Mon panier

0 Article(s) dans votre panier.

Eric Wilson

With their self-released debut album 40oz. to Freedom, Sublime quickly established a grassroots following on the California coast. With the release of their self-titled third studio album—two months after the passing of singer Bradley Nowell and the dissolution of the band—Sublime amassed worldwide fame, which persists to this day. In this episode we speak with bassist Eric Wilson about Sublime’s early days, their signature musical style, and their profound legacy. Additional topics include Eric’s bass playing, Sublime with Rome, and a new project called Spray Allen.

LISTEN:
SHARE:

Transcript

Interview with Eric Wilson of Sublime

Evan Ball: (00:17)
Hello I'm Evan Ball. Welcome to Striking a Chord, an Ernie Ball podcast. Today. We have Eric Wilson, bassist of Sublime, on the show. We talk a lot about the early days of Sublime, including their formation in Long Beach, California, their grassroots growth before Bradley Nowell's passing and then of course their massive success that followed. We also talk about what Eric is up to today with Sublime with Rome and also a new project he's got going called Spray Allen. Audio is a little rough on this one. It's remote, he's driving, but regardless, I really enjoyed this conversation. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Eric Wilson.

Evan Ball: (00:58)
Eric Wilson, welcome to the podcast.

Eric Wilson: (01:00)
How's it going?

Evan Ball: (01:01)
Going well. I'd love to start with some early background. You and Bud go way back. How early are you guys friends and then when you guys start playing music together?

Eric Wilson: (01:11)
We were friends in about seventh grade. He was in eighth grade. He moved from Lake Tahoe down to Belmont Shore in Long Beach where I grew up in. He lived across the alley from me. My dad did drum lessons in the garage and he started taking lessons. He lived right across from the alley.

Evan Ball: (01:32)
Is your dad, does he have a long history of playing drums or teaching drums?

Eric Wilson: (01:37)
Oh, yeah. My dad was like 60 when I was born. If he was alive today, he'd be over a hundred years old. He grew up during the depression and he already started playing drums in my grandfather's band. And so he got on a cruise ship during the depression and then when he got back from that, the second World War started and he joined the Coast Guard band. And then he played in the big band era and stuff. And later on, when I was born in '70, he was in the Long Beach Municipal Band, a city paid band and he just like moonlighting gigs and drum lessons in the garage and stuff.

Evan Ball: (02:20)
Wow. That's great, really cool history.

Eric Wilson: (02:23)
He retired with a pension, like city pension.

Evan Ball: (02:28)
How did Bud end up with drum lessons instead of you? Or did you take them, too?

Eric Wilson: (02:33)
Well first, my dad, he bought me a trumpet and he said, "Here, play this because you don't have to carry a bunch of drums around."

Evan Ball: (02:40)
Smart.

Eric Wilson: (02:41)
But I didn't really like the trumpet though.

Evan Ball: (02:45)
When does the bass come in?

Eric Wilson: (02:47)
Just a little bit before I met Bud, actually. I was playing guitar and my brother got an organ because he was taking guitar lessons or I mean, piano lessons and a bass guitar came with the organ. I grabbed it and started messing with it [inaudible 00:03:08] like a knockoff of a SG.

Evan Ball: (03:11)
Really. So it was some sort of package deal where the two instruments came together?

Eric Wilson: (03:15)
Yeah. But I think when they bought it, they didn't say anything about bass with it, but it just came with it. He got it out of the Recycler magazine back in the day.

Evan Ball: (03:24)
Oh, that's crazy and the rest is history. And then, you and Bud are playing in punk bands in high school, correct?

Eric Wilson: (03:33)
Yeah.

Evan Ball: (03:34)
And you have Miguel on vocals?

Eric Wilson: (03:36)
No. Miguel didn't come around until later on. We were already Sublime when he came home. We were playing at a pizza place at Cal State, Long Beach and we basically played for beer and pizza, but we started packing the place. And then, Mike came and he approached us to record some songs because he was taking a studio class at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Evan Ball: (04:05)
Bradley was already on vocals?

