Gavin Rossdale

As the world of rock mourned the death of Kurt Cobain and began swaggering to the sounds of Brit pop in the mid-1990s, Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush tried to keep the grunge flame alive with their distorted riffs and growly, downbeat howls. It worked too. The band scored a US Number 1 album with Razorblade Suitcase (1996) and had a huge international hit with the single Swallowed before fading away and splitting in 2002. Rossdale went on to marry No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, penned the walkout music for WWE wrestler The Undertaker and featured on the Blue Man Group track The Current, before he formed Institute with guitarist Chris Traynor for the album Distort Yourself (2005). As a solo artist Rossdale adopted a stripped down, groove-laden rock sound to his trademark husky, smoky vocals for debut WANDERlust (2007), which featured contributions from Dave Stewart, Katy Perry and Shirley Manson and reached Number 33 in America.