Front-woman of No Doubt Gwen Stefani has had incredible ups during her career, but it wasn't
an easy rise to the top.
How did she handle the death of No Doubt's founder?
What were the causes of the lawsuits she faced?
Here are the tragic details about Gwen Stefani.
When No Doubt began in 1986, John Spence was the original lead singer, with Eric Stefani
on the keyboard.
Spence not only fronted the band, but he was also the group's heart and soul who even came
up with the band's name.
Eventually, Spence asked Eric's sister Gwen to join the outfit.
Needing an outlet for her introversion, she climbed aboard as a backup singer.
Speaking with Howard Stern, she said,
"I was like the chubby girl that kind of all of a sudden grew over the summer and like,
got really into music."
She continued, saying,
"My older brother was already there, so I was just friends with him.
I was a Bambi, I was very passive."
The band's momentum in Orange County grew until they were sideswiped by news that Spence
had killed himself.
Wanting the band to continue, Gwen opted to share lead vocals with trumpeter Alan Meade.
When he eventually left, Gwen assumed all the fronting duties, a personnel change that
would permanently alter No Doubt's course.
Becoming a background vocalist in No Doubt did wonders for Gwen's shy nature, especially
when the band started to gain a local following.
It also led to her first serious relationship when she got together with Tony Kanal, the
group's bass player.
Speaking with Howard Stern again, Stefani said,
"At first, we kind of had to hide that we were together, because no one like, was supposed
to go out with me in the band.
When John died, that was when it was like everyone kind of found out."
The couple faced a steep learning curve while balancing a romantic and working relationship.
It was a lot to juggle after No Doubt signed with Interscope in 1991, dropping two albums
within four years, and touring relentlessly.
But in 1994, with the band still on an upswing, Kanal broke it off with Stefani.
The split devastated Stefani and nearly ended the band.
Eventually, she would use the experience to write the lyrics to "Don't Speak," still one
of No Doubt's biggest hits.
No Doubt faced another internal blow when Eric Stefani, the group's founding member,
and creative rudder, quit the band in 1994.
Allegedly, Eric didn't handle criticism well when it came to his songs, which proved to
be a problem when working with their label.
Interestingly, Eric went on to become an animator for "The Simpsons."
Stefani recalled to Variety the head-butting behind the scenes while co-writing "Don't
Speak."
The departure stunned his sister.
But her brother's exit and her split from Kanal somehow generated enough energy for
Gwen to get creative.
To Howard Stern, she said,
"All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I start writing songs.
I don't know how to write them, I don't know where they're coming from, I don't play an
instrument.
That's where I finally found that passive girl was gone.
It was like I found a focus and I found a power."
Gwen stepped up and contributed heavily to their next outing, ironically titled "Tragic
Kingdom."
Released in 1995, it broke the band wide open, selling more than 13 million copies.
Shortly after her breakup with Tony Kanal, Gwen Stefani met and eventually started a
relationship with Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale.
When the two eventually married in 2002 and became parents four years later, Stefani,
already enjoying a lucrative solo career, seemed aware that the family life involving
a baby and two working musicians wasn't going to be so breezy.
She's quoted as saying to Jimmy Kimmel,
"All these years we've been together we always had to like live in different countries, be
on tour, and be separated, but with the baby now, it's gonna be tough."
Two more children and several hits later, the marriage hit rock bottom in 2015.
While there were plenty of rumors about what happened, Stefani was tight-lipped over what
caused the split.
She found relief from that shock when she bonded with country singer Blake Shelton,
her colleague on the show "The Voice," which she joined in 2014.
One day, Shelton sadly revealed to the judges and crew his marriage with singer Miranda
Lambert was over.
Stefani later related her struggle to Shelton and the two connected immediately.
On Howard Stern she explained,
"We just started this friendship, which was just unbelievable that God would put us in
a position to have each other at that moment."
Gwen Stefani has done some things that don't sit right with other public figures.
Take rocker Courtney Love, who, in a 2004 Seventeen article, took a dig at Stefani when
she said, "I'm not interested in being the cheerleader.
I'm not interested in being Gwen Stefani."
The comment inspired Gwen to create "Hollaback Girl" with Pharrell.
In 2005, comedian Margaret Cho touched on Stefani's controversial Harajuku Girls era
and appropriation of Japanese culture.
