Bradley Nowell Quotations

Bradley Nowell was a singer and guitar player in the musical group Sublime (1988–1996).

“Sublime is a hodgepodge of all types of bands I have been into since I was a kid. Not like I mix it all up on purpose but more like its a subconscious type of thing. As a young kid I was heavily into hard core punk, like the Circle Jerks and Black Flag, then I first heard the ska sound from bands like The Selector and The Specials. I thought this was the best music I had ever heard. Then came the rub a dub style of dance hall reggae music which I've never been able get out of my head since! A little later I was into Run DMC and the whole NWA sound. I was blown away when I heard groups like BDP and KRS-One mixing rap and reggae. It was devastating. Without really trying I now seem to put a dance hall style lyric melody over much of my attempts at writing other types of music. The bottom line is I love good music and I try to shy away from all these labels that people think are so necessary to slap on music. It seems like people get afraid of a certain music if they can't pigeonhole it to their satisfaction. They will be up all night trying to slap a label on Sublime. Good music is good music, and that should be enough for anybody.”

"I think that self-reliance is what makes you happy. Not having to worry about anything or not depending on anybody besides yourself. Totally being down for your own thing. It doesn't matter what you're really into. If you're down for your shit, I think that's pretty much the key to happiness. It helps if you have, like, a wife and kids and stuff like that. But before all of that starts out, if you can really be satisfied with yourself and what you're doing, then you can be fucking happy with a relationship and stuff like that. Start straight out from your heart and go outward from there. It's a pretty simple formula, really. Nothing too fucking philosophical at all."

"I want to sail around the world..just because its fucking round."