Gwen Renee Stefani was born in
Orange County,
California, USA on October 3, 1969 to Dennis and Patti. She has two brothers, Eric and Todd, and a sister, Jill, the four of them brought up in a
protective Catholic home.
Gwen was the stereotypical girl growing up. She played dolls, house, dress up, etc, but even back then she was a bit of a singer. Eric would beg her to sing for him and she would play with the
piano. "She had a great voice and was really cute.." Her parents are even
folk singers from long ago. She loved musicals like
The Sound of Music and
Evita.
Gwen also did water
ballet and
soccer. By the age of 12 her mother had enforced a strict
diet because of her
obese grandmother.
During school, Gwen played
piccolo in the
marching band and hated math. She had no
self-confidence and no
creativity. Then her life took a big turn when her brother Eric brought home a record by a group called
Madness. She started hanging out with the punks, making her own clothes
After
high school, she attended Cal State Fullerton
College. In 1987, Eric and a friend of his named John Spence started a band entitled
No Doubt. Eric asked Gwen, who had a love for
punk and
ska music, to join as co-vocalist with Spence, which she accepted.
When Spence committed suicide, Gwen was moved to lead
vocalist and despite the hardship, the band did plenty of local
gigs. In 1990 they were finally signed on with
Interscope Records, releasing their self entitled
debut album in 1992.
When Gwen's 7 year
relationship with No Doubt's
bass player Tony Kanal ended, she wrote the song "
Don't Speak" for the "
Tragic Kingdom" album. The song was destined to become the band's biggest smash hit to date.
Gwen wishes to be an
actress and it is rumored that she is negotiating with
MGM.