Eric Wilson: (04:07)
Yeah.

Evan Ball: (04:08)
How did you guys meet?

Eric Wilson: (04:11)
It was a trip. My friend, Dave [inaudible 00:04:12], this heavy metal dude, he was into the whole New York Dolls thing, but I went to a gig one time and let him use my Bass amp and he came out of the dressing room all dressed drag. That's how the New York Dolls did it you know. And that was a trip in itself, but that guy called me and he told me, "Hey man, I know this dude..." I don't know where he met him, but he said, "I know this guy that lives in Naples and I think you guys would play really good together." And I'm like [inaudible 00:04:47]. I went over there with him and then we hit it off.

Evan Ball: (04:51)
Did you say Naples?

Eric Wilson: (04:53)
Yeah.

Evan Ball: (04:53)
Is that another place in Long Beach?

Eric Wilson: (04:56)
Yeah. It's like a pretty cool neighborhood there that has like canals like Naples.

Evan Ball: (05:02)
Oh, gotcha. You're pretty much playing punk music. Is it Bradley that brings in the ska and the reggae element?

Eric Wilson: (05:09)
Yeah. He went on a trip with his dad to the Caribbean islands and learned about reggae when he was [inaudible 00:05:18] and he came back and he started showing me that stuff and I wasn't into it at first because I was into punk, but after a while, I finally opened up my horizons for all sorts of music, especially that.

Evan Ball: (05:36)
Well, that's interesting because I know you have that punk background, but I feel like you have such a niche and a knack for your style, which is more of a reggae style. Was it hard to transition over to more of a reggae style of bass playing?

Eric Wilson: (05:53)
Yeah, but I wasn't really doing anything. I was just playing some punk songs. And then I started playing like ska songs in a band with Brad called Sloppy Seconds. We played some covers like Specials and English Beat and stuff like that, Fishbone. By then, I think first Fishbone album came out

Evan Ball: (06:10)
And style wise, you felt pretty comfortable just moving right into that direction?

Eric Wilson: (06:15)
Yeah. I just started learning about it. As soon as I started liking it is when I started getting good at it.

Evan Ball: (06:22)
It's funny, I've had conversations with people trying to figure out how punk and ska first came together. I know in Northern California Operation Ivy had their own kind of mix of the two.

Eric Wilson: (06:32)
Oh yeah, they were [inaudible].

Evan Ball: (06:34)
That's around the same time. In Southern California at this time, you guys and No Doubt are in the space, but sort of in your own ways, but was there already a tradition of punk and ska going together that you remember?

Eric Wilson: (06:45)
No, maybe the closest thing would be kind of like Clash, but I wouldn't say ska. It's kind of like their own type of reggae. Bad Brains, but Bad Brains wasn't doing ska, either. They were reggae and punk, but they were doing like a reggae song and then a punk song and a metal song. They weren't like combining the two.

Evan Ball: (07:09)
You guys were at the forefront then, wouldn't you say?

Eric Wilson: (07:14)
Yeah, for sure.

Evan Ball: (07:16)
It kind of makes sense to me. If they're both genres, say punk and reggae, that are embedded in the surf culture maybe that it's just a matter of time before you get some crossover.

Eric Wilson: (07:30)
It was all new to us and we're just trying different stuff and we could put it together and it sounded really good.

Evan Ball: (07:40)
What other bands are you guys playing with in those early days?

Eric Wilson: (07:43)
We played with Social Distortion for one of the early shows when Mike Ness was on drugs.

Evan Ball: (07:53)
It sounds like he made an impression.

Eric Wilson: (07:54)
Oh, for sure. He started that whole eye makeup thing, I think, at least the Southern California thing, like Green Day kind of does it now.

