Gwen Stefani’s lyrics are a sweet escape back to the past.
The 54-year-old released the next single, “Somebody Else’s,” off her forthcoming album “Bouquet” on Friday and didn’t hold back on the country-rock track.
Stefani details why she had to leave an ex — and is so much happier now that he’s “somebody else’s problem.”
“I don’t know what a heart like mine was doin’ in a love like that,” she sings in the opening line. “I don’t know what a woman like me was doing with a man like you / But now I got a love so true.”
Stefani really gets into the details in the chorus, explaining: “Now that I’ve found the real thing / You don’t compare / And I don’t care that you’re somebody else’s / And it doesn’t even break my heart / You’re somebody else’s / And I pray for them whoever they are.”
The “Just a Girl” artist also made it clear to fans that she isn’t looking to relive the past: “If I could go back in time, I would erase you / But I could never go back there.”
And elsewhere in the song, Stefani details the unnamed ex’s unflattering characteristics: “Narcissistic, semi-psychotic, so manipulated,” singing: “I bought it every time / But not this time / You gaslit, my world was burning / Had to leave before it stopped turning / So happy I could cry / ‘Cause you’re not mine.”
Many listeners assumed the songstress was talking about her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale.
Stefani and the Bush front man, 58, were together for 20 years and married for nearly 13 before their 2015 breakup. The duo share three sons: Kingston, 18, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 10.
The No Doubt star has since married Blake Shelton after meeting on the set of “The Voice” in 2014 and officially dating a year later.
At the time, the pair were going through respective divorces (the country star, 48, had just split from his wife, country star Miranda Lambert, 40). Stefani and Shelton tied the knot in July 2021.
Rossdale has also moved on, being linked to electro-pop artist Xhoana X this past May.
Since their split, Stefani and Rossdale have continued co-parenting their kids, with the rocker reflecting on their past relationship in August.
“We had an amazing time, you know?” he wistfully told The Post. “It’s crazy how life works out, and how [there was] all that — and then nothing. It’s incredible.”
“I have three beautiful boys from that time and that part of my life,” Rossdale added.
In March, the band member also took a moment to share what he wishes were different.
“It’d be nice if there was sort of more connection with the person who made them with me. So that side of it,” Rossdale said while on Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ podcast “Amy and T.J..” “So, I feel bad for my kids, that’s it. That’s the overriding thing.”
“The rest of it is, like, it comes with the territory,” Rossdale added, “and there’s been sort of other things….If I could be the most honest, that would be the most profound thing of, like, wish I could have just figured out a way to not have that in their lives.”
But the musician — who is also dad to daughter Daisy Lowe, 35, from a previous relationship — has no issues showing up for his and Steffani’s kids despite their new romances.
“I go to a lot of events where there’s the other team, so to speak,” Rossdale continued, “and I just feel really proud of myself in my consistency as a father. I know in my heart that I’m super consistent. Yeah, of course, like everyone I’m flawed as hell and things didn’t go as perfect as I would have liked.”
Even when he’s away from the kids on tour, he said, “There’s an intrinsic bond that’s so strong and so present that I have a lot of pride in that. It’s unwavering.”