'Trying To Be In No Doubt Again': Gwen Stefani Details Hardships Of Being A Mum In A Band

Ahead of No Doubt’s upcoming reunion at Coachella this Sunday (14 April), Gwen Stefani sat down for a far-reaching interview about the band’s reunion, her solo career, motherhood and more.

Speaking in a NYLON cover story, Stefani detailed the hardships of motherhood and being in a band—a subject she touched on while promoting 2004’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby. In the interview, Stefani admitted that she has some regrets about trying to raise children while still in a band, releasing solo music, and working on her L.A.M.B. fashion line.

“I was so sick, and it just felt like — ugh,” she said, recalling her first pregnancy right before embarking on the Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Tour. In 2006, when her first child, Kingston, was just nine weeks old, music producer Jimmy Iovine convinced Stefani to hit the studio with Lonely hitmaker Akon, and The Sweet Escape was born. When she reflects on that track now, she recognises it “foreshadowing the future”.

Then, she came home after 100 days on the Sweet Escape tour, in which she was nursing a baby and working on the L.A.M.B. fashion line. “I was dead,” she told NYLON. After learning she was pregnant again with son Zuma, Stefani recalled, “I think everyone was disappointed,” referring to her No Doubt bandmates.

“I don’t think they would say that,” she added, “No one’s going to be mad you’re having a baby. But while I was busy, they were kind of waiting.”

Attempting to work on No Doubt’s 2012 comeback album Push And Shove became exhausting and zapped Stefani’s spirit. She revealed, “I would be leaving my family. And if I didn’t come home with a song, I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m such a loser—I didn’t have dinner with my family, and I didn’t write a song. I wasted an entire day of my life trying to be in No Doubt again.’”

She continued, “I look at it now and think, ‘God, what was I doing trying to please everybody?’ Because really, I should have just been with my family.”

You can read the complete cover story here.

No Doubt haven’t performed together since 2015, but we’ll soon see them reunited on stage at Coachella (if you’re lucky enough) or on the YouTube livestream.

In December, Stefani said she was open to a No Doubt reformation, telling The Wall Street Journal, “I have no idea what’s going to happen with No Doubt… It feels like everyone is [reforming], right? All the ’90s people—blink-182 did an eight-month tour that sold out in like five minutes.”