Every Saturday night, Gavin Rossdale appears on TV screens as a judge on The Voice UK. And every Saturday night Twitter is abuzz with the same question – who is Gavin Rossdale? The lead singer of rock band Bush and Gwen Stefani's ex-husband, Gavin has shifted almost 20 million albums. The Grammy nominee has captivated the US music industry, although he hasn't experienced the same level of success on home soil, hence the endless stream of confused tweets.
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"Who IS Gavin Rossdale?? Why is he judge? #justsayin," one viewer has tweeted, while another wrote: "Haven't got a scooby who that fella is on The Voice who sits on the far left. Gavin Rossdale haha never heard that name in me life." A third Twitter user confessed: "Am I the only one Googling "who is Gavin Rossdale"......?" One confident rock fan replied, "Well if you actually listened to stuff other than what was in the top 40 you might," while another expert tweeted: "I know who Gavin Rossdale is he was in a band called Bush and he is the dad of Daisy Lowe and was married to Gwen Stefani."
"Gavin Rossdale haha never heard that name in me life," one viewer wrote on Twitter
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Speaking to the Radio Times about the sudden social media interest he's experienced this year, Gavin said: "All I wanted to tweet back was 'Who are you? Who is anyone?' We all are nobody. Why was I guilty? I just made records and I wasn't [pretending to be] in a band that had the kind of prestige of Radiohead."
Gavin, whose band Bush was once one of the most commercially successful groups in the US, acknowledged his relative lack of presence in the UK. "'Oh, sorry you never made it in England, but you made it in America'… It's been written about me for 20 years. Every time I've ever read anything about me, that's all it is," the London-born guitarist said. "I'm not trying to be Justin Timberlake," he continued. "So why am I being criticised because I'm not on Radio 1, who don't want to play my records? It's not my fault. When did I ever make a statement that I should be known and that I had made this concerted effort to be a pop star that everyone knew. I never was that guy. But I'm still making the records – and come to my shows: they're packed."
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale were married for 13 years
Take a look at Gavin and Gwen's marriage
Despite his response, Gavin, 51, insisted that he is not embittered. Recalling some of the tweets, he laughed and said: "'He's not dead! Apparently he's in a band and they've got a record out! I was like 'Send your cousin my album and let's get one more fan!'"
Gavin joined the sixth series of The Voice UK in January. He currently sits on the panel alongside veteran judges will.i.am and Sir Tom Jones, who has appeared in all series apart from the fifth, and new coach Jennifer Hudson. Ironically, Gavin's ex-wife Gwen Stefani, who filed for divorce from him in August 2015, judges the American version of the show.