SAN DIEGO — With or without his degree in creative writing, Jakob Nowell would find it challenging to concoct a backstory even half as intriguing and unlikely as his own life and his tragedy-to-rock-stardom trajectory.

The 30-year-old singer, guitarist and songwriter will perform Saturday at the 2025 edition of the three-day Mission Bayfest with Sublime, the Long Beach ska, reggae and punk-rock band his late father co-founded in 1988.

Bullied and ostracized while growing up in San Diego’s Pacific Beach — “I had very poor social skills” — Nowell began drinking and using drugs before he became a teenager. He was kicked out of La Jolla High School at 17 for fighting.

But before he was expelled and moved to Long Beach, where his grandparents live, Nowell found a vital form of solace. And it did not come from music, but from what he calls “a beacon of light” that began to shine when he became a voracious reader as a kid. Books by Ray Bradbury, Joseph Campbell, Anne Rice, Darren O’Shaughnessy and others helped him feel like there was a place in the world for troubled outsiders like him who experienced great difficulty fitting in.

“Campbell’s collected works, ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces,’ was the hugest inspiration to me,” said Nowell, who has been sober since 2017.

“And his use of the ‘monomyth’ to describe a heroic journey for transformational adventures made me realize my situation was not that terminally unique or uncommon. And it made me realize that we need to interact with myths, otherwise we crumble as people and we feel sad and depressed. I think that’s the real root cause of all of these illnesses in day-to-day life; we don’t have any great American myth that is accepted upon and interacted with.”

After relocating to Long Beach in his late teens, Nowell worked various day jobs. He majored in creative writing and minored in mythology at Long Beach State University, despite never having graduated from high school or earning a GED. In 2013, Nowell played his first gig as the lead singer in the rock band Law.

A self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, he spent eight years in Law before debuting his solo project, Jakobs Castle, which will launch a new tour in Bakersfield on Nov. 6. That tour starts barely two weeks after the conclusion of Sublime’s extended summer and fall tour, which concludes Saturday at Mission Bayfest.

It’s been two years since Nowell became the lead singer in Sublime, the same band once headed by his late father, Bradley Nowell. Jakob was just 11 months old when his dad died of an accidental heroin overdose in 1996. Bradley Nowell was 28 and on the cusp of major stardom.

His death came two months before the release of Sublime’s self-titled third album. It went on to sell more than 10 million copies and helped make his father a posthumous legend.

Having devoted a decade to his own music, Jakob Nowell felt up to the task when Sublime co-founders Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson invited him to collaborate with them in late 2023. They had teamed up in 2009 with former San Diego singer Rome Ramirez in a reconstituted iteration of Sublime that — following a legal challenge from Bradley Nowell’s estate — changed its name to Sublime with Rome.

Gaugh quit that band in 2011, followed by Wilson in early 2024. After a late-2023 Los Angeles gig as Sublime with Jakob Nowell — who refers to Gaugh and Wilson as his uncles — the new/old Sublime earned enthusiastic praise for its performance at the 2024 Coachella festival in Indio.

‘Ensenada’ tops charts

Several tours have followed since then. In 2026, Sublime will release “Till the Sun Explodes,” the group’s first new album in 30 years. It follows the trio’s recent chart-topping single, “Ensenada,” which became the first Sublime song since “What I Got” in 1996 to reach No. 1.

For Jakob Nowell, performing that song and such Sublime favorites as “Santeria,” “Badfish” and “Smoke Two Joints” in concert alongside Gaugh and Wilson feels like a near-perfect fit.

“I’m not the entertainer my father was,” Nowell stressed.

“That being said, I’ve really rehearsed a long, long time and I think I’m no slouch. I think I’m at a level where I can do things that that my father didn’t do as an entertainer. But you cannot eclipse myth. You know, he’s mythological. He’s legendary. You can’t outshine that, so why join the band? You’re never going to do better.”

While some well-intentioned fans have praised him for bringing something new or different to Sublime’s music, Nowell is quick to disagree.

