For Jakob Nowell, 28 was a major milestone. He is the same age his father, Bradley Nowell, was when he died, leaving behind his band Sublime and his son. So there's a certain poetry in the fact that this is the year Jakob takes over as Sublime's new frontwoman, starting at April's Coachella festival, alongside original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh. (At the same time, Wilson's band Sublime With Rome, featuring Rome Ramirez on vocals, is wrapping up its last dates this year.)
For Jakob, it's one of the biggest moments of his life, with his own solo debut, titled Jakobs Castle, also due in April. In a recent episode of our Rolling Stone Music now podcast, looked back on the rocky road that led him here. Here are some of the highlights of the interview. to hear the whole thing, along with an interview with Gaugh, go here for your podcast provider of choice, listen Apple Podcasts the Spotifyor just press play above.
You lost your dad when you weren't even a year old. So you have no memories of him, of course.
Right.
This is rough. I'm sorry about that,
Oh, good man. It sure was an awful way to grow up. A big part of my story that I've always wanted to get out there is when people see me in this band and they have to think, this kid must have given it his all. But the truth is, growing up wasn't easy at all. I love my mom and the man who raised me, my stepfather. They were doing the best they could. But the truth was just utter chaos. Lifestyle without partying. There really wasn't a lot of money coming in a lot of the time, and a lot of times it was just an unsafe environment for a young kid. Just seeing this crazy California party lifestyle was too much. As a kid, I didn't feel like I fit into the whole California thing for a long time, but it was always around me and it was always thrust upon me from a young age.
I have been a drug addict since I was 12 years old. Now 28, I'm seven years sober. A big part of me wanting to be in music from the beginning and wanting to be a part of my father's music now I realize how much all the art that inspired me helped me. I spent almost 11 years of grueling work and performances in the basement and sleeping on the floors. I still put my work in here, man. So for me, playing with Sublime is like guard duty. I just feel very lucky to be there with my uncles and very honored to be a part of the music at all, man.
So what was your path to becoming a musician yourself?
I think there was always a curiosity. I knew that, in many ways, it was almost as if my dad had given his life for this music. And I've always wondered why, and I think there's always that urge to follow in the footsteps. It seemed like a logical enough path, but in reality, it was never the primary goal. I went to school, or at least tried to, and I was going to be an English teacher and all that stuff. A big part for me is that when I started my first band, which was Law. I remember the first time I played a show, how good it felt. For me, the juice in this thing is really the performance.
When you talk about not having a lot of money growing up, I think some people might be surprised.
It's a hard balance because I don't want people to think I was needy, but I also don't want them to think I had a silver spoon in my mouth. The truth is that most of the time my mom moved around a lot. And suddenly, I think when I was four or five years old, a lot of money came in. But as soon as they entered, they were completely gone. Here we are in this big, beautiful house and we can't keep the lights on. It was a crazy upbringing, man. Of all my parents' friends, all the women were sex workers and all the men were drug dealers. It was, doing whatever we could to survive. It was just absolute chaos, man. And I love my parents and my family for who they are. Again, it's a family business and I'm very close to them these days. But when I got sober, I didn't talk to them for years, man. It was a scary, overtly sexual and overtly party/drug lifestyle. He scared me, so he made me run away. That's why I think I like all this crazy stuff like anime and video games and stuff.
And when I escaped what was essentially a glorified trap house growing up, I had my grandparents, they were more stable. They were better off because my grandfather was a contractor and they helped me a lot. That was awesome, but it had nothing to do with Sublime. It had nothing to do with the fact that my dad was in a big rock band. People don't understand, he died before his time. There were no big parties in Beverly Hills with them. They were a punk rock band – they wouldn't want to start this mess.
And when I went up to Long Beach and decided to start music, where was the nepotism, man? I would love to have a fucking leg. No one. We were booking tours in Colorado and then the tour operator was missing us at the last minute. And we'd find pictures of him sleeping in a tent somewhere. I did it for 10 years and I'd happily do it again, man. And the fact that people want to book Sublime at a big enough event like Coachella is awesome.
