Latest / DISGRACELAND / Sublime: Hoodlums, Police Helicopters, and Getting Dirty at Denny’s

Transcript

Sublime: Hoodlums, Police Helicopters, and Getting Dirty at Denny’s · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Sublime are insane. At their first show, they incited a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: riot so massive that forty cops and a police helicopter
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: were needed to break it up. They've vanalyzed their record
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: label's headquarters and managed to land the sixth album deal regardless.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: They once did unspeakable deeds to a Denny's kitchen using
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: their mobile home septic tank. Their lead singer, Bradley Knowell,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: racked up a rehab tab of nearly half a million
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: dollars thanks to his gripping heroin habit. Sublime's musical legacy
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: is inseparable from their reputation as hoodlums and heatonists, in
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: part because those are precisely the people's Sublime wrote songs about.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: With their new fangled sky ah punk, they preached the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: gospel of Long Beach's CD shores. Unlike any band before them,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Sublime was born in California, raised in California, and before
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: they could get much farther, Sublime died in California. Two
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: but before their untimely end, Sublime made great music. That
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: loop I played for you at the top of the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: show that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: from my melotron called Panni Raid Parade MK.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: One.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: rights to the Crossroads by Bone Thugs and Harmony. And
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: why would I play you that specific slice of translucent
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: ghost Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on May fifth, nineteen ninety six,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And that was the day that Sublime singer Bradley knowl
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: unknowingly formed for the final time. In this episode, massive Riots,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: police Helicopters, Unspeakable Deeds, rehab in the Preachers of Long
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Beach Sublime, I'm Jake Brennan in This.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Is Disgrace Landing.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: If Bradley Noel's face had hit the sand any harder,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it would have left Mark. A sprinting body slammed into
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: him from behind. He flew face first into the beach,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: gobbling a mouthful of sand. His vision went black for
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a moment, but his well trained ears told him the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: rest scream shrieking teenage girls, shrieking frat boys fleeing Fourth
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of July picnics, college kids sprinting while spilling their precious beer,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Looters trying not to spill their bounty, bodies colliding, broken bottles,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: slicing open bare feet. Firecrackers lit before the chaos snapped
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: in the background. Those pissed the cops off the most.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: One fell to the ground next to Brad and popped
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: directly in his ear.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Fuck that was loud.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: He couldn't see Long Beach's finest, but he could hear them.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Beach goers knocking into helmets and chest protectors, clinking handcuffs
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: For the unlucky.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Ones who couldn't run fast enough.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: The cops were trying to herd or riot to where.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Brad had no clue. The cops didn't seem to know either.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: They were on the Long Beach Peninsula, for Christ's sake.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: There weren't many places to put four hundred people, so
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: they suited up and started making arrests instead. Half of
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: these people hadn't done anything wrong. Half of these people
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: had just been on the peninsula to sea Brad's new
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: bands Sublime perform. To throw back a few beers on
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a paid holiday didn't matter to the cops. Anyone present
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: could have been one of the rabble rousing moters who
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: had torn apart the center of town. Something about the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: rugged reggae rock Sublime had dished out that evening gave
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: onlookers an itch to act out. In itch, they scratched
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: by smashing the windows of nearby stores in between smashing
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: empty beer bottles on the street. First there were ten
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: cops staying cool, trying to keep everyone cool, and then
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that one fucker lighting off fireworks ruined it for everybody.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Around nine pm, forty more officers arrived and they were
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: itching to bring some new faces downtown. Anyone who didn't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: vacate the peninsula in the next ten minutes.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Was leaving in the back of a cruiser.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: As people scrambled across the beach, the remaining troublemakers retaliated
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: with a slew of carefully aided roaming candles, and Brad's
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: band Sublime, had been the soundtrack to the chaos up
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: until a few minutes ago. At least the melee swarmed
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: around him. It hummed like an agitated drunken bee hive
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: in a wait. That was the police chopper descending from overhead.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Time to get the hell out of here.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Brad dragged himself to his knees, squinting through the sudden
