LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

Fans know Gwen Stefani as many things – a multi-platinum solo artist, a style star with her own fashion line and the frontwoman of No Doubt. But in the July issue of ELLE, the singer said she only ever expected to be a mom.

“I never had any kind of ambition,” she said of her pre-fame days. “I just thought I was going to have babies.”

Now, as the mother of sons Kingston and Zuma, she told the mag her family – including rocker husband Gavin Rossdale — is her first priority.

“I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage because that’s what it’s like to be together for so long and to go through what we’ve been through,” Gwen said. “I can’t really have that relationship with them anymore. My priorities are always going to be my husband and my family now.”

And that family is a handful, even for a rock star mommy.

“Kingston’s whole thing is, ‘I need, I need.’ He is insane right now,” Gwen said. “We’re just hoping for the best and that he’s not going to be a freak, but we’ll see.”

The star said she’s not one to spank – but admitted she’s had to get physical with Kingston.

“I’ve wrestled him,” she said. “I’ve gotten my muscles out on him, that’s for sure.”

Of the return of No Doubt, who have been on hiatus since 2001’s “Rock Steady,” Gwen said it’s been hard to get back into songwriting mode.

“I want so badly to write a record,” she said. “I want to make every other songwriter jealous. But that’s not happening right now. I might never be able to write another song.”

Instead, after some fruitless recording sessions, the band is back on tour to spark some creative flames – and though she doesn’t have a Sasha Fierce-like alter-ego, Gwen told the mag that something happens when she gets in front of the microphone.

“Definitely when I go onstage I feel super-powerful,” she said. “There’s something that clicks, another side of me. I don’t even have control over it.”

Her onstage confidence comes from the band’s early days, when Gwen had to stand her ground in the male-dominated Orange County ska-punk scene.

“Whenever I went onstage, there was this automatic assumption that I couldn’t get the audience going because I was a girl. I just ignored that,” she said. “Like, ‘Yeah I’m going to be all made up, and I’m going to destroy you. If you’re not looking at me right now, you’re going to because I’m going to f***ing get you to look at me and f*** you! Raaarrgh!

“The F-word was my favorite word,” she added.

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