03/16/2026
Jakob Nowell endlessly rewatches live footage of his father performing. Partially, it’s for his job. But it’s also one of his ways to understand the man he never knew. “He just has this nature to him, the way he talks and performs up there,” Jakob observes. “He’s just having so much fun up there. Everything he did came off as effortless.” By contrast, he says, “a lot of deliberation goes into everything I do.”
Since 2024, he’s been fronting Sublime, and now he’s putting the final touches on Till the Sun Explodes, the group’s first album of original material in three decades. Both of these endeavors once seemed unthinkable to him. “I never wanted to join the band,” says Jakob, who wasn’t even a year old when his father died. “I just didn’t think it was right. “There were a lot of complicated emotions that went into it, but the timing felt right, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I wish I couldn’t just give this all back to him,” he says. “I wish it was him doing this. I feel like it’s my custodial duty.
“My dad didn’t get to play Coachella or go down and play Brazil or Japan or all these places. And I take solace in the fact that I’m not the only one who feels this way. That’s the love that binds everything together.”
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