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: sandstorm grains of sand stung his eyes, chopped his lips. Then,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: from behind another body, a hand gripped his shoulder. This
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: time Bud goal his drummer, vans loaded. Let's go, he
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: shouted over the date of the chopper. He pulled Brad
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to his feet. They sprinted across the sand, forced a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: path through the throng of bodies. Then Brad spotted him.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Their van pulled over on the side of the road
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a few blocks ahead their new north Star. He and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Bud scampered past broken store windows, skipped over forties broken
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: in the street, over coolers and solo cups. It was
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a game of fourth of Live Frogger. Some dumbass who
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: hadn't learned their lesson was still rocketing fireworks from a
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: nearby rooftop. As Brad and Bud approached. Eric Wilson, their
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: bassist in today's Getaway, driver, threw open the backseat door
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: with expert timing. Brad and Bud stuck the landing, crashed
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: into the back seat, slammed the door immediately, and for
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a moment it was silent. Bud and Brad panted, Fuck,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you're waiting for drive, Bud said between breaths. Eric was unfazed,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: he twisted around from the driver's seat to face his bandmates.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Pretty good for a first show, right. Not every Sublime
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: show erupted into chaos like the first one. That one
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: earned its own nickname, the infamous Peninsular Riot of nineteen
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: eighty eight. Seven arrests in the books, multiple articles in
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the local papers, none of which mentioned the band's involvement.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: If you could call it.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: That, most of their early show were like today, in
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a neighborhood far from the Long Beach Peninsula. The house
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: has changed, but the environment was always the same. Moldy
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: basements with no breathing room, sweaty bodies packed to fire
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: hazard levels, condensation on the walls thick enough to make
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you queasy.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: It would be no rock club club today.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Sublime was in the seatier section of town, nestled far
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: away from the watchful eyes of the police. Brad liked
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: it better around here, anyways, where everyone was on equal
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: footing street parks, surfers, skaters, gangsters, all pressed shouldered to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: shoulder in basements, in backyards inhanalling the same secondhand smoke,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: pissing in the same clogged toilets, drinking from the same
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: keg of cheap beer in some cases.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Shooting up with the same needles.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Brad watched it all unfold with solemn arm, smoking a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: couple of joints.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: That was one thing.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: You could smoke two joints before you smoked another two
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: joints and what.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Made you giggle? He munched on a few too many.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Potato chips before passing out on the sofa heroin. Though
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: heroin was a straight up life ruinner, Brad respected that
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: kind of power more accurately.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: He feared it. Hell.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Even the riddle and he had taken as a kid
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: changed the way he saw drugs. He was popping those
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: every day at only ten years old, for add and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: he knew how dependencies worked. So when the needles came out,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: sometimes Brad averted his gaze, but more often he watched
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: took mental notes. He was bad at hiding his fascination.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: The partygoer studied him back, and they noted the way
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: his left hand was cocked at an awkward angle and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: he played guitar. A careless fall from a tree as
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: a teenager had damaged his wrist, which never healed properly.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: It had literally altered his bone structure.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: He could have had it corrected by a doctor if
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you wanted break it again, and said it early this time,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: but he didn't want to. When an audience listened to Sublime,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: they heard themselves. They heard neurly stories, sweetened by Brad's
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: smooth like honey voice. Sublime didn't pedal that some kissed
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: candy coated bullshit about California the way the television did.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Sublime dressed down tinsel Town with trash tails, wrapped it
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: all up in a style that was too fast to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: be true reggae, but too tropical to be true punk.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: People heard pages torn from their own diaries, taken right
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: from the streets because Sublime paid attention. Brad paid attention.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: One of the band's earliest tunes, Date Rape, got their
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: crowds all kinds of worked up. It was vulgar skanky,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a cautionary tale for the creeps. Its stomping baseline obliterated
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the unpleasant subject matter and jolted awake. Even the most
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: stoned and stupefied crowds in inevitably got the neighbors banging
