Like a lot of sexy young rock and roll couples, No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, frontman of the British band Bush, have hit some flat notes. Stefani has had to deal with female fans flinging themselves at Rossdale out on tour ("I wish I had a little leash," she has said), and he once broke things off because she wrote confessional songs about their relationship. But harmony was always reestablished. Last year Stefani told Details, "We talk about 'Dude, you're a fox! Quick, give me a kiss'—like two normal people."

Plunging deeper into normality, Stefani and Rossdale are now engaged to be married. "It was fairly obvious this was going to happen," says Gavin's father, physician Richard Rossdale, 78, of their New Year's Day engagement, revealed Jan. 9. "They are a good couple." Stefani, 32—whose previous love was bandmate Tony Kanal—and Rossdale, 36, fell in love in 1995, when No Doubt and Bush performed together in L.A. "In a business where people get married after six weeks, they've been together six years," says her friend, stylist Rachel Zoe Rosensweig. "That gave them time to develop a friendship."

By the time Stefani walks down the aisle (a date isn't set), the couple may have bridged their last divide: Because of their dual careers, he's still based in London and she lives outside Los Angeles in a five-bedroom home. "If they've made it with him living in England half the time, I think they're going to do fine," says Stefani's friend Kendra Pahukoa, who works in an L.A. furniture store. "It's the real deal."