Bradley Nowell
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Bradley Nowell
Bradley Nowell was an American Guitarist and Singer/Songwriter for the popular ska band Sublime. Bradley Nowell was one of the largest influences to this style of music and may be one of the most influential ska players of all time.
Life
Bradley James Nowell, Born February 16, 1968, was an American musician who formed the popular ska punk band Sublime. He died May 25, 1996 at the age of twenty-eight from a heroin overdose shortly before the release of Sublime's self-titled major label debut.
Early Life
Music was an important part of Nowell's upbringing. Nowell's mother, Nancy Nowell-Watilo, had perfect pitch, which Bradley himself inherited, and Brad's father, Jim Nowell, was fond of Jimmy Buffett and often played guitar during family gatherings. On holidays, Brad often played guitar and sang with his father and uncles for hours. Brad was often able to play a song on the guitar after hearing it only once.
Later Years
In 1988, Nowell founded Sublime with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh, whom he had met while attending Cal State Long Beach. Sublime eventually became one of the most popular bands in Southern California. Specifically, they were the most popular band on the campus of Cal State Long Beach, where they often played at parties and bars in exchange for alcohol.
In 1989 Nowell and Michael "Miguel" Happoldt, Brads long time friend and former guitarist for Sublime, created Skunk Records, the label for which Sublime's early recordings were produced and distributed. Skunk Records was named for Sublime's combination Ska and Punk genre, and the names of the two were fused into "Skunk".A few years later, Sublime produced its first studio recording, which resulted in the popular cassette tape called Jah Won't Pay the Bills and released it in 1991.
As Nowell prepared to tour with the new material, he found that Gaugh was battling a drug problem. Gaugh soon decided to check himself into a drug rehabilitation center. Rather than tour without Gaugh, the trio decided to focus on recording their music in the studio.
In 1992, 40 Oz. to Freedom was released. Drummers Marshall Goodman and Kelly Vargas temporarily covered for Gaugh. Sixty-thousand copies were distributed and sold from the trunk of Nowell's car. Despite growing popularity in Southern California, Sublime still had not landed a record deal with a major label. Around this time, Nowell teamed up with longtime friend Gwen Stefani, of fellow Southern California ska band No Doubt, to record the single "Saw Red". The single was eventually released on Sublime's Robbin' the Hood album.
Frustrated by rejection of the major record companies, Nowell descended into a two-year heroin "experiment". Nowell claimed that his heroin use was justified, claiming it aided his artistic creativity, thereby increasing the likelihood that his material would attract the attention of a major label.
About a year later, Tazy Phillipz took a copy of 40 Oz to Freedom to Los Angeles radio station KROQ, requesting that Sublime's song "Date Rape" be added to the playlist. It was the bands first big hit. Soon after, MCA records picked up 40 Oz. to Freedom for nationwide distribution. The album soon entered the Billboard charts.
Attention from a major label did not help to stop Nowell's drug abuse. His use of heroin just increased. He sometimes was know to pawn his guitars to support his habit. Miguel would have to go find the pawn shop and buy the guitars back. His song Pawn Shop was written about these incidents. Nowell's struggles with addiction were sometimes referenced in his music. The song Pool Shark is one of the most obvious examples of Nowell's drug dependency being referred to in his music: "Take it away but I want more and more, One day I'm gonna lose the war".
In February 1996, Sublime returned to the studio to record the bulk of their self-titled major label debut album. Production was done by Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers, Producer of The Meat Puppets and Marcy's Playground, at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio in Austin, Texas. At this time, Nowell's addiction to heroine spiked. He spent about four thousand dollars on heroin that month while recording the tracks. Due to Leary's fear that putting this record on the market would be exploiting a junkie, Nowell was flown home early from the sessions because of the drug use.
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