Catering & lectures from Brian Eno: Bush’s Gavin Rossdale remembers recording ‘Sixteen Stone’

Bush‘s breakout 1994 debut album Sixteen Stone is certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA and spawned perhaps the band’s signature hit, “Glycerine.” If you ask frontman Gavin Rossdale about his memories of recording the album, though, the actual music isn’t necessarily on the top of his mind.

“My best friend Alex’s brothers did the catering,” Rossdale tells ABC Audio. “It was so cute. We had a tiny catering budget, and they just came in and cooked for us.”

Rossdale also recalls spending time with famed producer Brian Eno, who was working in a studio downstairs from where Bush was recording.

“We would sit with Brian at dinnertime and listen to his lectures,” Rossdale says. “He just was, like, talking about many various things that were really fascinating and were really brilliant.”

One of Eno’s lessons was to leave the studio by 6 p.m., something that Rossdale understands more nowadays. But at the time, he and his bandmates were so excited to actually be able to record a full album that they would keep on working until the early hours of the morning.

“Going in to do that was an incredible feeling,” Rossdale says. “Just to go every day to work, not be going to a building site, not to be going to paint somewhere, not be going to some, like, s***** job.”

While Rossdale is of course grateful for the success of Sixteen Stone and the career that it launched for him and Bush, there is one thing he’d change about it: the track list sequencing.

“Imagine how big that record could’ve been if I’d got the order right,” he quips. 

Sixteen Stone turned 30 on Dec. 6. An anniversary vinyl reissue is out now.

Bush‘s breakout 1994 debut album Sixteen Stone is certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA and spawned perhaps the band’s signature hit, “Glycerine.” If you ask frontman Gavin Rossdale about his memories of recording the album, though, the actual music isn’t necessarily on the top of his mind.

“My best friend Alex’s brothers did the catering,” Rossdale tells ABC Audio. “It was so cute. We had a tiny catering budget, and they just came in and cooked for us.”

Rossdale also recalls spending time with famed producer Brian Eno, who was working in a studio downstairs from where Bush was recording.

“We would sit with Brian at dinnertime and listen to his lectures,” Rossdale says. “He just was, like, talking about many various things that were really fascinating and were really brilliant.”

One of Eno’s lessons was to leave the studio by 6 p.m., something that Rossdale understands more nowadays. But at the time, he and his bandmates were so excited to actually be able to record a full album that they would keep on working until the early hours of the morning.

“Going in to do that was an incredible feeling,” Rossdale says. “Just to go every day to work, not be going to a building site, not to be going to paint somewhere, not be going to some, like, s***** job.”

While Rossdale is of course grateful for the success of Sixteen Stone and the career that it launched for him and Bush, there is one thing he’d change about it: the track list sequencing.

“Imagine how big that record could’ve been if I’d got the order right,” he quips. 

Sixteen Stone turned 30 on Dec. 6. An anniversary vinyl reissue is out now.