A few weeks ago I got a call asking if I wanted to come to the Interscope offices and do an in-person interview with Gavin Rossdale. After I freaked out a little in my office, I composed myself and said “YES.”

Besides being a big fan of Gavin’s first band Bush (download “The Chemicals Between Us,” “Glycerine,” “Machinehead,” and “Everything Zen” immediately if you don’t know what I’m talking about), I’ve really been digging his new solo album, Wanderlust.

Wanderlust has spawned one of the biggest hit songs of 2008, “Love Remains the Same.” (Which I recently described to someone as the song equivalent of The Notebook.)

What follows are the highlights of my interview with the sweet and personable Gavin Rossdale.

How long have you been working on Wanderlust?

It probably took about eight to ten months to write. And then, five months to wait for the producer. And then three months to record it. And then six months to wait for it to come out. It’s been a strange process of waiting my turn.

What made you decide to do a solo album?

Basically, after Bush I didn’t know what to do. And I was like, well, I’ll do this one offside project Institute, and really that was a solo record as well. I just should have called it a solo record. But it sounded like such a band. And then I was like what am I going to do now? I wanted to see if Bush would do a record, and so I asked them to do a record. And for two months they said yes, let’s do a record. So it was really exciting, I felt like I was back with my first love, my childhood sweetheart. And then, she turned around, and said she didn’t want me anymore. One guy didn’t want to tour anymore. So I did it on my own.

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