A Look Back At Sublime's Self-Titled Album 20 Years Later

(Radio.com) Sublime's self-titled album turns 20 this month. The third--and final--album of their career, it took the band from the Warped tour to multi-platinum sales. Sadly, by the time the album was released, frontman Bradley Nowell had died from a drug overdose.

Many fans were unaware of his passing; to them, Sublime was a brand new band just starting to dominate alternative rock radio, as the format moved on from the grunge sound. Sublime sold over 6.6 million copies in the U.S., and yielded a number of radio and MTV hits, including "Santeria," "Doin' Time," "Wrong Way" and, of course, "What I Got."

But few know the real story behind the Long Beach, CA band's groundbreaking album. Over the course of several interviews with band members and producers, we discovered--among other things--that "Doin' Time" almost never came to be, that producer David Kahne almost quit after just one day with the band, and that the album almost never saw the light of day.

Jon Phillips, Band Manager: I signed them to Gasoline Alley. There was finally a recording budget, which they'd never had before. I just wanted to hear Bradley and Sublime record in different environments with producers that they hadn't worked with before.

[Two producers were selected; David Kahne, who had produced Fishbone's early albums, and Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers, who had produced the Meat Puppets' 1994 breakthrough Too High to Die, which gave the band their first radio hit with "Backwater." Phillips convinced Kahne to fly from New York to LA to produce the tracks at Total Access Studios in Redondo Beach. The studio was used by Pennywise, No Doubt and was close to home for the band. Then, Sublime would fly to Texas to record with Leary.]

Phillips: Bradley, Miguel and David went in the first day. I don't even think the full band was there at that point. Sublime had demos that they had completed. They had the original version of 'What I Got" so that was one of the songs that they were going to work on. I remember the morning after the first day in the studio I was lying in bed about 7:30 and my phone rang, it was David Kahne calling me from his hotel room down the street from Total Access and told me "Hey, Jon, I don't want to waste your money. I think that I should go home. These guys just aren't ready. I don't know what's going on. They're just not prepared to make the type of record I want to make." I told David, "Look, they're not used to working in the professional environment that you're used to working in. Sublime came from the punk rock world." I felt that he needs to give it a chance because I knew they'd be like the kid that crammed the night before the final exam and still came out with an A minus. I convinced David to go back there and after day two he told me they'd had a heart to heart. I think they'd addressed some of Brad's "usage" because I think that might have been having an effect.

]During the sessions with Kahne, they recorded 'What I Got," 'April 29th, 1992," 'Doin' Time" and 'Caress Me Down."]

Kahne: It was very strange. I'm in the garage in Redondo Beach and I went back to the hotel and said "What the f- am I doing?" I've done a lot of crazy records, but I think realizing the depth of Brad's talent was a major thing for me. But it was frustrating. So, I remember what Miguel said to me. He said, "Just do whatever you want." So I put the track together more like a hip-hop record than a band record.

For me it was just as simple as, here's a killer f-ing beat with an acoustic guitar playing over it and him going out there, and finally after two days he just went out and sang through it about three times and that was it. He just laid it down and I was just sittin' there going "F-, this is good."

So, the label wouldn't give them per diem money for fear of what they might spend it on. But they had an account at a sub shop and Brad would always get these Philly cheesesteaks with piles of pepperoncinis chopped up inside of it. So part of the ritual was every day at lunch there'd be these subs and they'd be eaten' and there were these two dogs--one was Lou Dog [Nowell's dalmatian], frequently seen in the band's artwork and videos] and the other was someone's Mastiff. And they would sit there and watch them eat and drool. And the drool would run out of the mouths of the dogs and there was this contest to see which dog's drool would go the farthest down to the floor without breaking. Read more here.

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Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

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