Bush performs at Charlotte’s Skyla Credit Union Amphitheater on April 15 on their Land of Milk and Honey Tour.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bush vocalist Gavin Rossdale says music has the ability to get people through uncertain times, and he’s using that as a plea to get people to see the band on April 15 in Charlotte.
“People’s lives are hard. The world is rough. We’re at war. AI is threatening everybody. Nobody knows what the future holds,” Rossdale told WCNC Charlotte ahead of the band’s April 15 show at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheater. “Live music is one of those traditional, ancient art forms that still has its function, because it just makes people feel better.”
Bush hits Charlotte on their Land of Milk and Honey Tour supporting their tenth studio album, “I Beat Loneliness,” released in 2024. The tour kicked off on April 7 in Pittsburgh and runs through the spring. Support on the Charlotte date comes from Mammoth and James and the Cold Gun, the latter hailing from Wales, a fact Rossdale noted with appreciation.
The album has already amassed 15 million streams and produced the band’s eighth number-one single on U.S. Active Rock Radio with “The Land of Milk and Honey.” Rolling Stone called the record “post-grunge at its best with a high nostalgia factor.”
Rossdale said “I Beat Loneliness” belongs in the same conversation as the band’s most iconic work.
“There’s no point in writing songs that can’t compete with those other songs,” he said. “They’re just good tracks to play live and connect with people.”
Balancing new material against a catalog that includes anthems like “Glycerine,” “Machinehead,” and “Comedown,” songs that have dominate rock radio airwaves for 30 years, is a delicate art, Rossdale acknowledged.
“I can’t play a whole bunch of new songs and forsake the other tracks,” he said. “It’s just a balance, like everything — just a balance.”
The Charlotte show will also include songs the band hasn’t played in some time or has never performed live before, requiring extra focus from a group with 28 Top 40 hits spanning three decades.
When asked about the enduring appeal of 1994’s “Glycerine,” one of the defining songs of the post-grunge era, Rossdale reflected on the unlikely circumstances under which it was written.
“Those songs on ‘Sixteen Stone,’ including ‘Glycerine,’ were written in complete ignorance that anyone would ever hear them,” he said. “I’d actually given up on being commercial at that point. I just did a record and a band I believed in, and I had no idea it would have any success at all.”
As for the song’s meaning, Rossdale pointed to the explosive properties of nitroglycerin as a metaphor.
“It’s the ability to blow up — very dangerous material, just like love,” he said. “I’m enough to give anyone hope, because if I did it out of nowhere, it just shows it comes down to never giving up.”
Rossdale, who grew up in London, said North Carolina holds a personal connection for him through a close friend who relocated there, and he praised the region’s reputation for warmth.
“Everyone’s so polite,” he said. “It’s nice to come across a culture where people are kind of really easygoing and not in a rush.”
He also went out of his way to praise his touring crew and the support bands, saying he makes a point of finishing sound checks on time to give opening acts a fair shot.
“People want to play arenas really well and they deserve decent sound checks,” he said. “Give everyone a shot to do their best — because ultimately it’s about the audience having a great time.”
Rossdale is Bush’s only remaining original member. The band formed in 1992 and split up in 2002 until 2010. Lead guitarist Chris Traynor, bassist Chris Traynor, and drummer Nik Hughes make up the rest of the band.
Bush performs on April 15 at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheater in Charlotte. Tickets are available through the venue.