Almost A Rock Phenomenon: Sublime Singer Bradley Nowell’s Untimely Passing

Another young musician destined to become one of the most influential rockers on the scene bit the dust at only 28. Unfortunately, untimely deaths in the rock ‘n’ roll scene are more common than people realize. The 27 Club was created not for nothing, as many talented artists weren’t able to live past that age, and sadly Sublime singer Bradley Nowell was not that far off when he lost his life.

Nowell ending up in the music industry wasn’t a massive shock to anyone as the household he grew up in was a musical one. His mother was a piano player and classically trained flutist, and his dad was an amateur guitarist; he grew up listening to music all day, every day. His interest in music pointed him in the direction of forming his band Sublime alongside bassist and childhood friend Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh.

However, the singer wanted to incorporate a wide range of genres into Sublime’s sound. They started by blending punk, ska, and reggae, and before they knew it, they had been intertwined with the SoCal surf culture. After dropping their debut album, ‘40 oz. to Freedom,’ and scoring a deal with a record label, they were on the path of sharing their music with a broader audience.

Although the sophomore album ‘Robin the Hood’ didn’t receive the desired response, tracks from their debut album, like ‘Date Rape,’ started to gain even more attention than when it was first released. While the band was slowly growing its audience and making its name in the industry, Nowell started dabbling in drugs. Although he definitely wasn’t the only one using drugs in the band, he was the one who got defeated by his addiction.

By this point, the singer had an 11-month son called Jakob, so he made several attempts to get sober to be more present and clear-headed, but he would always relapse as he couldn’t stay away from the drugs. After receiving a certain level of success for their previous tracks, the guys went back to the studio to record for their self-titled third album ‘Sublime,’ and this was the point where he was at his worst condition in terms of his addiction.

The singer had just married his girlfriend Troy den Denkker and was gearing up with his bandmates to release the ‘Sublime’ album in two months. Even though everything seemed to be on track, after only a week of being married to his wife, the singer was found dead in his hotel room in San Francisco due to an overdose. Everyone close to him was in disbelief after the news spread, as everything seemed to be looking up for Nowell.

What makes his untimely death even more painful is the fact that he left not only his wife but his baby behind and his beloved dog, Louie. To add to the sadness was the realization that when Sublime’s third album came out, it became a massive hit.

A little less than a year after Nowell’s overdose, Sublime had entered Billboard’s Top 20. The band even got their first No. 1 on the Modern Rock charts for the album’s first single ‘What I Got.’ This was the beginning for the band as it became the biggest album they released and sold 2 million copies. If the singer had gotten the help he desperately needed, he could’ve been one of the rockers still making headlines.