Evan Ball: (08:04)
It seems like there's this real respect, like a pride with these local Long Beach bands when you guys are growing up. Like you guys, even the songs you guys cover, you cover some other local Long Beach bands.

Eric Wilson: (08:18)
Oh, yeah like [inaudible 00:08:20].

Evan Ball: (08:21)
It was a pretty tight knit scene or supportive scene.

Eric Wilson: (08:24)
Yeah, for sure. Where I live now, there's not much of a scene and there wasn't much of a scene when I left Long Beach. That's kind of why I left, but it used to be like that.

Evan Ball: (08:37)
Hey, in those early days, how determined were you guys to make playing music your livelihood? Was it something you guys were really passionate about, about making it happen?

Eric Wilson: (08:46)
Yeah, I think Brad probably thought more of the making a living [inaudible 00:08:49], but I was just having fun and I wasn't thinking how I was going to make a living, I was just living for the moment.

Evan Ball: (08:58)
But Brad was a little more determined?

Eric Wilson: (09:01)
Well, his dad had him going to business school and his dad wanted him to be a contractor. And was like, oh, I don't want to do that, I want to play music and his dad thought it was a joke that he was going to try and make a living doing that.

Evan Ball: (09:18)
I think I can speak for a lot of people of my age in saying Sublime is like the soundtrack to some of our best years in life. You guys just became such a part of the culture of the time and beyond, obviously today. But did you guys have a feeling you were onto something big? Was there any way to foresee that people are just ready for what you were doing?

Eric Wilson: (09:41)
I don't know. Whatever [inaudible 00:09:43] that we got, we thought we deserved it, but I didn't know how big it was going to get. It was when Brad passed away is when we really got big anyways. It was kind of bittersweet.

Evan Ball: (10:00)
But before that, like in the beginning, do you build up a fan base pretty quickly around the Long Beach area?

Eric Wilson: (10:06)
Oh, yeah. Long Beach, we had it locked down real quick. And then we started doing tours up the West Coast and we even did a Florida tour. And we played to nobody on the Florida tour, but we had a fan base on the West Coast and stuff. First East Coast tour was that the first Warped Tour and that was the only tour that Brad ever went on, on a bus and we shared it with another band.

Evan Ball: (10:40)
First Warped Tour, summer '95, you guys were somewhat infamously on that our. Sounds like you guys added some color to the tour for sure.

Eric Wilson: (10:47)
Oh, yeah.

Evan Ball: (10:49)
At that point, I know living in California and being tapped into the scene, I remember how influential and popular you guys were here, but what was it like across the country? Was it not evenly spread yet? You were still more of a West Coast band?

Eric Wilson: (11:03)
Yeah, pretty much, but we had played in Chicago and we won the fans over there when we played with Wesley Willis and the Fiasco. I think that was actually right before the Warped Tour. Like the Great Lakes area, we started getting a fan base, but it was ultimately the West Coast.

Evan Ball: (11:23)
Was there an official reason you guys left the Warped Tour? Was it Lou dog biting people or was it something else?

Eric Wilson: (11:29)
Yeah, well Bud and Brad were getting in fights all the time with themselves and Brad's dog bit like a pro skater, but he also bit some other guys before that. Yeah, we got thrown off.

Evan Ball: (11:48)
The peak of Sublime's commercial success obviously happened after the band broke up, but when you think back to when you were playing, is there a time or an era that you look back on most fondly?

Eric Wilson: (12:01)
Back then, actually the, what do we call it, the three ring circus. It was us, Lords of Brooklyn and Wesley Willis and the Fiasco. That was the most memorable tour.

Evan Ball: (12:16)
Why is that?

Eric Wilson: (12:18)
It was just so much fun. We were touring around with a schizophrenic, big old black dude that plays in a band with old white guys. And we just had like a bunch of experiences that we shared with those guys. It was great.

Evan Ball: (12:35)
Are there moments now or I guess in the past, when it hit you, like when you'd realize the level of impact that Sublime has had musically and even culturally?