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: on the front door, bitching about the no Either way,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: people were talking about Sublime. People told their friends, who
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: told their classmates who told their friends a new party
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: would be booked before Sublime could even encore at the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: current one. After a year or two, it was official.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a party in Long Beach if Sublime wasn't playing,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and if the cops didn't break the party up, and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: they often did, Sublime would usually leave with two hundred
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: dollars in cash in their pockets and three bellies full
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of beer. But Brad got something more out of it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: He got stories, real stories, the hookers, the dealers that
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: depressed the drug he cataloged at all he saw the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: same things as the kids he performed for saw they
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: had a mutual understanding. But Brad needed more from Sublime.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to be a star in California. He
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: wanted to be a star from California, out preaching the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: gospel of the fiend's friends and fuck ups he surrounded
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: himself with. When he looked inside himself, envisioned to prophet,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: he'd be their underdog, their champion, the most qualified.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Man in the LBCNE.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Brad's bed frame rattled as he kicked the sheets off.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Sweat coated every part of his body, his forehead, his
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: chest pooled on his stomach. Beads formed around his brows
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and then dripped into his eyes with a salty sting.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: If he wasn't crying already, he was now. The sheets
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: were still sticking to him. He thrashed around more, which
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: spurred on a muscle spasm in his left leg.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Fuck.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: He gripped the edge of the bed while he wrote
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: it out, knuckles white teeth gnashing. The spasm hurt like
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a motherfucker. It hurt almost as bad as the heroin withdraws.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Somewhere along the line, his morbid fascination with the drug
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: had gotten the best of him. When Brad shot up
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: for the first time, he hadn't pictured this. He hadn't
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: pictured much of anything.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He just wanted more, more from himself, more from his band.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He knew better music was in there, buried inside of him.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: He just needed to draw it out, so he drew
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it out by injecting himself with dope. Brad's concerns about
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: not reaching his full potential as a musician had tipped
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the scales. He no longer feared heroin. He feared what
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: his career would be without heroin. It was nineteen ninety three.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Time to make real moves. Those first recordings, they were good,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: but they didn't dig deep. In jo Won't Pay the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Bills was admirably scrappy, but the album wasn't about to
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: pay any of his bills either. Forty Ounces to Freedom
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: had been his most recent project, but even that record
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: hadn't left the West Coast. They nailed the style, sky
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: punker or whatever their fans were calling it these days,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: but the storytelling needed a lift. Sublime had real skin
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in the game now. John Phillips and an our intern
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: from Gasoline, ally in no relation to anyone in the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Mamas and the Papas, had taken serious interest in the band,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: such an interest that he casually invited the band to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: his house in Los Angeles to perform. Sublime had graduated
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: from Long Beach basements to Hollywood Hills living rooms. They
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: were so close. The knowledge made Brad lean into his
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: lopsided relationship with heroin even harder. He leaned in so
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: hard that he couldn't tell where the benefits ended and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: where the drawbacks began. Heroin makes you more creative, or
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: so with the attic logic, so of course you take
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: more heroin. But the heroin also makes you nod off, drowsy, dumb,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: so you lay off it for a while. But the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: withdrawals make you itch, make you sweat, make you puke,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: make you crazy, so you score more, shoot up, you
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: write some of the best songs of your life, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: then you can't even stay awake long enough to record them.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: But whether or not it made sense to quit Heroin
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: dependent on the day, dependent on the hour, depended on
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: what Brad ate for breakfast. A few hours ago, kicking
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: seemed like a good idea, and now, lying in a
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: veritable swamp of sweat, skull throbbing, muscles twitching not so much.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Stepping outside to score on the streets of Long Beach
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: would be so easy. Brad tried to relax his muscles
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: for a moment, unclenched, his jaw exiled, no use. The
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: needles kept drilling into his skull. His body felt locked
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: in a tremor. Why was he doing this to himself?
