Carter Smith/ELLE

When we were first introduced to Gwen Stefani she was a young, aspiring star. She was a single woman, and had all the time, ambition, talent and style she needed to take the music scene by storm. Nearly 15 years after No Doubt’s breakthrough album, Gwen is now a household name, pulling double duty as a wife and mom of two while managing a stratospheric music career and mega-successful clothing, accessories and fragrance brands, L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers. A hot, trendy, musical mom with a fashion empire? One might say Gwen has it all.

Now that Ms. Stefani has reunited with her old bandmates, she reflects on her long career journey and making the huge transformation from young, single rocker, to full-time married mom in the latest issue of ELLE. And from the looks of it, running a household while maintaining a career as a superstar hasn’t been easy.

On being a mom: “It’s one thing when you have an infant, but when you have this two-or three-year-old going, ‘Mommy, what’s the deal?’ it’s harder. Kingston’s whole thing is, ‘I need, I need.’ He is insane right now. We’re just hoping for the best and that he’s not going to turn out to be a freak, but we’ll see.”

ELLE

On how her priorities changed from band to family: “I wasn’t even married. Now I’m a wife and a mother of two. It’s a really different role. I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage, because that’s what it’s like to be together for so long and go through what we’ve been through. I can’t really have that relationship with them anymore. My priorities are always going to be my husband and my family now. That’s a huge, huge thing.”

On turning 40 and potentially losing her touch: “I just feel very in between at the moment. Like in my cocoon waiting to blossom into whatever’s going to be. But like, I’m screwed right now, okay? I’m so screwed. I might never be able to write another song. Who knows? I did try. So here we are, going on tour without a new record.”

On joining No Doubt amid a mostly male ska/punk scene: “Whenever I went on stage there was the automatic assumption that I couldn’t get the audience going because I was a girl. I just ignored that, like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be all made up, and I’m going to destroy you.’”

On leaving No Doubt: “Everybody’s making it like there’s all this new tension, you know, like I stepped away from the band and now they’re jealous of me, and look, maybe there is a little bit of that.”

On being a celebrity: “Obviously, I’m not anything more than I am. I’m just, like, totally normal. The fact that any of this has happened, that we’re sitting here at the Beverly Hills Hotel just gets me going, like, What?”

For more on Gwen Stefani’s life as a rocker mom, head over to ELLE.com