Eric Wilson: (12:44)
Yeah. What really makes me trip out is there's like three generations, like say the mom and the daughter and the grandma are at our show, asking for an autograph or whatever-

Evan Ball: (13:00)
Wow.

Eric Wilson: (13:01)
[inaudible 00:13:02].

Evan Ball: (13:03)
That's amazing. You guys had this drive to make it, this is kind of prompted. I just revisited your documentary Stories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations. And I had seen it when it first came out, but it was really fun to watch it again. And you guys have this drive to make it, to push your music, but there's also this like very casual, some might say, even reckless way of operating. Here's a small example, in the documentary one of your managers, John Phillips, tells a story where you guys are having a meeting when you're getting signed with Gasoline Alley and you bring a bunch of beer and dogs in the office and he sort of paints this like circus scene going on in there. And you guys put a sticker on the president's car, but was there ever a worry of setting back your careers? How do those two things go together?

Eric Wilson: (13:55)
We were just kids. And we weren't even thinking about like tomorrow really. It was more like just live for the moment. We're just knucklehead kids.

Evan Ball: (14:08)
But at the same time, passionate about your careers.

Eric Wilson: (14:10)
Oh, yeah. I didn't even know what a career meant back then, really.

Evan Ball: (14:17)
Well, if you guys acted too professionally, you'd be something else, something different from what Sublime genuinely was. Let's talk about your bass playing a little bit. We mentioned it a little bit. Do you ever play with a pick in like some of the more punk stuff?

Eric Wilson: (14:33)
No.

Evan Ball: (14:33)
You've always just used your fingers?

Eric Wilson: (14:35)
Yeah, I can't keep track of picks, so why bother.

Evan Ball: (14:39)
That's true.

Eric Wilson: (14:40)
I just learned how to play with my fingers just as well. Some bass players I really dig the way like Mike Watt or Randy Bradbury, Pennywise or a bunch of guys use a pick on punk songs and it's great, but I never really messed with it.

Evan Ball: (15:02)
How about if someone wanted to get an Eric Wilson bass sound, are there any tips, like EEQ settings, equipment or anything that come to mind?

Eric Wilson: (15:12)
Pretty much just, to get a good, low end bass sound for reggae, I use active pickups and then it gives it more of a boost and I just put all the knobs up on the bass and just to turn everything in the middle pretty much turn it up [inaudible 00:15:37] before someone starts getting mad about it.

Evan Ball: (15:42)
Nice. Do you have a main bass right now?

Eric Wilson: (15:44)
Yeah, it's a [inaudible 00:15:46]. It's one of those handmade jobs that's like a knockoff handmade of the Fender P bass.

Evan Ball: (15:56)
Oh, okay. Hey, how do your songs usually get written? In the past, would you or Bradley bring an idea to band practice and then you guys flesh it out from there?

Eric Wilson: (16:07)
Yeah or someone will come up with like... Like Brad would usually come up with some lyrics and a couple of chord changes and then we'll just work on structure. Put the song together and also sometimes we'd used like a Doctor Rhythm Drum Machine, take that to the table and then go off of that. The best music is always when you have brotherhood and then also when you collaborate with the brotherhood.

Evan Ball: (16:39)
Well, I was wondering loose your songs were arrangement wise. It's got that vibe when you play live, but then you guys always nail the changes and land the ending. Sometimes like in the old videos, it seems like you and Bud are holding it down, bass and drums, and you sort of give Bradley some latitude to express himself in the moment and a little more freedom. Does that sounded about right?

Eric Wilson: (17:09)
Yeah. Sounds about right.

Evan Ball: (17:11)
Hey, where did you guys practice originally?

Eric Wilson: (17:13)
Well, we used to practice at Bud's house in Lakewood a long time ago. And then there's a bunch of like a rehearsal places in the Long Beach area [inaudible 00:17:24] and stuff like that, wherever they'd let us.

