Gavin Rossdale Rewinds to His Youth in New Bush Music Video That Explores Obsession with Aging (Exclusive)

“In an effort to live forever and hold onto yesterday, we’ve seen how you can go too far,” Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale tells PEOPLE of the video for "Nowhere to Go but Everywhere"

In the age of Botox and plastic surgery, just how far is too far when it comes to keeping up (youthful) appearances?

That’s the question Bush seems to be asking in a delightfully gory music video for their new single “Nowhere to Go but Everywhere,” which PEOPLE is exclusively premiering.

“Everything has its price. In an effort to live forever and hold onto yesterday, we’ve seen how you can go too far and people end up distorting themselves,” lead singer Gavin Rossdale says. “It’s hard to understand why doctors destroy people’s faces with gross exaggerations and fillers and all. It’s like they prey on people’s vulnerabilities and together the doctor and the patient say more, more, more.”

The British rocker, 57, and his bandmates explore that concept to the extreme in the music video, which begins with Rossdale making his way to a top-secret “de-aging facility.”

Though he’s warned to be careful as he enters, Rossdale confidently tells the mysterious staffers (which include The Jesus Lizard singer David Yow in a fun cameo) that he wants to turn the clock back not 10 years, not 20 years, but 30 years.

Related: Gavin Rossdale Smiles with Mini-Me Son Apollo, 9, in Sweet Selfie: 'Home with My Bestie'

Before long, the musician is performing with his band (guitarist Chris Traynor, bassist Corey Britz and drummer Nik Hughes) as a fresh-faced 27-year-old — but his new look doesn’t last long, as he soon starts bleeding profusely, and doesn’t stop until his young new face is a bloodied mess.

The video ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as the scientists behind the experiment run off with a bag of Rossdale’s cash and the musician cleans off a bloodied knife in the ocean before stumbling away.

“Maybe I get my revenge on the doctor. Who knows what’s in that bag? Whose blood is on the knife? Maybe I got my money back,” he muses. “Maybe I’m like a superhero in the video — a gruesome anti-hero. Viewers can and should take away their own meanings.”

Rossdale says he “really enjoyed” writing the new single, and that its lyrics are inspired by his three lifelong best friends.

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“I ended up writing about my friends and the years we spent together… We’re all in a group chat. We’ve been friends since we were teenagers,” he says. “And when I was writing songs, we were talking a bit, and so it struck me by surprise that I ended up writing a song about us and about our time.”

The rocker says some of the song’s lyrics in particular (like the line “I was so much younger then/Thought life would never end”) are relatable for any audience, as the passing of time is a universal experience.

“It’s a loss of innocence we have all felt,” he says. “We live in a world lit by red light and dependent on anti-social media. We all want to live forever.”

And though Rossdale admits that watching himself age is certainly “a drag,” he points to a paraphrased David Bowie quote that best sums up his thoughts: “‘The thing about aging is you become the person you should have been all along,’” he says. “Genius. And [that] feels true.”

“Nowehere to Go But Everywhere” will be featured on Bush’s upcoming greatest hits record Loaded The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 (out Nov. 10).

The collection marks the “Glycerine” rockers’ first-ever greatest hits LP, and includes seven No. 1 singles and a cover of The Beatles’ “Come Together.”

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