25 Years Ago: Sublime’s Bradley Nowell Dies
Twenty-five years ago, the music community lost a young artist who made a short but truly significant impact on the world of rock, as Bradley Nowell of Sublime died on May 25th, 1996.
Nowell was the incredibly talented singer-songwriter of the ska punk band Sublime from Long Beach, California. The group was very much on the rise as songs like “What I Got” and “Santeria” were getting airplay on rock and college radio stations.
Though I would graduate from Monmouth University right here at the Jersey Shore…at the time…I was attending Fordham University in the Bronx. A couple of my buddies from Bayonne played the CD for me (remember Compact Discs?), and after hearing “April 29, 1992 (Miami)” I knew this band was AWESOME.
The groove was fantastic, the vocals were unique, the song was amazing. After that, I heard “Wrong Way”, “Caress Me Down”, “Get Ready” and the aforementioned singles from above…and I was hooked. Everything about Sublime felt very much like the ’90’s: it was fresh and fun and cool. The self-titled album was an amazing musical mash-up of a few genres…before Internet mash-ups were all the rage.
Sadly, Bradley died while the band was right on the verge of superstardom…and Sublime’s status as a legendary ’90’s band was cut short of their full potential. But, today, we salute Bradley Nowell. And we rock with Sublime with some fantastic videos below. Slainte!
– East Side Dave