10 Fun Facts About Sublime's Self Titled Album

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Did you know that Sublime's Self Titled album almost had a different title and cover? Or that one of the songs includes a take where Bradley sang the wrong lyrics? What about the famous actor who was bitten by Lou Dog during the filming of a music video? Stick around and we'll answer these questions and more. On...

10 Fun Facts About Sublime's Self Titled Album

1. Tragedy

Sublime's self-titled album met with monumental success, reaching the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and spending over 3 years on Billboard charts. However, singer and songwriter Bradley Nowell would not be around to enjoy any of the album's success because he unfortunately passed away of a drug overdose on May 25, 1996 in a San Francisco hotel room while the band was on tour, just two months before the release of the album. He was only 28 years old.

2. Killin It

Sublime's self-titled album was originally planned to be called Killin It but this title was changed following singer Bradley Nowell's passing as it was determined that it would be in bad taste. It's also hard to imagine the album cover with anything other than Bradley's iconic back tattoo.

But what does mine say?

Sub-lim-e!

3. Friends Don't Let Friends Get Stomach Tattoos

Speaking of the popular Sublime tattoo, Bradley originally wanted to have it done on his stomach. However, his artist Opie Ortiz suggested that he get it on his back because nobody would see a stomach tattoo if it was always going to be hidden behind a guitar.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say what everyone else is probably thinking at this point but a big "thank you" to Opie Ortiz for saving us from the possibility of an album cover featuring a stomach tattoo. No offense to Bradley or his stomach but I do agree that getting the tattoo across his shoulders was a much better choice.

4. No Bozos

The popular album cover for Sublime's self-titled album featuring singer Bradley Nowell's tattoo is actually a photograph taken by tattoo artist Opie Ortiz after he finished working on the piece for Bradley. It's not uncommon at all for a tattoo artist to take a photograph of the finished work. However, very few of such photos end up becoming iconic album covers.

The original album cover was supposed to feature the slobbish clown watching TV in his underwear. However, this piece was moved inside the CD booklet when the band decided to go with Opie's photo in honor of Brad after his passing.

"The original album art for Self Titled, it was an idea that we were gonna do this clown sitting in a chair, and it's like a fat clown. He's relaxing in his lounge chair with his drugs or whatever looking out the window and that was gonna be the album art...

And then what happened with Brad's passing is we had changed it to the picture that I'd tooken of the tattoo with the floral border pattern and then we moved the clown to the inside of the cd jacket." - Opie Ortiz, Sublime (Behind The Cover), TheofficialSublime, YouTube (Jul 30, 2021) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzzFDHKtjQw

Sources:

Sublime (Behind The Cover), TheofficialSublime, YouTube (Jul 30, 2021) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzzFDHKtjQw

Bradley Knowell: Life After Death, Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone (Dec 25, 1997) - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bradley-nowell-life-after-death-250120/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caress_Me_Down

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santeria_(song)