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: It wasn't going to change anything. Rehab hadn't even changed anything.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: He knew that from experience. He had already gone once
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two and left after a few days unsuccessful,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and relapsed too many times to count. Why couldn't he
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: get his shit together? Budd had he had stepped away
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: from the band for a while, did his time in rehab.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Sure it was taken a couple tries, but he was
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: in the best shape of his life. And Eric, he
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: never even touched her when to begin with Smart Kid.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: They still got into trouble. That was their brand, after all,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that was their band, but not the kind of trouble
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Bradley was dabbling in. There were little patterns the band
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: began to notice. Their gear had started to grow legs
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: before shows and show up in local pawn shops. Miguel's
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Sublime's manager would have to track down amps and instruments
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: before curtain call and buy them back on his own dime.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Bradley's father had noticed, too, trinkets disappearing from his house
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: when Brad visited, antiques that no one would even notice
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: were missing until long after they were gone. The guilt
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: nod at Brad's stomach while he pot at the air.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Remorse smacked him harder when he was this delirious, When
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: he was quote unquote doing time, as he called it,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Blue Dog, his beloved dalmatian, hopped under the bed next
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to him and watched with concern. There was another thing.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Brad had started getting virgins high, people who had never
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: tried heroin before. It was an unspoken rule and sublime
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: circle that he didn't shoot up newbies, and there was
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: even a term for people who did what Brad was doing, badfish.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: But Brad couldn't contain himself. He wanted to share the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: forbidden ritual that made him so giddy that dizzy ascent
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to euphoria brutal. But there was no euphoria now. He
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: felt his body was crashing, like being dropped on cement
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: over and over again, like being bowled over on the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: beach that day of their first show, Christ that felt
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: like a lifetime ago. And for every ounce of certainty
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: he had about becoming a star, he had two ounces
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of doubt that he'd never be able to get truly clean,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and that he was destined to be a junkie forever.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Speaking of ances, he could really go for one right
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: about now. Stepping outside would be so easy. He sat
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: up in bed and waited until the room stopped spinning
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to speak, Come on, Louis, let's go for a walk.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: October nineteen ninety three. John Phillips stood outside of the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: door of his uncle's office at Gasolene Alley for the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: third time that day. He raised a trembling fist and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: knocked on his uncle's store. Randy Phillips the store, the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: president of gasoline Alley's store, as John let himself in
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a gaggle of suits, turned back to look at him wordlessly.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: We have to make time for Sublime. They're restless, John said.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: He tried to find a way to put it nicely.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Randy shook his head without even looking out from the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: paperwork in front of him. The R and B group
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Shy was currently in the building, and at that very
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: moment in pop culture was the cash cow. Young women
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: were flocking to the vocal group with fistfuls of cash
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in the early nineteen nineties, and as such, Shy was
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the priority. Besides, Randy Phillips didn't rearrange his day for
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: filthy skate punks. John Phillips's uncle didn't get it. None
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of the suits staring at him got it either. John
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: bet the farm on this band. He hand picked Sublime
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to be the first band he himself ever signed. He
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: had heard, the potential, seen, the potential. Forty ounces to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Freedom was unreal the next Nirvana, John thought that or
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a scussy kunt of beach boys. They packaged California in
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: an honest way that made locals proud and outsiders jealous.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: These white collar basterds just didn't get it, which was
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the bad news for them, missing out on a chance
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to sign a band like this. But it was also
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: bad news considering that a few floors below them. At
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that very moment, Sublime was shall we say, redecorating John's
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: office again louder this time, Bradley said, flicking the cap
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: off another beer, gesturing for Eric to hit play on
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Robin the Hood for the upteenth time that day. They
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: had come prepared with their newest effort and had promptly
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: popped it into John CD player. What they hadn't considered
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: is that they had showed up unannounced. Suits don't do
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: spontaneous They don't do same day deals either, but that
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: had been the expectation when Sublime, lou Dog, and a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: handful of other confidants strolled into Gasoline Alley headquarters that day,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: ready to ink some contracts and cash some hefty checks.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Brad in particular wanted that hefty check he already knew
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: what he'd.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Spend it on.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: In the hours since they arrived, the band made themselves
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a little too comfortable in John Phillips's office. Furniture had
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: been rearranged, Bottles cluttered every open surface, Popcorn crumbs, cigarette
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: butts and ashes littered the carpet. Serve them right for
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: not having a proper ash train. But as their stash
