For thirty years, the world wept over the loss of Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell. Even as the band gradually became a nostalgic blast from the past for millennials on SiriusXM’s Lithium station, the sun-filled rebellion that Sublime represented has been able to find a new life in the hearts of fresh ears that are still fixated on the aesthetic of nineties Southern California. Meanwhile, Jakob Nowell, the only son of the late Sublime frontman has found himself under the spotlight for his attempt to get the band back in the “Garden Grove,” to both honor his late father and strive to form a posthumous relationship with him. With Jakob leading the band into their first studio album in the last three decades, set for release on June 12, 2026.
In 1990, after recently dropping out of California State University, Long Beach, with only a semester left to complete, Bradley Nowell would go on to bond with future bandmates Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh over their mutual love for punk rock. Yet it wasn’t until Bradley introduced the other members to genres such as reggae and ska that the band truly developed their signature sound, which would go on to define Southern California’s music scene for the remainder of the decade. With Sublime rapidly experiencing their first major break after the release of the album 40oz. to Freedom due to singles such as “What I Got,” however it wasn’t until the debut of their self-titled fourth studio album that Sublime would make a name for themselves on the national charts. Although heartwrenchingly, two months previous to the release, frontman Bradley Nowell suffered from a heroin overdose, tragically passing away at the age of twenty-eight, which led to the band’s hiatus.
Following the nearly three decades since Bradley Nowell’s passing, Sublime has been able to plant roots in the garden of a younger generation yearning for a leisurely way of living. While synchronously in late 2023, Wilson and Gaugh reunited to perform with Jakob Nowell, the heir to the Sublime throne, during a benefit show for Bad Brains vocalist H.R. (Human Rights) in Los Angeles. The performance was quickly followed by a press release on January 16, 2024 announcing that Jakob would be spearheading the band full-time as frontman, while striving to honor the immense legacy left by his late father.
Rather than simply recreating the past after inheriting one of the most defining acts of the nineties, Jakob Nowell’s involvement with Sublime has offered him the opportunity to forge a relationship with his late father, while honoring his monumental memory. “It’s been a really interesting process getting to know someone posthumously through their work and something that’s so emotionally entangled in all of my machinery,” Nowell told the LAist on March 27, 2026. As amid taking up the mantle left by his late father, leading the band has become the focal point of Nowell’s life as he attempts to orchestrate Sublime’s role in the modern day with the band even set to perform Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival this coming September.
At thirty, Jakob now leads the band older than his late father did at the time of his passing at twenty-eight, into their first studio album release in the nearly three decades since the band’s hiatus began. The title track “Until the Sun Explodes” was released as a single, directly aimed as a tribute to the late frontman with lyrics such as “I hope you know that I owe you my life.” “It’s something I’ve been trying to say for thirty years,” Nowell was quoted as saying by the Long Beach Post. “It only came out correctly now. It feels really special to get to share it with the people out there. They’ve been sharing with me their stories my entire life.” For Jakob, the release of this album simply represents more than just the continuation of Sublime, but rather serves as a tribute to his late father.
With “Until the Sun Explodes” set for release on June 12, 2026 Jakob Nowell has illustrated to the weeping world that mourned Sublime for the last thirty years that reviving the band to him was never about flashy headlines within the press. Rather it’s become an immense part of his life that has allowed him the opportunity to connect with his late father in a way he never thought possible, showing the Long Beach heads around the world that after “Doin’ Time,” Sublime is far from finished.