadn't taken off, so I didn't think it was that dangerous. It was only when we got on the shuttle bus that everyone got on their mobiles, and that's when it hit me. I called a couple of people and it was only when I heard the shocked reactions to it from outside that I realised it wasn't the coolest situation to be in."

Q: When did you last cry in front of another person?

"I cried the other day because my mum got mugged. Someone had smashed her head and cut her and bruised her ribs. I felt really powerless. But as for in front of another person, I should do that more often. Being male and English are the two really bad contributions to crying. We should get in touch with ourselves. If we were Red Indians, we'd probably do it all the time."

Q: If there was a public execution on the television, would you watch it?

"No I wouldn't. They had it on TV the other day in America, this kid who was walking along high wires on a telegraph mast. They showed him with the police trying to get him down and a huge crowd gathered. He was walking along these telephone lines and the voice-over goes 'and then it happened!' and you see him grab onto the wrong rail and he lit up like a firework. And they showed it again in slow motion, just in case the gruesome buggers hadn't jerked off in time or something. It was sick. So I hope that never happens. It'd definitely get the ratings up, people would watch it. I watch boxing and I wince at some of the punches people take because it's quite barbaric. The ones I find really gruesome are the boxers you don't know, who don't really make it, they're just there fighting like meat. I hate watching that. But if it's Mike Tyson or someone getting 20 million pounds...now maybe I don't need to but there was a time in my life that I'd have got knocked out for a couple of million quid."

Q: Would you be willing to go into a slaughterhouse and kill a cow?

"No. I should be able to because I eat meat, but I'd rather just be under the impression that it arrived in a packet. If someone's life depended on it...could I shoot it? Then of course I'd do it. Or if I didn't like the person then I'd shoot the person and let the cow live. Very Hindu of me."

Q: Do you suffer fools?

"No, but I can tolerate them momentarily - but not for more than four minutes at a time. I've got a four-minute limit with idiots."

Q: If you were to discover that your closest friend was a heroin dealer, what would you do?

"I'd take the gun I was gonna shoot the cow with...I wouldn't know any heroin dealers. It couldn't happen. I've known a few people who've bought from them, but being a heroin dealer, there's that and a Tory councillor, just them two. The only good smack dealers are Tory."

Q: Have you ever been attracted to someone of the same sex? How did you deal with it?

"No. This is the Nineties and I certainly wouldn't be ashamed, but I'm not attracted to anyone except the person I'm in love with. I'm a very good boy."