“I kind of hate on people who say: ‘Oh, you put your own spin (on the music) up there.’ No. I really don’t try to,” he said. “When people tell me that I’m putting my own spin on it, I feel like I’m essentially failing. I’m trying really hard to emulate that style (of my father’s), because this is my job — I was hired to do that — and I want to do my job really well, because I’m an entertainer.

“That’s it. I’m a professional. And yes, there’s a spiritual and emotional component. But I set that aside. There’s something more important here at stake. And anyway, we’re not (expletive) curing cancer either. This is just, you know, rock and roll music. But I’m gonna do it the best I can. And, well, obviously, it’s worked out pretty well.”

The Nowell-led Sublime also headlined last year’s edition of Mission Bayfest. This year’s lineup will feature more than 30 bands and solo artists, with San Diego’s Slightly Stoopid headlining on Friday, Sublime on Saturday and Rebelution on Sunday. The roster of performers also includes veteran English reggae mainstays Steel Pulse, rapper KRS-One, a DJ set by Chromeo and — on Sunday — former Sublime replacement singer Rome.

“Having Sublime play at Bayfest in 2024 was a full-circle moment for me,” said festival founder Mike Beltran. “I had seen Sublime here in San Diego when I was 16 at Soma Live in 1995 with a then little-known band called No Doubt. Then, 29 years later, I produced their first show back in San Diego with the original members and Bradley’s son Jakob Nowell as the front man.

“When Jake took over as the front man of Sublime, it was a pivotal moment for the American reggae music scene. Because those fans who were never able to see them live could now have the opportunity to. Jake’s charisma, wit and youthful energy really light up the stage when Sublime performs. He grew up in San Diego and still maintains that ‘local San Diegan glow’ we all have. I cannot say enough great things about Jake and I can easily describe him in two words: ‘San Diego.’”

Nowell recently spoke with The San Diego Union-Tribune for more than an hour from his Long Beach home. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What is the role of music in your life?

A: It’s my job. And it’s a really good job to have.

Q: What was it like for you growing up in San Diego?

A: Well, there’s a lot to love, man. But to tell you the truth, I had a horrible time growing up. It really sucked. I hated being young, I didn’t get along with anybody around me. I was constantly feeling ostracized. That’s the truth of it. Nowadays, when I go back to San Diego, it’s nostalgic and wonderful, and I appreciate so much of that amazing city. I liked it back then, too, but I was sort of a misfit.

Q: If you don’t mind my asking, why were you ostracized?

A: My social skills were poor. I was poorly socialized as a kid. It seemed as though everybody else was given this manual on how to handle life and I had never gotten my copy in the mail. It was really, really hard for me to interact with and get along with anybody. That’s what pushed me to being a creative type like people tend to in those situations. Kids tend to recede into their own worlds … Oh, it was the worst, dude. Getting bullied sucks. Getting left out of things sucks. I definitely, growing up, felt like I was not made to fit into the mold.

Q: Growing up here and being bullied and ostracized, was music kind of a beacon of light for you?

A: No, not really.

Q: So, what was music for you growing up?

A: Well, it’s always been the family business, man. I mean, it was more something to — I don’t know — it’s kind of personal. I don’t want to cry…

Q: Was there a particular band, album, or song where a light bulb went off, and you thought this is something you wanted to do?

A: Yeah, when I watched Tenacious D for the first time, and the band Gorillaz.

Q: Both of those bands have a pronounced sense of humor, although Jack Black in Tenacious D is very different from Damon Albarn in Gorillaz. What appealed to you about what those two do?

A: Escapism. I’ve always been more of a writer. To me, my beacon of light was finding like-minded people through their art and the hints and subtle references they put in their art. That could be in cartoons, video games, books, television shows, movies and, yes, music. So, when I heard certain things in music (that spoke to me), I was like: “Wow, I’m an alien who’s stranded on a foreign rock here, but there’s this weak signal being transmitted — which I am barely able to pick up on — that there might be more people like me out there.” Music became the thing artists did to try to hopefully reach people and for me to transmit my own signal for the other lost aliens out there.

Q: A.J. Croce, the son of singer-songwriter Jim Croce, was not yet 2 years old when his dad died in a plane crash. A.J. signed a record deal when he was 19, but refused to play songs by his dad because he wanted to be judged on his own musical merits, even if it meant a lot fewer people would hear him. How much do you relate to that?