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: of liquor and weed ran low, so did Sublime's pace.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Where's the bathroom in this place? I got a piss,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Eric said, setting down an empty looks like Ludog does too,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he said, gesturing to the Dalmatian, who had started to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: shift around uncomfortably doing the I gotta go a squirm.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: He'll be fine, Brad said, with a twinkle in his
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: eye that insinuated that it would not be fine. Rather,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the carpet would not be fine. As Eric returned from
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, he could smell the pot from down the hallway,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and then he smelled the dog shit, and then he
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: saw the dog shit. Time to bounce all the way
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: out of the parking lot. Something caught Brad's eye, the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: glimmer of a classic BMW that just so happened to
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: be parked in Randy Phillips's reserve spot. He slapped a
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: homemade Sublime bumper sticker on his pristine rear rim, a
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: second subtle insult to pair with the dog shit reeking
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: in the office. John faced the wrath of his uncle
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: later that day. Finally, someone say incredibly. Nine months later,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: John miraculously secured a six record deal for Sublime. The
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: suits looked past the incidents for the sake of shutting
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: them up. John didn't care. Neither it Sublime. This was
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the big win they had been waiting for. John stopped
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: by his uncle's desk one afternoon as he drew up
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the contracts. They're worth it, but I have to warn
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: you they do have some issues. They can be a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: bit of a handful. John's uncle, Randy Phillips, looked up
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: from his desks this time.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no shit, We'll be right back after this word
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: word word.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: November two, nineteen ninety five, Portland, Oregon, Sublime pulled into
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the parking lot of a deserted Denny's, just a few
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: miles from Roseland Hill, where they had just crushed their
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: most recent show with Lords of Brooklyn and Wesley Willis
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The Green LCD Clock on their dashboard read two two am.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: It was time to indulge in a great American touring tree, addition,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: eating diner slob in the wee hours of the morning.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But one particular Denny's was denying Sublime that rite of passage,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: This sad excuse of a Denny's had closed an hour
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: prior a waiter reluctantly let them inside. Anyways, what kind
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of horseshit is this Denny's closed? Wasn't that the whole
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: point that they were never closed? No one chooses a Denny's.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: You were forced to go to a Denny's because nothing
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: else is open. They had a twist of waitress's arm
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to even seat them. In hindsight, they should have high
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: tailed it. Then, the late night breakfast they received was inedible,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: even by touring band standards. Soggy pancakes, merely hash browns,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: overcooked bacon that resembled well worn leather.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Wardo, one of Sublime's faithful roadies, ordered chicken fried steak.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: It arrived looking like it had just been retrieved from
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the trash.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: He swore there were.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Already bites missing, and that was it. Half the food
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: returned to the kitchen untouched. The band started hatching their
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: plan for a swift departure, but a new waiter interrupted
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the grumbling, is that your motorhome up back? Or having
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: it towed? Oh?
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Hell no.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Bud and Wardo rushed into the parking lot before the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: tow truck could arrive. As they ripped open the motorhome's door,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Wardo got an idea. Wardo had caught a whiff of
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: the motor home septic tank. The overflowing basin dribbled a
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: mix of shit, pissed puke, and gnarly blue disinfectant. Every
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: time they turned a corner too fast. You could smell
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: it even if it hadn't spilled earlier that day, and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: that if it had, well, let's hope you had a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: military grade air freshener. The fucker was full, but not
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: for long. Put the sing in reverse, the pair backed
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the motor home up to the back doors of the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Denny's kitchen. The motorhome septic tank pomp lined up perfectly
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: with the air vents at the bottom of the restaurant's doors.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Wardo stepped outside and removed the septic tank cap.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: He tugged and the plunger and.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: A steady stream of sewage spewed from the tank and
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: sloshed through the restaurant's kitchen doors. The remnants of one
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: hundred parties and hangovers painted the tiles of that Denny's
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a nauseating shade of electric blue. When the tank was empty,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: an inch of excrement coated the floor of the back entrance.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: The band loaded into the mobile home and skid it
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: out of the parking lot. Between the tire marks, they
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: left a trail of bright blue goom. Nothing ever came
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of it, no arrest, no mugshots, no mobile home car chases.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: The police couldn't dust for fingerprints and raw sewage. Bad
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: behavior had always been Sublime's hallmark, but a pattern had formed.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Their stunts were getting dumber, and they were getting grosser,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and the consequences were nearly non existent. The more people
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: liked them, the more they felt like they had a
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: reputation to uphold, and the more they made good on
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that reputation, the more people expect and ate it up.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And the haters ate it up too, nearly choked on it,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and that tickled the band the most. A bad reaction
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was better than no reaction. Sublime knew that much to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: be true. They had Kroq to thank for their newfound notoriety.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Earlier that year, a ballsy intern of the Los Angeles
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Radio Giant had come forth with date rape. Despite being
