But the music Nowell wrote left its mark. He passed before the band's breakout album, Sublime, saw its release. Perhaps the saddest part of Nowell's passing is he never had the chance to enjoy the band's mainstream success. I've got two friends who've got cancer right now. In 2013, Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh discussed his hopes that the band had a positive impact on the legalization movement, with Celeb Stoner. 'Doctors smoke it, lawyers smoke it / Sound guy smokes, even my dog tokes it,' Nowell sings riffing on the lyrics, before touting its medical benefits: 'Only cure for glaucoma / Only cure for asthma.' In contributing to the first Hempilation, a compilation CD benefiting the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, they performed 'Legalize It,' Peter Tosh's conscious stoner anthem. They offered conscious elements to their weed talk.

Sublimed popularized some of the most memorable stoner anthems of all time, including 'Smoke Two Joints,' 'What I Got' and 'Burritos.'īut it wasn't just about getting high. One of the causes the band championed above all else was legal weed. And it's advice we can all take to heart as we look to push today's anti-police brutality movements into more productive territory.īut the band had a healthy take on other drugs. It's advice to look to the systems that create racist policing - to look beyond the individual events. The narrative is anarchic, but in the midst of the chaos, Nowell made a powerful statement about police brutality and racism: 'They said it was for the black man / They said it was for the Mexican, and not for the white man / But if you look at the streets it wasn't about Rodney King / It's bout this fucked up situation and these fucked up police.' 'April 29, 1992' shares its title with the date of the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles and around the country, after the verdict was handed down on Rodney King's 1991 beating by police. Signs of social consciousness were evident from the beginning, but by their third record and major label debut, they were well past their party rock days and were including sharp social and political commentary throughout their laid-back slacker anthems.

to Freedom, by sneaking into studios at California State University, Dominguez Hills. They allegedly recorded their debut album, 40oz. Scrappy start: Nowell and Sublime got their start in the scrappiest, most punk way possible - by stealing studio time.

Sublime lead singer