Sublime Is Entering a New Era With Bradley Nowell's Son

Jakob Nowell has been clear on recent tours that he does not consider himself Sublime's new frontman, even if he is taking center stage and handling lead guitar and vocals.

For him, his role goes far deeper than that. No one can replace his father, Bradley Nowell, who founded the seminal SoCal ska band in 1988 and passed away on May 25, 1996. But Jakob can certainly carry on his legacy.

"It's cool for everyone, the prospect that it's the OG singer's kid playing, " he says. "I'm just humbled by the opportunity, that I get to do it. But no replacement members are going to come close to the original lineup that touched so many people. I just try to put on a good show and do the best I can. There's no replacing the real thing, you know?"

After Bradley's death from a heroin overdose when Jakob was just eleven months old, band co-manager Jason Westfall told a local California outlet, "We will go on in music and do other things. But just like Nirvana, Sublime died when Brad died."

However, the band had a final album to release, its third, which the musicians had begun recording the February prior to Bradley's death. The self-titled album dropped that July with significant success behind such hits as "Santeria" and "What I Got." As bassist Eric Wilson told Billboard, "We just want the album to do well so that Brad's kid can go to a good school, and so that we can continue [to make a] living." By 1999, the album was certified 5x platinum.

Jakob grew up with a love of music. He and his mother moved to Hawaii for a time before settling in San Diego, and he spent summers with his paternal grandparents in Long Beach. "My grandfather taught me how to play guitar on his porch on the beach," he recalls, adding that he learned bar chords and songs by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and other classic artists. As he got older, his taste ran the gamut: He loved punk rock as well as Kate Bush and the Cocteau Twins — "Shout out to Mom for getting me on to them," he says — and heavier music.

In high school, he formed a band called LAW, which he performed with until it broke up in 2021. He was still discovering the sound he wanted to achieve, "and then, once I figured it out," he says, "that's when Jakob's Castle became my de facto solo project." Under Jakob's Castle, he began working with family friend Kevin Zinger, the concert promoter who formed SRH Productions, which produced early Sublime shows.

Considering he already had a music career going, "I never thought I'd be singing for Sublime," Jakob reflects. "I think for kids in my position, it invites unwelcome scrutiny and, like, just depression."

Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh had kept up a "light" relationship with Jakob, who says that "we would see each other here and there. Everyone's busy doing different things, and life gets in the way." But then they reconnected in 2023, when Gaugh and Wilson asked Jakob to perform a Sublime set with them at a benefit for Bad Brains frontman H.R. that December. "We had so much fun reconnecting on a family vibe," Jakob says. "We all went through personal tragedy, and I think doing this brings us all back together."

The event was "a real healing moment for everybody," he adds. "I learn a lot from those dudes every day, man, every time we work together. All the cool stories and piecing that all together and just the general vibe, musicianship and professionalism — like, those dudes are the real deal. I learn a lot from those guys, 100 percent."

Before Jakob officially joined the crew, the music had been kept alive by Sublime With Rome, which Gaugh and Wilson started with guitarist Rome Ramirez in 2009. Gaugh departed that project in 2011, not long after the release of its debut album. A succession of drummers replaced him, and the band released two more albums. But in December 2023, just days after Gaugh and Wilson played with Jakob at the benefit, Ramirez announced that he would depart SWR after its  tour dates the next year. Two months later, Wilson announced he was leaving the group, effective immediately. Ramirez continued playing with SWR (now without any original member of Sublime) for its scheduled dates until the band ultimately dissolved.

Meanwhile, Gaugh, Wilson and Jakob debuted their iteration of Sublime at Coachella last April. It was the first time Sublime performed under its original moniker since Bradley's death. "It was gnarly," Jakob recalls of the festival. "We literally rehearsed as much as we possibly could. ... I think we put on a good show that a lot of people were stoked on, and it was a special moment. But it's been a year since then, and we've been continuing to play shows and rehearse, so I think at Red Rocks, people are going to see us a lot more put-together and confident on all fronts."

Sublime, with its original members as well as Jakob, will headline Red Rocks on Monday, April 21 (postponed from Friday, April 18), with openers Jesse James Pariah, DENM and the Elovaters. It's technically the band's first headlining performance at the venue, since it served as an opener for Stick Figure last year, and Wilson only headlined under the SWR banner.
Even if you take away the fact that, as Bradley's son, Jakob adds a nostalgic appeal to the new lineup, many fans see this iteration of Sublime as holding even closer to the original sound. Jakob's voice is eerily similar to his father's, as you can hear on the band's May 2024 single release alongside Stick Figure, "Feel Like That," which includes unearthed original vocals from Bradley. When the band performed it on Jimmy Fallon, Jakob said as the track began, "I love you, Dad. It should be you here right now."

He says the song was mostly the brainchild of his "uncle" Miguel Happoldt, who founded Skunk Records alongside his father, and Stick Figure guitarist Scott Woodruff. "They masterminded it, and then it got shelved for so long," Jakob says. "And then finally I got involved, put some vocals on it. ... But it was really challenging at first, because it's really emotional — working with Sublime music and having your relative's voice on that. It's just heavy — very heavy. But we get a lot of love for that track, so we're really happy about that."

The song also got the band working on more music. "That led to us being interested in looking at some more old, unreleased stuff and bootlegs, and some stuff has never even been heard. So we're now in the process of combing through all that," he says. "We have plans to explore a bunch of unreleased song ideas and unused material, and maybe even brand-new stuff, collaborating with rad, newer musicians, and just using Sublime as a name to continue expanding an already extant and nascent scene here in Southern California."

That expansion will also include Jakob's own label, SVN/BVRNT, which he calls "a sort of spiritual successor to Skunk Records."

"Now that I have this big, bigger platform with Sublime, I wanted to do something that was beyond boosting up my own band and career," he explains. "I really see that there's so much talent in the alternative scene here in Southern California still that a lot of people don't know about. So I wanted to use this as a platform to kind of get people excited on some young musicians who are inspired by Sublime, or that era of music, and just Southern California music in general. We put on shows and act as a collective for artists."

SVN/BVRNT will host a pre-party for the Red Rocks Sublime show at Ophelia's Electric Soapbox on Thursday, April 17. Jakob's Castle will headline, and the concert will include special guests as well as Jesse James Pariah and Strange Case.

Then it's off to Red Rocks, which is "just as dope as people say," Jakob says.

"It's a beautiful day to be a music fan in the year 2025," he concludes. "What we're doing here with Sublime is a small cog in a great, beautiful machine that is still in the process of being built."

Sublime plays Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 21 (postponed from April 18). Tickets are $175-$737.