A: Here’s a good, interesting topic. Yeah, there are many different schools of thought. Let me start off by saying that I always wondered if a lot of my ‘differentness’ and ‘alienness’ growing up can be attributed to the fact my dad died before I could really get to know him. I had other male role models in my life. My stepdad is a great man, and my grandfather — my dad’s dad — is also like my father. So, I had fathers around. But missing my dad was always like missing his piece of me, right?

I figured one day when I met other kids in my similar situation. what do they call them? ‘Nepo kids,’ which implies you were given some kind of leg up. For the first 28 years of my life, I was not given any special leg up on account of my Sublime relation. I thought I’d find common ground with other kids who had lost someone important in their life. But it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every one of the kids in that scenario has a totally different take on it. And there was something beautiful in that, but it was sort of jarring and shocking.

I was like: “Really? None of you guys feel exactly the same way I do? And what way do I feel about it?” Well, it changes over time. It’s a very large and complicated emotional issue and I’m not incredibly emotionally intelligent. I’m always not exactly sure what the hell I am feeling. And people come up to you before you even have a chance to think: “Hey, I really should feel something.”

Q: Can you elaborate?

A: You are 6 years old, and someone sits down and says: “How are you doing, Jakob? Are you tripping about your dad? Are you gonna start your own band? Oh, man, I bet you do! And you’re gonna want it to be your own thing and not be influenced by anything else, or you’ll be living in a big shadow.” All these are preconceived notions that other people are bringing to the table.

If my dad was nobody, you probably wouldn’t think about it in these terms as much. So, it does change a lot. You start thinking: “Wait, am I supposed to distinguish myself?” If my dad was nobody, you probably wouldn’t think about it in these terms as much. And then you start resenting (the expectations), and you think: “I’m going to do something that’s the exact opposite.”

If nepotism were a thing in my life, how come all my other bands (before Sublime) didn’t get any exposure? People were just dying for me to join my father’s (former band) and that’s something I didn’t want to do, but for my own reasons. My own reasons were that I just didn’t want to tarnish the name of my dad and his band, and that’s not like false humility.

These are complicated thoughts and feelings. The truth of the matter is you want (your art) to be your own, because that would give you some sense of pride. If you were able to get just as big as your famous forebearer, that’ll mean that you were talented enough, just like anybody else, to make it on your own accord. But that (stuff) is a (expletive) fantasy. It’s a fiction. It doesn’t really happen.

It would be disingenuous to just jump in and say: “Yes, I’m this Sublime guy.” But it would be disingenuous to completely ignore it for the rest of my life, too. So, I try to take a middle ground. I have my projects (outside Sublime), my Jakobs Castle band, my record label and that sort of thing. And when I’m up there on stage with Sublime, I just try to genuinely be appreciative of where I came from.

Q: Was it easy or difficult to pivot from playing smaller venues with your own band to playing at Coachella and other big festivals with Sublime?

A: I had done big stages and big crowds on my own. Now, they’re much bigger and more frequently with Sublime, of course. And I think you feel like you’ve been deflowered or even soiled. You know, your first time wasn’t how it’s supposed to be. You go and play Coachella, and there’s this melancholy feeling of like: “Well, I’ve always dreamed to play here on the big stage, but I wanted to be performing the material that I had emotional connections with that I wrote, that was my work.”

It didn’t go that way. I’m not even saying that’s bad or good, or whatever. That’s just what happened. So, there comes a crossroads in everyone’s life when you come to accept the name that you were given and who you were born as, or you choose to entirely reject it. Some people do that and go off and live completely different lives, and that’s fine and beautiful. That’s certainly an option. But for me, I chose (Sublime). This was like a huge deal that I chose that. I am Jakob Nowell. And I’m (expletive) proud to be Bradley Nowell’s son, because he was a great man who inspired people.

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SAN DIEGO BAYFEST

When: 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17; noon Saturday and Sunday

Where: Mariner’s Point Park, 1215 Mariners Way, Mission Beach, San Diego

Tickets:$338.95 (three-day pass); $1,165.35 (three-day VIP pass).

Online: bayfestsd.com

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