There is obviously a hereditary aspect to addiction. It weighs more when you know this is how your dad dies. How did this all work out for you in your mind?
It is the same with a man who has never fought in his past that his pacifism makes a little less sense. If I had never experienced a similar lifestyle to my dad, then my abstinence from him would have made a little less sense. I am in the depths of my addiction. I found myself on the bathroom floor covered in blood and convulsing. There is a better life than this. And not everyone gets to that point. Some people have a time with drugs and alcohol and put it down or use it only occasionally. It's wonderful. But some people, it's just not their way, and for me, having that audience with my father, I think it allows me to connect with music on another level.
When I sing a song like “Pool Shark” or even “Bad Fish,” you can see the evidence of his struggle with addiction. You just hear the fucking sirens singing all the time. It could drive a man crazy, but I ain't got no beeswax in my ears, man. Those temptations, though they may have been there in the beginning, I'm seven years sober now. If I do a few simple things and honor what I'm supposed to honor and live my life the way I've been taught, hopefully I can continue to do that for a long time. And the fact that me and my dad have this in common is a very strange story,
I imagine it might also help you understand him better. And if necessary, forgive him more.
I think so, man. Oh, of course. There will always be an element of being angry, but I think I've forgiven that a long time ago.
Do you have a message or thoughts about Rome? He kept the fire burning for many years at Sublime With Rome.
Yes, and I think it was great. I think a lot of fans still wanted to hear the music, but I don't think it has anything to do with Rome. It could have been anyone up there. It's Bud and Eric. This is also their music. Obviously my dad was a big part of their creative force, but Sublime couldn't have been done without Bud and Eric.
So with Sublime With Rome, it's almost funny that his name is stuck like that, because to me it was just Eric and Bud. And for the longest time, fans had to buy tickets and go to shows and hear Sublime songs played by at least one of the guys who wrote them. But the fact is, if Eric doesn't want to play with Sublime With Rome anymore and wants to play with Bud, and they asked me to be their singer, then it's my duty to support that. Rome wasn't the lead singer of Sublime in that way. He was a guy that Eric asked to sing his songs with.
It's a little confusing, because Sublime With Rome still have final dates booked this year, even though the end of that band has already been announced.
And so there's going to be confusion with some of the fans like, “wait a minute, I heard Sublime was playing Cali Roots.” And every time I hear it, it breaks my heart a little. I bear no ill will towards Rome, the person. He is just a singer and an entertainer. We work in the same field, but there is an emotional aspect that I want to make known to the world. I had to deal with growing up. I remember being 14 and chilling in my friend's basement and we're all listening to music and smoking weed. My friend put on a Sublime song and I thought he was confusing me. And I look and Rome sings it. And it was strange. It hit me like a gut. It didn't feel right.
And I've come to accept that over the years. But nobody knows what it's like to be a little kid with a Sublime backpack and go to the airport and the airport lady says, “Oh, you like this band? I just saw them play last week.” And it's like, no, you didn't. That's how I really feel about this stuff, man. And I don't know if I will become a better or worse singer than Rome. I don't think that's the issue. I don't know if I will become a better or worse guitarist. I think the way he portrayed the songs was rad. And I think a lot of people will be fans of it for life. And that's awesome. And he's going to have an awesome solo career and that's awesome. But the fact is, it's because he was in that situation with Sublime. Bud and Eric asked me to sing with them and sing in their band. And that's why we call it High, because that's what it is.
Bud says there's a bunch of unreleased compositions your dad had and you're starting to look at it and try to figure out how you'd release them.
We're working with a lot of younger artists and stuff and there's so much meat on that bone still, a lot of unreleased, really cool Sublime stuff. We don't intend to write any new music on Sublime, which again, is another good distinction between Sublime With Rome and us. We are not going to play Sublime With Rome songs. They put out a bunch of music. We play Sublime songs. If there's anything new coming out, it'll probably be remixes, reimaginings of unreleased songs. Maybe I'm working on new versions of old songs with new artists. Again, that family atmosphere, man. Anyone who was influenced by that thing, anyone who thought Sublime was cool. Anywhere from the biggest of the bigs like Post Malone to people just starting out on the smaller California scene.
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