In early 1996, the three members of Sublime — frontman Bradley Nowell , bassist Eric Wilson, and drummer Bud Gaugh — were jamming in Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio in Austin, Texas, when they broke into an improvised, half-formed song that bootleggers would later call “Eireen.” Frontman Bradley Nowell, who would die of an overdose in May of that year, wasn’t taking the song entirely seriously, adding multiple lyrics about his “anus.” But there’s a striking moment when they hit a dub-influenced groove together and Nowell lands on a catchy refrain — “let me tell you why I feel like that.
” 28 years later, a song built around that moment, “Feel Like That (featuring Bradley Nowell),” is due out Friday as the first original Sublime studio track since Nowell’s death, featuring additional vocals from both Scott Woodruff of SoCal reggae band Stick Figure and Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob Nowell , who took over as Sublime’s singer beginning with a Coachella performance this year. The song is officially credited to Sublime x Stick Figure, since Woodruff built the track from samples of that “Eireen” session. He began work on it several years ago, before the band revived itself with Jakob, after band associate Michael “Miguel” Happoldt brought him the “Eireen” multitracks.
Jakob added his vocals in January, well before the Coachella performance. “It was like, OK, now that this is coming together, why don’t we release this song, but let’s.