Cho wrote on her blog,
"I want to like them, and I want to think they are great, but I am not sure if I can.
I mean, racial stereotypes are really cute sometimes, and I don't want to bum everyone
out by pointing out the minstrel show."
Stefani told Billboard,
"I get a little defensive when people [call it culture appropriation], because if we didn't
allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be?"
In 2016, tabloids ran with rumors of a feud between Stefani and Blake Shelton's ex-wife
Miranda Lambert, who supposedly called the No Doubt singer a "homewrecker" after she
struck up a romance with "The Voice" veteran.
What's more, a source claimed to In Touch that Lambert was, quote, "tired of Gwen incessantly
gushing about her romance with Blake."
Of course, this is all hearsay, but the two sure don't seem to be on the friendliest of
terms.
Gwen Stefani's faced some legal troubles throughout her career.
A fan sued the singer after breaking her leg in a crowd rush during a 2016 Stefani concert
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The injured spectator claimed Stefani negligently triggered the stampede when she encouraged
the audience to move closer to the stage.
The case was settled out of court in 2019.
A year earlier, a hairdresser tried to sue Stefani and co-songwriter Pharrell Williams
for $25 million, claiming their 2014 hit "Spark the Fire" stole lines from a song he wrote
years earlier called "Who's Got My Lighter?"
He claimed, in 1998, he played the song for Stefani while working on her hair.
The judge overseeing the lawsuit declared the two songs weren't similar and dismissed
the case.
In 1997, a scuffle between indie label Trauma and distributor Interscope involved Stefani's
band No Doubt.
Interscope claimed the band was a part of their roster, which robbed the smaller company
of a major revenue stream.
Trauma sued Interscope, and in a settlement, Trauma received $3 million but lost the band.
In a different lawsuit, No Doubt won against video games publisher Activision who altered
the band's images in a game called "Band Hero," turning "members into a virtual karaoke circus
act."
At a 2021 engagement at Las Vegas' Zappos Theater, Gwen Stefani revealed why she had
to call off some of her residency shows back in February 2020.
She told the crowd,
"I was the first one to have COVID, in case you wondered.
... Just because I can't touch you, I'm still breathing your air right now, so that's the
risk that I'm taking because I love you guys."
She may not have been the first, but she would have been near the top of the list, as her
diagnosis was made nearly a month before the World Health Organization had declared a pandemic
and weeks before the health protocols were put in place.
"This is an evolving situation.
Literally everyday we learn a little bit more about it."
In January 2020, The New York Times reported four people had already died from the infection
in the United States.
Two years later, that number had swelled to more than 950,000.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, as of March 2022, over 6
million people have died from the coronavirus worldwide.
Michael James Ryan, also known as Busbee, was a Grammy-nominated producer who helmed
recording studios on projects involving the likes of Pink, Shakira, and Keith Urban.
A friend of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, Ryan co-produced the No Doubt frontwoman's
2017 holiday album, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas."
Ahead of the release of "You Make It Feel Like Christmas," Stefani sang the producer's
praises and got into why she loved working with him.
She told Entertainment Weekly,
"The thing that's cool about him is that he has no genre boundaries.
He was like, 'It needs to be raw and punk and sort of classical at the same time!'"
In September 2019, he died of brain cancer.
The tragedy hit Stefani and Shelton hard.
They took to social media to publicly mourn the loss of their friend and creative collaborator.
Stefani had hoped the creative tandem would continue, a feeling she related in a social
media entry a year after Ryan's death.
She posted on Instagram,
"He was going to be my future partner in crime in writing songs, but he went to heaven."
Curtis Garrett was someone literally close to Gwen Stefani because he had to be.
He was No Doubt's personal security guard, and he wasn't merely hired out of the blue
to protect the group at the odd engagement here and there.
The two had enjoyed a long history together, ever since he became security head of No Doubt's
2002 tour in support of their "Rock Steady" album.
When Garrett suddenly died in 2021, Stefani, who was two months away from marrying Blake
Shelton, was understandably grief-stricken.
She took to her Instagram account to pay tribute to the bodyguard with a photo of the man,
adding,
"Curtis I love you and I'll see you up there."
No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal also recalled the security head they called "Big C" with
fondness.
He said,
"He was a gracious and gentle man with a never ending smile and infectious laugh.
I would sometimes watch him instruct that nights security team on how he wanted the
audience treated: with care, kindness and respect."