05.25.1996

May 25 1996

Bradley James Nowell dies of an accidental overdose on heroin at the Oceanside Motel in San Francisco CA at the age of 28.

Oceanside Motel

From Bud Gaugh's Website:

"SUBLIME played a show in Chino, CA where the promoter offered us a veritable smorgasborg of every drug under the sun- Brad came to me and said he wanted to "party just one more time." I told Brad it wasn't worth it, but after our show in Petaluma Brad & I got a hotel room on the beach outside of San Francisco. Brad tried to convince me we had all the reasons to party & it was worth celebrating, "We owe it to ourselves," I can remember him telling me. It was 2:00 am & I declined, falling asleep, Brad left to go walk on the beach with Lou Dog. When I woke up the next morning, I saw my best friend, naked, laying on the bed with his feet on the floor. I remember laughing, thinking he had gotten so drunk the night before he couldn't make it into bed, but when I got no response from him I got up to see what was going on, and that's when the world came to a screeching halt. I tried to resuscitate him, but he had been dead for hours. I began crying out loud for help, ran down stairs & down the road looking for the rest of the guys. This was the worse news I ever had to deliver in my life. After being interviewed by the police I was told by the EMTs that he had been gone for hours and there was nothing I could do. This was the longest bus ride of all of our lives."