Gavin Rossdale to play at ‘Pet-A-Palooza’

By Melissa Arseniuk

Saturday, April 4, 2009 | 10:48 a.m.

They say people fall into two categories: cat people and dog people. Gavin Rossdale says he’s definitely the latter.

The former Bush frontman is set to play Pet-A-Palooza at Sam Boyd Stadium this evening. Mt Kearney and The Script will also perform.

The event, which kicked off this morning at 10:30 a.m., is expected to draw 20,000 people and 4,000 dogs throughout the day.

Rossdale said he was looking forward to “playing for 15,000 people who love dogs.”

“I wouldn’t do it for cats,” he joked Friday night on his way into LAX nightclub, where he performed a handful of songs for the Friday night club crowd.

While he doesn’t have a dog of his own right now, the British rocker still considers himself a dog person.

“I had one, like, very famous dog, … Winston, during my Bush years,” he said.

Rossdale said he and his superstar wife, Gwen Stefani, are hoping to get a dog very soon.

They’re currently looking at “really big friendly smart dogs” in hopes of finding the perfect one to add to their ever-growing family.

Rossdale, 43, and Stefani, 39, have two sons: two-year-old Kingston and seven-month-old Zuma. (Rossdale also has a daughter with British designer Pearl Lowe.)

The London-born rocker said he was looking forward to taking his band on tour this summer, and planned to take his son, Kingston, on the road with him.

Things certainly have changed since Bush shot to fame in 1994 with their post-grunge release, “Sixteen Stone,” and toured to support their multi-platinum follow-up, “Razorblade Suitcase,” in 1996.

Instead of playing huge sold-out venues, Rossdale has played for much smaller audiences since going solo.

Yet the former superstar says that’s the way he likes it.

“When we did Bush we never did these small, very rarely did these intimate things,” he said. “Now I’ve done a lot of the intimate things so it’s just balancing it out in my life I suppose.”

In addition to playing small and intimate venues, he said his solo career has allowed him to explore and exercise his artistic freedom.

“I wanted to do something on this record to do things where I’d get a chance to surprise people,” he said.

Rossdale’s first solo album, “Wanderlust,” hit stores last year. Featuring the singles “The Love Remains the Same” and “Forever May You Run,” the effort peaked at the 33rd position on the Billboard 200.

A six-song EP hatched right here in Las Vegas, “Live from Las Vegas At the Palms,” was also released in 2008.

For the same price of the EP, $5, Rossdale fans can catch his set at Pet-A-Palooza this afternoon. The dog-loving rocker is scheduled to take to the stage at 4 p.m. this afternoon.