Ever since Brad Nowell was a little boy it was obvious that he was musically inclined. Him and his dad would always play guitar and sing together. He grew up on Long Beach, California. Before music was his main priority he was just a regular guy who enjoyed surfing and partying. He was always a good kid, smart and everything, but then his parents got divorced, and he lived with his mom until he moved back to California with his dad in 1981. At that age (13) he started his own band "Hogan's Heroes". It was just a play for fun band that had no intentions of making it big time. As a kid he was also prescribed with ADD, and his drug addiction was later blamed the Ritalin he had to take for his ADD.

                Even though Hogan's Heroes didn't last long, Brad knew that he wanted to perform music for a living. With that out in the open, a friend of his introduced him to his future band mates. The three of them immediately clicked and had already enjoyed the same types of music. They then chose the name sublime. They wanted to represent the southern California city's culture. 

                   Now with his new band mates Brad was determined to be a famous musician. So he immediately tried to act like any rock star he'd ever seen. Back then it happened to be that all the stars he admired did drugs. He started doing minor drugs monthly, then every weekend, and then daily. Soon he was addicted to heroin, and was doing it everyday, all the time. It was said that Brad was his happiest when he was on heroin. He didn't even bother to think about the risk and it was completely taking over his life. He actually tried rehab twice, and once he was out he would think he should reward himself for being good. He'd reward him self and get right back on his addiction. 

                   Brad married Troy sometime in the middle of May 1996. They had a son Jacob. Troy said she loved Brad because her parents were drug addicts, and she was used to being around drug addicts. She said "They are like puppies, They need to be taken care of." She also mentioned she liked taking care of people. Very sadly, 7 days after he married Troy he died from a heroin overdose, only 11 months after his son was born as well. He died in a motel because the heroin was much stronger than what he was used to. He was found at 11:30 by a friend. Friends and fans were crushed to see such a talented person go. Sublimes true success didn't come until after his death.