It’s the end of an era for Sublime with Rome, and lead singer Rome Ramirez admits it’s bittersweet.
“We’re not always fortunate enough to know when the end of something is happening, [but] we know that there is an end date for this,” Ramirez, 35, told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview. “It really is a special kind of energy and moment when you’re like, dang, this is like going to be the last time that I’m going to be hearing the music in this form.”
“It’s been really emotional, powerful, fun and exciting,” he continued, “but you can’t help but really feel that kind of energy in the room.”
Sublime has undergone several mutations over the years. The original ska band — known for classic hits including “Santeria”, “What I Got” and more — was founded by Bradley Nowell, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh in 1988. Following Nowell’s 1996 death, Ramirez began performing with Wilson and Gaugh in 2009 as Sublime before ultimately adding his name to the marquee.
The band has fractured in recent years, however. Ramirez is now hitting the road as Sublime with Rome for The Farewell Tour while Wilson and Gaugh are performing with Nowell’s son, Jakob Nowell, under the original name Sublime.
Ramirez spoke candidly about what led to his decision to go his own way following 15 years in the band he grew up idolizing. “We’ve all changed. Especially myself, I’m a married man with three children now,” he shared, noting the band agreed to a split last summer while on tour. “Some of the decisions from Eric’s lifestyle were really clashing with my lifestyle to the point where I couldn’t even bring my children around.”
“[There were] a lot of these conflicting sort of ideologies that were going on in my head,” Ramirez continued. “On the flip side of that, my loyalty is to Sublime — and to Eric — because without them I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”
For his part, Ramirez harbors no resentment for the way things unfolded. “It’s great that they got Bradley’s son in there now,” he told Us. “Sublime was still very much relevant today as it was 10 years ago, and I do think that Jakob, Bud and Eric deserve that chance to go on stage and go show the world with Bradley’s son. I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s cool.”
Despite rumors of a feud between Ramirez and Jakob, the frontman was congratulatory toward the younger Nowell, He recalled talking to the 28-year-old after learning that Jakob would lead Sublime going forward. “I told him, ‘Dude, your dad [was the] biggest idol of my life, man. I wouldn’t even be a singer if it wasn’t for your pops,’ you know?” Ramirez recounted. “I had to give him his flowers on just being related to just the musical royalty.”
During that phone call, the musicians talked business — “It was us figuring out like, ‘Okay, what’s this whole thing going to look like? How many concerts are you guys playing? How many concerts are we going to play? What are you going to tell people? Are you going to be mean to me?” — and Ramirez feels the two ended things on a good note.
“We got off the phone and it was awesome,” Ramirez shared. “Then he did an interview, and he was being really mean to me. I’m like, I don’t know what I did. I thought it was a cool call.”
Ramirez acknowledges that he and Jakob look at things from two different perspectives. “This is his father’s band. It’s way different. He hears the songs, and I can’t even [know] what that feeling is [like],” he said. “Whereas for me, it was always like, ‘Dude, I’m doing this with Sublime. This is crazy. This is my favorite band.’”
Ramirez told Us there’s no hard feelings — in fact, he’s sending Jakob good vibes. “No matter what he says about me, I still have just absolute admiration for what he’s trying to do with the music,” he shared. “I believe that he will find his stride and it’ll be successful.”
With the tour underway, Ramirez is focusing on closing out this chapter and starting a new one with his own solo work. “I got a bunch of awesome music that I’ve been working on, and now I wake up [and] write the music I want to write,” he shared. “It’s what I always wanted. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to live this life of music, but this is the first time where it’s been my thing.”
“With Sublime [with Rome], I made a very conscious effort to give it my everything and now that my tenure with the band is coming to its end, that whole focus and energy that was going to that project is now just going to be siphoned right into myself,” he added. “I have absolutely no clue what’s gonna happen. But I’m not scared — I’m excited.”
Tickets for Sublime with Rome’s The Farewell Tour are available now.