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: seven years old at that point and despite the gruesome
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: subject matter, the song took off, first at KROQ and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: then across the country.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: People couldn't believe their ears.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: This is a song about an incarcerated eight rapist who's
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: then raped in prison. On FM radio, had they heard
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: that right? They dialed in to hear it again. The
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: airplay moved the needle for Sublime. Overnight promoters blew up
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: their phones the way listeners were blowing up radio station
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: phone lines, eager to book Sublime for any show they'd
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: agreed to. In fact, the band was so grateful to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: kro Q that when they were offered an on air
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: interview with Djjed the Fish, they spent the segment passing
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: around joints and cups of tequila.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Kroq may have.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Played songs about smoking joints and drinking tequila, but it
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: was understood that you didn't do either of those things
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: in the radio station. Furious at the disrespect, Kroq pulled
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the song from rotation and djjed the fish was no
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: longer a fan, but it was too late. The acerbic
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: irony of date rape had already swept the nation. Warped
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Tour had been the same way.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Sublime.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Sheeneigans quickly wore out their welcome and they were temporarily
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: removed from the lineup, all because lou Dog had bitten
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: a few people. Then the Band of Moon in the audience,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: and they showed up to their sets and drunken stupors
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and broke a table on the bus they shared with
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Orange nine millimeter, and they missed only four dates. One
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of their manager's smooth talked Warped tourist primary investor, who
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: realized that fans were demanding that Sublime be re added
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: to the bill. The massive way of popularity they were
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: writing drowned out all those pesky, petty repercussions. And if
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: anyone knew how to ride a wave while the tides
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: were in their favor, it was Sublime. Brad felt his
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: own destiny propelling him forward. He didn't realize the undertow
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was yanking him backwards too Early nineteen ninety six, Peternale's
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: studio Austin, Texas, lyrics man lyrics are hard. Brad repeated
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: it like a mantra. If it was supposed to be
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: centering his mind, it wasn't working. Sublime was locked down
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: trying to record a full length album that barely existed.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: He could blame the lack of new material on one
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: of two things. One, Brad was a family man, now
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: seemingly overnight, a bigger priority than music arrived. His longtime sweetheart, Troy,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: gave birth to his son the previous year, a beautiful
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: baby boy named Jacob. Brad finally had his iron clad
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: reason to quit Heroin, so he had, or you could blame.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: It on number two.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Bradley needed to be larger than life now more than ever.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Bradley the man, the musician, the scussy so coal singer
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: had become Brad the caricature in hell if he wasn't
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: going to deliver. Brad finally had his reason to continue
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: with Heroin, so he did that too. He made like
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Sublime's mobile home and had put his hard earned progress
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in reverse, and liked the mobile home. Shit went everywhere.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He dove right back into his old habits hard. But
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: when the needles came back out, Eric and Bud retreated.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Their contributions to the record became rope. They came in,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: performed their parts, and steered clear of Brad, who was
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: nearly too high to handle, or worse, too high to
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: be remotely productive. They were well aware that the album
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: was currently in shambles at best. More importantly, Gasoline Alley
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: recognized it too. After five weeks at Pedernale Studio, the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: label sent Brad home to clean up his act, clear
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: his head, and reclaim his writing chops. When Brad touched
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: down in California, Troy and Jacob weren't waiting there, for
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Troy had packed her things and split until Bradley could
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: look her in the eyes and say he was clean again.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: His up teeth relapse was her proverbial final straw. It
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: was Brad's too, for the final time. Brad kicked for
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: one moment in time. The entire band was clean, and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: they finished the album clean, played it, sold out shows clean.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Months past. Brad's resolved didn't break. The label took notice
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: of that too. Tours of the East Coast in Europe
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: were arranged, and their slice of California was going global.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Brad bought travel books to pour over in preparation. He
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: bought something else too, a shiny new ring for Troy.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: On May eighteenth, nineteen ninety six, they wed in Las Vegas.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: He had been clean for three months. Brad did not
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: say it, It was written on his face, practically bursting
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: out of him. This was the happiest he'd ever been
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: in his life.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: It was sticking. It was really sticking.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: He had struck down one half of his destiny and
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: resuscitated the other. In this moment, he had more reasons
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to celebrate than he ever had in his life. Sublime
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: had one tour left before it was wheels up for
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the East Coast and then overseas a small slow of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: shows up the California coast Child's Play. He kissed Troy
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: on their wedding day and again a few days later
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: before the band embarked on the tour. It was the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: last time they had never seen each other. On May
