Like everyone else with an internet connection, Gavin Rossdale has seen the memes about the Coldplay kiss cam scandal — and he has some thoughts.
“What a watercooler moment, isn’t it? The most defining moment of 2025,” the Bush frontman joked during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly on Monday, July 21, after the release of his band’s latest album, I Beat Loneliness. “Oh, man, that’s just — wow. Bold. I think the phrase is — my Albanian girlfriend says it best — f*** around and find out. That’s the aphorism there.”
Despite his interest in the moment’s virality, Rossdale does have a few follow-up questions about why Coldplay has a kiss cam in the first place — and notes that Bush does not and will not employ such a device at their own concerts.
“I don’t have kiss cams at my show, but I aspire to being big enough. What’s he having a kiss cam for at a show anyway? Is there an interlude while he goes to put on more colorful clothes?” the rocker quipped, adding that Bush is in a “different genre” than Coldplay, making a kiss cam an odd choice for the “Glycerine” band. “We’re too busy. The thing is that with Coldplay, they just did not need the publicity. God bless them. They’re doing so well. Couldn’t they have done that somewhere else?”
Last week, two people were caught on the kiss cam at Coldplay’s July 16 concert outside Boston and became a viral sensation when they attempted to hide after they were seen cuddling. After frontman Chris Martin joked that they might be having an affair, the internet soon identified the lovebirds as Andy Byron, then the CEO of tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company’s Chief People Officer. Both parties are seemingly married to other people, and Byron has since resigned his post.
Rossdale, for his part, is happily coupled up with Xhoana Xheneti. The couple made their romance Instagram official in early 2024 after attending a wedding together in late 2023. While he’s been busy promoting Bush’s new album, he’s also been able to sneak in some travel time with Xheneti, 36, and his family. (Rossdale shares sons Kingston, 19, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 11, with ex-wife Gwen Stefani and daughter Daisy, 36, with Pearl Lowe.)
“Me and my family, we travel as a unit,” Rossdale told Us, reminiscing about a recent trip to England. “And so there were 14 of us in Cornwall. I’d never been to Cornwall, which is a beautiful place in the southern tip of England, and it’s a surfer’s paradise, and we were just in this house on the beach, just worked out perfect. You could walk to dinner. I cooked three dinners, and then the other three dinners [we] went out. We’d walk across the beach, across the cliffs … it was really special and it was a great time.”
While Rossdale is super close with his family, he doesn’t always ask them for their advice on his music. His adult daughter, Daisy, has heard the new record and loves it, but Rossdale doesn’t want to force his sons to listen to Bush’s music.
“I just want ’em to discover it. It’s much better,” he explained. “And then I’m their dad. I have a different job. I’m, like, the guy that makes sure they eat.”
Zuma, in fact, hasn’t been shy about taking his father down a peg or two. At one point, Rossdale was working on a remix of Bush’s 1994 song “Machinehead” when Zuma came in and listened to a preview.
“I did think he’d be impressed,” Rossdale recalled. “And he goes, ‘You’re not putting that out, are you?’ I said, ‘Well, I was thinking of it. Why, is there something particularly wrong with it?’ He goes, ‘“Machinehead” is legendary. I dunno about that.’ And then left the room. Destroyed me. Killed me.”
Bush’s new album, I Beat Loneliness, is out now.
Read the full article here
