Gavin Rossdale says his late mum Barbara gave him "really good genes" as he approaches his 60th birthday.
The Bush frontman - whose mother passed away in January - will reach the milestone age on October 30, and although he hates thinking about getting older and mortality, it makes him "appreciate life more".
Asked how he feels to be turning 60 and not looking his age, Gavin told Contact Music: "Well, my mum gave me really good genes because she looked really young for her age. And the funny part is that when I was a kid, right, like, I couldn't get into pubs. It's so embarrassing. Up until the age of, like, 28. I was not allowed into pubs. I mean, of course, I got into them. They'd always like, stop me, like, really embarrassing when you're trying to be cool and young, and you would go with your mates, and they're like carding you. So it took me a long time, but now I'm getting my payback."
The Land of Milk and Honey singer - who has grownup daughter Daisy Lowe, 36, with ex-partner Pearl Lowe, and sons Kingston, 19, Zuma, 17, and 11-year-old Apollo with ex-spouse Gwen Stefani - is "terrified" of his children seeing him frail and old but being the patriarch of the family is something he can be proud of.
He said of ageing: "It’s unavoidable. I mean, it's exciting in some ways. In some ways, it's f****** terrible, but it's just my ego that is terrible, because I don't want to die and I'm just like, f***, just in 20 years, like my kids are going to be worried when I go to the f****** toilet at a restaurant, you know, go down the stairs and they go talk about me behind my back. He's doing really well, isn’t he? F****** hell, he's all right, you know. So it just makes me appreciate life more. That's the only thing I can say about it."
On the positives of getting older, he added: "I do like the clarity. I don't like the progression towards any frailty, you know, but it just is what it is. And the Buddhists say ageing is one of great forms of suffering, so I sort of refuse to suffer about it. I mean, it's sad to suffer about it. It just is what it is. The most important thing to me, which I really like and I never actually thought about, is to be a patriarch now, and to, like, look at the kind of the family tree and what's going on, and just be there for my family. And that's a life well lived, right? If I've done that, it feels the right structure around me, you know?"