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, nineteen ninety six, Bradley Knowles smoked a crack
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: for breakfast. He was in a stranger's home in Chico, California.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: A strange promoter offered him drugs. He accepted, and he
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: wouldn't stop again for the rest of his life. The
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: band watched with trepidation.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Was he doing He had a new son, a new wife,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: and a new lease on life that he had.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Fought so hard for. Brad offered a flimsy counterpoint. Exactly,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: it was so much to celebrate. He needed to diffuse
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: his excitement with that dizzy ascent again. And besides, Sublime
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: owed it to themselves to quote unquote party one last time.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: They had earned this. But and Eric vehemently disagreed. The
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Clean Sublime had earned this. The Clean Sublime was the
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: reason the album was done, the reason that they had
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: two major tours on the horizon. But Brad had already
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: buckled over breakfast. He scored again that afternoon before their
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: show and a luma at the Phoenix Theater. Within a
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: few hours, everything had changed. Brad wasn't outside before the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: show skating with fans. He wasn't letting them come inside
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the motor Home to hang out like usual either. The
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: performance that night was tepid, The fans could feel a
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: shift in the energy. Hours passed, Brad kept going, kept scoring.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Eric and Bud wanted no part of it. They wrangled
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Bradley into the Motorhome after the show and prayed that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: he'd cool off by the time they reached their next destination.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: When they parked at the Ocean Front Motel in San Francisco,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Eric and Sublime's manager Miguel parked themselves in bed.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: No parties, no dope.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Bud passed out in the adjacent room he was sharing
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: with Bradley, a room that he currently had to himself,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: since brad had been quick to vanish into the night
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: when he saw that his bandmates were too lame to
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: join him in some after show antics. The band didn't
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: see him again until ten am the next morning, when
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: he came rapping on the door. There were ten foot
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: waves today, he cleaned, with a childlike exuberance to put
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: down to the shore or take lou Dog.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: For a walk.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Eric rolled over and flipped him off. Miguel ignored the
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: invitation too. Next door, Bud was passed out even harder.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: If he had been invited along for the walk, he
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: hadn't heard it. He saw logs for a few more hours,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: pleasantly undisturbed. It was afternoon now and the California's sun
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: peeked through the windows and nudged but awake. He opened
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: his bleary eyes and.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Chuckled at what he saw.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Brad, half undressed, bent over the bed, feet firmly planted
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: on the ground, ass out face smushed.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Into the mattress.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: The poor bastard was too fucked up to even make
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: it under the covers. He stopped laughing when his eyes
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: wandered to the yellow phone coating his lips. A crust
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: had already formed at the corners of his mouth. Lou
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: dog whine curled up in a ball at the corner
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: of the bed. Bud frantically dialed nine one one, but
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: he knew it was too late. At twenty eight, Bradley
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Noel was dead. Sublime's success, on the other hand, had
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: suddenly never been more alive. The press coverage poured in
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: every major news outlet ran a story on Brad's near
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: twenty seven club faith, while Bud, Eric and Troy mourned
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: their best friend, Sublime fans grieved by lighting up phone lines.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Just two weeks after Brad's passing, the band's second single,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: What I Got, became the most requested.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Song on KROQ.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: The sudden surge and popularity fueled Gasoline Alley's next move.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Eric and Bud had decided to disband, but the label
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: demanded a return on their massive investment. They had sunk
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: nearly half a million dollars into Brad's recovery alone. Never
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: mind the studio time budgeting on the release schedule for
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: the new Sublime, The album meant torpedoing their budget altogether.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Sublime released their self titled album as planned on July thirtieth,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, and for almost three and a half years,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: no one could forget about it.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: It was impossible.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: The album spent one hundred and seventy nine weeks on
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the Billboard one hundred. The new hits, now known as
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the Sublime Hits, made sure that the incessant airplay of
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Santa Ria, Wrong Way and Doing Time were still moving
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: forty thousand albums a week. In the fall of nineteen
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: ninety seven, people across the country, in New England, in
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: the Deep South, in Nowhere Nebraska all fell in love.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: With new songs.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: They'd never be able to hear Brad sing live, but
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: his gospel has spread. Tragedy had that effect. Tragedy spreads
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the word around just a hair too late. California had
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: known about Brad since nineteen eighty eight, but the world
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: learned Bradley Knowle's name from his obituary and that this
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this this Disgraceland.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: And if not, you can become a member right now
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: by going to disgracelampod dot com Slash Membership. Members can
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free, Plus you'll
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: bonus episode, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com slash Membership for details,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: dot com slash at disgracelampod.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Rock a Row. He's a bad, bad man.