as everyone knows, gwen is one of ashley’s favorite people in the whole wide world and if it wasn’t for ashley i wouldn’t know so much about gwen, in fact i would have probably just overlooked no doubt entirely because none of the guys in the band interest me, and gwen is, after all, just a girl.

so since ashley is working two jobs now and raising our illegitimate son, tupac roosevelt pierce, i will give you all the info about gwen that i have culled from the endless hours of listening ashley talk about her musical idol.

gwen was born a poor black sharecropper in the city of orange in orange county california.

like all the trendy girls who wanted something soulful, yet white and punky, she got caught up in the ska scene thanks to her brother eric who was an original member of no doubt. he played keyboards and eventually left the band right before they were about to make it huuuuuuge.

gwen and her brother are still super super close because gwen, like me, loves long long relationships and is terribly loyal and borderline co-dependent, typical libra traits.

her first real true love was a guy named tony.

tony is the dark skinned Indian bassplayer of her band. not native american Indian but from India Indian, which might explain why gwen sported those glittery dots on the center of her forehead in some of their videos back in the day.

they had a big time love affair which ended. she was crushed when he dumped her and began writing all the sad songs that became huge hits. the guitar player wrote lots of the parts, but the words were gwen’s and most of the aptly named Tragic Kingdom were straight from the broken heart of today’s birthday girl.

Tragic Kingdom ended up selling 12 million records worldwide. their manager at that time is tsar’s manager at this time. if you thought i could write a post without mentioning my favorite band, you’re insane.

gwen went on to sing duets with Moby and Eve which were both huge hits too, but being loyal to her bandmates, she truly meant it when she said that those were just little one-off projects, and last year flew off to jamacia where no doubt made the rock-roots flavored “rock steady” which lofted such hits as “hey baby,” “hella good,”and now the smash hit “underneath it all.”

rock steady is holding steady at #46 in the album charts which is quite an accomplishment since it’s been on the charts for 46 straight weeks. and “underneath it all” is locked in at #12 on the singles charts where it’s been quietly resting for the last seven weeks.

gwen probably hasn’t been resting too much. after opening for U2, and headlining their own tour, the skinny blonde recently got married to longtime boyfriend, hearthrob Gavin Rosdale of the britian pop group Bush. the couple exchanged vows in london last month and later jetted to the states to have another service for their friends and family in america.

what’s next for gwen stefani? role model, fashion icon, overall super cool gal, and frontperson to the incredibly successful pop group.

my guess is she’ll be changing diapers in two years time.

either way, happy birthday gwen.