'Alchemy of music and people': Bush's Gavin Rossdale ready to rock PNC Arts Center

Gavin Rossdale has fans that have been on board since Bush first hit the scene three decades ago.

But it was a young fan, maybe 11 or 12, who made the biggest impact on the singer as the band's Greatest Hits tour got underway this summer.

"Oh my God, I ran through the crowd and this little girl was bawling her eyes out and singing along, with her parents right there," he said. "It summed the tour up in that moment, the young girl of 11 or 12 who's just lost in the music. It was during 'Flowers (On A Grave).' She knew all the words. I thanked her. Normally I go through, I stop here and there, but she made me stop and just give her the moment."

The Greatest Hits tour visits PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Appearing alongside Bush are BONES UK, and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains.

Bush recently released "Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023," a complication of the band's biggest hits; a new song, "Nowhere To Go But Everywhere"; and a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together."

The feeling of performing remains indescribable, Rossdale said.

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"The alchemy of music and people is just infinite, so incredible," he added.

Looking back over the band's history and its catalog as they prepared the album and tour has led to introspection for Rossdale and the band, which also includes lead guitarist Chris Traynor, bass player Corey Britz and drummer Nik Hughes.

"It's impossible to not look at it with mad gratitude," said Rossdale, is on lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar. "It sounds so basic or so obvious or so cliche, but if you didn't have the gratitude for this life, then what would motivate you in life? I chose to do this sort of artisan thing of singing and music and traveling around with my friends and doing a band, and here we are."

The continued love and support for his music and the band motivates him.

"Everything stays alive by just having a desire to be the best you can be at all times," he said, adding that the songs in his repertoire are not easy.

"When I sing them, I have to be fully committed," he said. "You see those amazing skateboarders and the guys in the streets skating, and the way that they bend down and they prepare for a jump they're about to do and blow us away with? It's fully committed. That's the only way that I can do a show.

"I just want them to be so blown away, elevated, that's all it's about," he continued. "That's why we go to music events. It's a shared experience. I mean, the world is so messed up and stressful. People fighting at home, fights, madness everywhere. If you dwell on it, it can really get you down. So it's an incredible thing where music can galvanize people."

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Rossdale said touring with Cantrell is a full circle moment for him, as he considers Alice in Chains' "Man in a Box" a "torchbearing" song in a movement that inspired him as an artist. The band opened for Alice in Chains a few summers ago, which he called "long overdue and really fun and really satisfying."

New Bush album

Is there any new music on the horizon for Bush?

"There's a whole record ready to go," Rossdale said. "Inevitably that means by the time the tour is done, I'm sure I'll do a couple of songs, but ostensibly, I finished recording 11 songs, it needs to be mixed. So that's super exciting."

Go: Bush, Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour, with Jerry Cantrell and BONES UK; 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21; PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116, Garden Stage Parkway, Holmdel; $28 to $208 (includes VIP Club); concerts.livenation.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bush's Gavin Rossdale hits Holmdel with Jerry Cantrell, BONES UK