Evan Ball: (17:27)
How written or worked out are the songs usually when you get into the studio?

Eric Wilson: (17:31)
The studio as in the recording studio?

Evan Ball: (17:33)
Yeah, for recording studio, is everything pretty much nailed down or do you do a lot of the-

Eric Wilson: (17:37)
It varies, but a lot of it we'd work out at practice and other times we'd just do it right there on the spot.

Evan Ball: (17:45)
Speaking of studio, just your self titled Sublime album, your third album, the reports are that it wasn't the most sober of recording sessions, but by the sounds of it, it sounds so well executed. Was it hard to get those takes in the studio?

Eric Wilson: (18:04)
Well, we had Paul Leary was the producer, the guitar player of the Butthole Surfers and he really brought out the best of us. He would make sure that everything was at its very best and he's really easy to work with.

Evan Ball: (18:23)
Who's the most critical in the studio? Is there's someone who's really more likely to make sure you get the takes?

Eric Wilson: (18:29)
Paul Leary.

Evan Ball: (18:33)
Nice. Do you have a favorite album that you've ever done?

Eric Wilson: (18:36)
I think maybe like Robbin' the Hood. I don't know. I think the best recorded album was the self titled, the best quality and all that, but Robbin' the Hood is fun.

Evan Ball: (18:47)
Were you already signed when Robbin' the Hood was recorded?

Eric Wilson: (18:50)
No, we had a distributor back then. I can't remember the name, though. They were fronting the money for us to get more made, the CDs or maybe it was cassettes, then. And so we didn't have to worry about coming up with the cash. They would just front it to us and we'd pay them back. We were seeling them out of our trunk of our car. And the record companies, they had to sign us. Like you were saying how the record companies, we'd go to their meetings and stuff like a joke. We were already doing it on our own. We made it hard for them at the same time.

Evan Ball: (19:30)
That's true. You do go in with some leverage if you already have that much success on your own. Well, I remember-

Eric Wilson: (19:37)
It was a West Coast success. It wasn't like worldwide by far.

Evan Ball: (19:43)
Maybe Robbin' the Hood's your favorite. Do you have a favorite Sublime with Rome album?

Eric Wilson: (19:48)
The last one that we did. It did really good. And the next one that we're going to make the fall.

Evan Ball: (19:55)
Have you started that?

Eric Wilson: (19:57)
We've been throwing some ideas around. I think it's going to be really good because we've been playing together really well and everybody's in the right space, seems like.

Evan Ball: (20:09)
That's great. How did you meet Rome Ramirez?

Eric Wilson: (20:13)
[inaudible 00:20:13] I was playing drums in a psychedelic band called Stone Wing. And the guy that played drums or the guy that played bass, owned the studio and he was recording at the time Rome's girlfriend's band or not her band, but her solo thing. He was at the studio and he was this huge Sublime fan and he wanted to play some Sublime songs. We started jamming together and shit.

Evan Ball: (20:42)
What a fortunate coincidence.

Eric Wilson: (20:44)
He was really good. He is really good, what am I saying.

Evan Ball: (20:49)
What was it about him that made such an impression?

Eric Wilson: (20:52)
I don't know. It was flawless. I could just close my eyes. It sounded like Brad was there.

Evan Ball: (21:02)
Oh, that's so cool. Let's take a quick break and come back and talk about the present.

Evan Ball: (21:07)
Checkout Ernie Ball's new VP junior tuner pedal, the perfect two and one pedal combining Ernie Ball's world-renowned super rugged volume pedal with a super fast and accurate chromatic tuner with an enhanced definition touch screen. Available in silver, red, white, and black. Visit ernieball.com to learn more.

Evan Ball: (21:28)
Let's talk about the present. We're obviously in a weird time where there's not much live music happening, but what is life like right now and what projects are you involved in?

