Sublime on Their ’90s Breakthrough, Willie Nelson’s Studio, and the Band’s New Era | Broken Record

30 years ago, Sublime released the album that defined Southern California’s music scene for a generation. Now the band is preparing to put out their fourth full-length, and for the first time, Bradley Nowell’s son, Jakob Nowell, is stepping up as lead singer.

Bradley, Sublime’s original frontman, died of a heroin overdose in 1996, just a couple of months before the band's breakthrough album came out. Jakob was still an infant then, but he grew up surrounded by the lasting influence of a band that blended ska, punk, reggae, and hip-hop into a sound that dominated Southern California in the ‘90s. 

After Bradley’s passing, bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh launched Long Beach Dub Allstars in 1997 and stayed active with different projects. In late 2023, they shared the stage with Jakob at a benefit for Bad Brains’ singer H.R., and the spark between them was immediate.

On today’s episode, Justin Richmond talks with Jakob, Bud, and Eric about how this new chapter of Sublime came together. They also revisit the band’s scrappy early days, when they had to beg, borrow, and steal just to keep going, and share memories of recording the self-titled album at Willie Nelson’s studio outside Austin.

Big thanks to InterTrend and Creative Class Collective for letting us record at their facilities in Long Beach, CA.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Sublime songs HERE: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2nW...

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ABOUT BROKEN RECORD
For generations of music lovers, the liner notes on albums were a central part of the way music was heard. You bought an album and it came with an accompanying narrative: a digression, an aside, a backstory—maybe even an invented history. We intuitively understood that great music required not just listening but conversation between the artist and the audience and the audience and the rest of the world.

Broken Record is a podcast that restarts those conversations—in a world without liner notes—for a new audience of music lovers.

Broken Record is hosted by Justin Richmond with interviews by producer Rick Rubin, writer Malcolm Gladwell, and former New York Times editor Bruce Headlam.

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