Bradley Nowell

At 28 years old, Bradley Nowell has this physical status:

Bradley James Nowell (February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996) was an American musician and the lead singer and guitarist of the ska punk band Sublime.

Born and raised in Belmont Shore, Long Beach, California, Nowell developed an interest in music at a young age.

His father took him on a trip to Jamaica during his childhood years, which exposed him to reggae and dancehall music; he then gained a strong interest in rock music once he learned how to play guitar.

Nowell played in various bands until forming Sublime with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh, whom he had met while attending California State University at Long Beach.

In Nowell's lifetime, Sublime released the albums 40oz.

to Freedom and Robbin' the Hood to critical and commercial success.

Throughout the band's career, Nowell struggled with a worsening addiction to heroin.

He eventually became sober after his son Jakob was born, but relapsed and on the morning of May 25, 1996, he died of a heroin overdose in a San Francisco hotel while Sublime was on tour.

Sublime released their self-titled third album two months after Nowell's death, and has subsequently released several compilation albums featuring the hundreds of songs he recorded throughout his life.

Nowell remains an influential figure of the 1990s alternative era in his legacy.

Early life

Bradley Nowell and his sister, Kellie, were born and raised in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach, California, to Jim and Nancy Nowell. As a child, he enjoyed surfing and sailing, often participating in boat races. Nowell became a difficult child and was often hyperactive and disruptive; his mother recalled that he was "very emotional, very sensitive, very artistic, but he was needy … He was always testing just to see what he could get away with." After his parents' divorce when he was 10, Nowell's behavior worsened. His mother was originally awarded custody, but found him too difficult to control, and at the age of 10 he moved in full time with his father.

Music was an integral part of Nowell's upbringing on the part of both of his parents. His father, a construction worker, enjoyed playing guitar and exposed him to the music of Jim Croce; his mother taught piano for a living in addition to playing the flute. Both parents helped teach young Nowell to play the guitar. In the summer of 1979, 11-year-old Nowell accompanied his father on a month-long sailing trip in the Virgin Islands, where he was first exposed to reggae music.

By the age of 16, he had started his first band, Hogan's Heroes, with Michael Yates and Eric Wilson. Nowell was described as a "gifted kid without many friends." At first, Wilson did not share Nowell's interest in reggae music. Nowell recalled the experience: "I was trying to get them to do (UB40's version of) 'Cherry Oh Baby,' and it didn't work. They tried, but it just sounded like such garbage. We were horrible." Nowell attended the University of California, Santa Cruz before transferring to California State University, Long Beach to study finance. He dropped out one semester shy of earning a degree, stating in 1995, "I have all the hard classes left … I doubt I'll ever go back."

Personal life

While on tour in the early 1990s, Nowell began dating Troy Dendekker. In October 1994, Troy became pregnant, giving birth to a son, Jakob James Nowell, on June 25, 1995. On May 18, 1996, a week before Nowell's death, the couple had married in a Hawaiian-themed ceremony in Las Vegas.

In February 1990, Nowell purchased a Dalmatian puppy from an old man for $500, and named him "Louie" after his grandfather. Also referred to as "Lou Dog", he became a mascot for the band Sublime. Lou Dog was often allowed to wander the stage during concert performances. Louie was also often featured on the cover of Sublime albums, and was referred to in the lyrics of Sublime songs. In Sublime's most successful radio track, "What I Got", Nowell sings, "...livin' with Louie Dog's the only way to stay sane". Another prominent song of the band, "Garden Grove", mentions Lou Dog as such: "We took this trip to Garden Grove. It smelled like Lou dog inside the van, oh yeah". In the song "Doin' Time" Nowell can be heard singing: "All the people in the dance will agree That we're well qualified to represent the LBC Me, me and Louie run to the party Dance to the rhythm it gets harder"

Nowell would sometimes begin live songs by referencing Lou Dog, and can be heard on the live version of "Caress Me Down" from Stand By Your Van yelling "Everybody say Louie - 1,2,3 Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie!" Nowell was known to invite his friends and their dogs over to film parodies of popular music videos; the dogs would pose as a band or an artist, dressed in corresponding costumes. In the early 1990s, Lou Dog disappeared for a week but was soon returned to Nowell, who later covered the Camper Van Beethoven song "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon", and changed it to "Lou Dog Went to the Moon". Following Nowell's death in 1996, Lou Dog was cared for by Miguel, the band's manager. Lou Dog died from old age on September 17, 2001. Nowell's family scattered Lou Dog's ashes over the same spot as Nowell's, in Surfside, California.

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