Eric Wilson: (21:39)
I'm recording a band called Spray Allen. Two guys from New York [inaudible 00:21:46] singer is Danny Lonner and the guitar player's Eric Sherman. And they're from a band called Late Night Episode. They were getting really big and then they had broke up. Then I met them through the pro skater Danny Way. And then, Wade Youman, the drummer for, what was it, Unwritten Law, he lives like pretty close to me. And so we got together. Actually, Wade introduced me to the two guys in the band, Eric and Lonner through Danny Way.

Eric Wilson: (22:26)
And then we started recording and I asked them if they don't want to stay at my house because they were kind of just couch surfing at the time. That was before the pandemic thing and then it was locked down, we were locked down in the house. And so we just started recording and coming up with amazing songs. We're going to Sonic Ranch. I don't know if you've heard of that place, but it's in El Paso, Texas. We were just going to retrack all the stuff that has the live drums because I don't really have that great of a studio. We did some stuff that sounds really good because it has the drum machine, but the live drums just don't sound that good. And so we're going to have Paul Leary, the producer that produced the self titled album, produce it. I got him out of retirement [inaudible 00:23:21].

Evan Ball: (23:26)
Oh, nice.

Eric Wilson: (23:26)
He's stoked. And then Stu's a bass player. He plays for Matisyahu, but his band is called Dub Trio and he has more effects pedals than any guitar player I've ever seen, but he plays bass, but he uses them really right. He's been teaching me stuff. I met him with Sublime with Rome. We've been playing shows the last few years with Matisyahu and we became really good friends. And so we sent like the songs that have the drum machine stuff on it over to him and he produced it. It's super amazing. I can send you a couple of songs.

Evan Ball: (24:09)
I'd love to hear it. Just reiterate, you said it's called Spray Allen, right?

Eric Wilson: (24:14)
Yeah.

Evan Ball: (24:15)
Is this a widely known term, Spray Allen?

Eric Wilson: (24:19)
You might want to Google it. I don't know if you want-

Evan Ball: (24:23)
I just did. I had never heard that before.

Eric Wilson: (24:31)
I never did either, but I think a guitar player, Eric Sherman, found it and we used it and then we fell in love with it.

Evan Ball: (24:39)
Nice. How many guys were in the band?

Eric Wilson: (24:42)
Four. And then Gabe, he's from No Doubt and he plays with Sublime with Rome and he was over here. He's he lives in Norway now, but he was just here for a couple of weeks and I got B3 at my house and it's about time I got some good use out of it with him and then he plays the trombone on a bunch of stuff, too.

Evan Ball: (25:06)
What kind of music is it?

Eric Wilson: (25:07)
It's a little different. I don't know. It's sort of like Graham Parson meets... Shit, [inaudible 00:25:16] it's like some classic rock stuff, but then it's got like a electronic music thing to it, too. And like, none of the songs sound the same, they're all a lot different.

Evan Ball: (25:29)
Oh man. I'm really intrigued now.

Eric Wilson: (25:29)
There's so many different songs. I just have to say it's alternative.

Evan Ball: (25:34)
Cool. And then Sublime with Rome. You said you guys are going to get in the studio pretty soon.

Eric Wilson: (25:39)
Yeah. We're doing a fall tour and then as soon as we get back from that, we're going to start recording again.

Evan Ball: (25:47)
Is the tour still on at this point or do you just kind of have to assume it is until it's not?

Eric Wilson: (25:51)
Well, the first show is for Juarez, Mexico. And by then, it should be opened up, I think in August or something. I'm thinking it's going to be cool by then.

Evan Ball: (26:07)
Well, you've obviously already done so much in your career. What do you want your future to look like?

Eric Wilson: (26:15)
Just what I'm doing is cool. I'll probably [inaudible 00:26:18] until I die.

Evan Ball: (26:21)
Life is good. That's great.

Eric Wilson: (26:22)
Yeah. I don know. I get bored when there's nothing to do, really.

