Sublime

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:10.8	30 years ago, sublime released the album that defined their career in Southern California's
0:15.3	music scene for a generation. Now the band is preparing to put out their fourth full
0:20.2	length, and for the first time, Bradley
0:22.1	Noel's son, Jacob Noel, is stepping in as lead singer. Bradley, Sublime's original frontman,
0:27.8	died of a heroin overdose in 96, just a couple of months shy of that breakthrough album coming out.
0:33.2	Jacob 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 the 90s.
0:42.9	In 1997, after Bradley's passing, bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Brad Gaw launched Long Beach Dub All-Stars and stayed active with different projects.
0:51.3	In late 2023, they shared the stage with Jacob
0:54.2	at a benefit for Bad Brain Singer HR, and the spark between them was immediate.
0:59.7	On today's episode, I talked with Jacob, Bud, and eventually Eric, about how this new chapter
1:04.9	of Sublime came together. We also revisit the band's scrappy early days when they had to beg, borrow,
1:10.1	and steal just to keep going.
1:11.7	And we hear their memories of recording the self-titled album at Willie Nelson Studio just outside of Austin, Texas.
1:19.6	This is Broken Record. Real musicians, real conversations.
1:27.3	This is an I-Heart podcast.
1:31.5	What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
1:42.7	Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
1:46.5	From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco, Benghazi.
1:52.4	What difference at this point does it make?
1:55.9	Yeah, that's right. Lock her up.
1:58.0	Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, wherever you get your podcasts.
	...

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