Evan Ball: (26:26)
I'm going to ask a random one since I just rewatched that Stories, Tales, Lies and Exaggeration, did Denny's ever come after you guys for unloading the bus sewage at their back door?

Eric Wilson: (26:35)
Nope. [inaudible 00:26:39].

Evan Ball: (26:40)
Maybe they were just flattered to be in the video.

Eric Wilson: (26:42)
It's probably lik statue of limitations now.

Evan Ball: (26:46)
You're you're in the clear, for sure. Are you more passionate about playing live shows or creating new music?

Eric Wilson: (26:52)
I like playing live shows, but I like playing in smaller venues. And when we play 10,000 or whatever or 5,000, whatever, I don't know, it's not the same as when you're playing in like a club where you can actually see the people, faces and stuff. It's really cool creating new music, too, and playing it for people, getting feedback and stuff.

Evan Ball: (27:18)
I need to ask you before I forget. What kind of bass strings do you play?

Eric Wilson: (27:21)
Ernie Ball, of course.

Evan Ball: (27:24)
Nice. What gauge are you playing?

Eric Wilson: (27:26)
105's.

Evan Ball: (27:26)
The 50 to 105? Or 45 to 105?

Eric Wilson: (27:30)
50.

Evan Ball: (27:31)
50s, okay. The regular slinky.

Eric Wilson: (27:33)
I just got a care package from you guys. I was so stoked [inaudible 00:27:36].

Evan Ball: (27:37)
Beautiful, nice. How's quarantine life been for you?

Eric Wilson: (27:42)
Well, like I said, I just been recording and stuff [inaudible 00:27:46] pretty much. For a lot of people, it's been terrible and I feel bad for everybody. We have a bunch of guitars that my friend donated and I'm signing them and I've got to find out the info on that, we're going to sell them on some websites and donate the money to roadies that need the money. Our roadies don't need it because they're getting paid pandemic leave or whatever you want to call it. The guitar player of [inaudible 00:28:24] hit us up about it. And so I thought it was a great idea. He just wanted me to find something that I could sign on. I found eight guitars. I'm actually feeling really good about that.

Evan Ball: (28:38)
Yeah, that's great.

Eric Wilson: (28:39)
And then Sublime, we just did a show. We set up on my porch because I have an avocado ranch and we don't have any neighbors really, so we can do it out here. We have a full video crew and we did a live stream and the proceeds went to some benefit for people affected by the pandemic.

Evan Ball: (29:05)
We're selling a few guitars in our site to support the same thing.

Eric Wilson: (29:08)
Cool. Let me know if I can do anything.

Evan Ball: (29:12)
Your audio just got so much clearer like 30 seconds ago.

Eric Wilson: (29:15)
I just got home. Sorry about that.

Evan Ball: (29:19)
No problem. Well, hey, how should people stay in touch with what you're doing? What you're up to with your different bands and projects?

Eric Wilson: (29:26)
Well, we're going to have some website pretty soon, but you got to understand, I was born in 1970 and I remember like my friends' phone numbers still. I've never been much for Facebook or anything, but Sublime with Rome has a website and I'm sure Spray Allen will have one soon.

Evan Ball: (29:49)
Look that up.

Eric Wilson: (29:54)
We only played a couple of bars before the pandemic, when I first got together with these guys [inaudible 00:29:58]. We got to play some shows. We don't have no fans or nothing, just some songs.

Evan Ball: (30:07)
Well, I'm intrigued, for sure. I can't wait to hear that. Eric Wilson, thanks for being on the podcast.

Eric Wilson: (30:13)
Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Evan Ball: (30:15)
Thanks again for tuning in to Ernie Ball's Striking a Chord podcast. As a longtime Sublime fan, big thanks to Eric Wilson for doing the interview. He's got lots of new, exciting things coming up. Looking forward to that. If you'd like to get ahold of us, please email [email protected].