Sublime bassist Eric Wilson interviewed Wednesday, October 13, 2010.

What’s going on, Eric?

How’s it going?

Pretty good. What’s happening today?

Not much, just getting the dog ready to fly on Tuesday out to Virginia for the beginning of a tour.

You’re getting a dog ready to fly?

Yeah, getting some shots.

Where are you?

I’m in Long Beach.

(talks to the vet)

Is this a good time to visit?

Um, yeah.

Let’s jump right into this thing. Talk about being back at it with Sublime.

It’s great. It’s like I have my life back. I kind of forgot how much fun it is to play those songs with my good friends. I’m very fortunate to find somebody to actually play up to par. The chemistry clicks pretty much like it did with Brad. He’s the first person I’ve run into in all these years that can actually play guitar and sing like that. I’m very thankful for that.

You’re about to hit the road for an extensive tour. Do you still get the same level of excitement and anticipation for a tour like this as you did 15, 16 years ago?

Oh yeah, for sure. Back then we were selling our CDs out of the trunk of our car pretty much. We only did one tour in a bus with Brad, that was like the first Warped Tour and we had to share the bus with another band so it’s a whole different level. My anticipation and stuff is really there.

I imagine for many years you had an empty feeling and now there must be a feeling of contentment being back on stage as Sublime and playing the songs from back in the day.

Yeah. And being able to play it with three people is the thing I haven’t been able to do till now. We’ve gotta get the power trio going and it makes it a lot easier for writing songs and playing a lot tighter. The more members, the more of a mess it can be. I learned that. We started out as a trio and I’m just glad to be back doing that again.

The first band that comes to mind that’s dealing with a similar resurrection is Alice In Chains. They’ve already released a new record with their new singer. How bizarre was it to begin the process of writing a new record with Rome?

I already knew that he was very skilled at writing songs. He doesn’t write songs like Brad, but he’s not trying to. He did a song with Dirty Heads awhile back that’s up for a Grammy right now. I’m really confident in him. I already know some of the songs that we started recording. He’s a great songwriter. He definitely has a gift.

Describe some of this music that you guys have been writing together. Is it the same vein as Sublime or does it have a different twist to it?

One thing I noticed, before we got together with Bud and had some other guys playing drums, the songs were a lot more straight forward reggae. Not really along the lines of Steel Pulse or something. Straight forward reggae. I got together with Bud and we immediately switched it up and put the kind of stuff that we did back then too. Like Bad Brains changes or … Bud has a unique way of playing reggae music that I don’t think other drummers can do too well. It’s basically the way we write songs. My dad taught Bud how to play drums and I’m a product of my dad so basically his drumming is part of me in a sense. We just have a way that we wrote songs with Brad and it just so happened to click with Rome just like it did back then, the songs I can remember.

Is this new record in the works still slated for an early 2011 release or is it up in the air?

We just recorded the four songs about a week ago and it’s basically a demo. We don’t have time to record anymore until the end of the year, I believe. It came together in three or four days and we did four songs. I thought it was a little overproduced but it’s easy to get some of that production out. It fell in place really well. Unlike back then, we can afford all sorts of gizmos that make weird sounds. It’s fun to play that kind of stuff for intros and it almost makes psychedelic sounds. It’s a pleasure to record. We didn’t go in there worried about the big deal. We got right to work. As long as we think it’s worthy of the Sublime name, we’ll release it.

Realizing there were legal issues involved, I do respect how you guys named the band Sublime with Rome. Going back to what I was saying about Alice In Chains, I think they might have been better suited to do something like that. It accomplishes two things because you guys can continue to write and record music and Rome can form his own identity within the band instead of just being the replacement singer.

He looks at it as us being Sublime with Rome. I saw Alice In Chains, we played a show with them the KROQ Christmas about a year ago and I was really impressed. I thought they sounded great. They did a really good job meeting the challenge. Their old songs sounded really kick ass too.

That’s the thing, it’s not so much that they sound lesser, but Layne Staley had this magic and power and huge influence on the band with his vocals. Brad’s the same situation.

Sure.

Bringing a guy in to replace him has to be a heavy task.

I never thought we were gonna do it. I just ran into him by chance and we got together with Bud and it seemed like old times. The best it could be without our brother Brad. We thought it was a good choice to follow him up with someone like Rome.

A couple of years ago I interviewed Blind Melon and they had a similar situation. They’d found a guy and wrote a new album but the new singer had a meltdown and from what I understand it was because he didn’t want to be Shannon Hoon. He didn’t want to be that guy all the time. He wanted to be his own musician. How have you guys dealt with that on this project as far as making it comfortable for everybody?

I founded the band. The first day, I got a hold of Bud and got a hold of Brad and got us together. I don’t think anybody has any say if I want to start the band again and if I thought that we could pull it again, I don’t really care what other people think. Rome, basically was saying that it was an honor to be able to play with us and we were his favorite band growing up. I think even if he never met us, he’d be making it on his own for sure. He’s got a lot of talent a lot of drive. When I met him he was playing in a couple of bands that he was playing in all the time and working his ass off playing to nobody. He got a little shortcut getting with us but we’re more than happy getting him a shortcut ‘cause, hell, I never thought we’d find anybody to pull it off.

How do you guys deal with that balance? You two, this is your band and you’ve been there for the whole ride and Rome has to come in and establish himself. There’s obviously a mutual level of respect, but how do you balance it where you guys don’t get your toes stepped on and he doesn’t feel like he’s the replacement.

We’re twice his age. I’ll beat his ass if he gives us any trouble (laughs). No, I’m just kidding. (laughs). It’s like an unsaid thing. For a kid that’s 22 years old and playing in front of huge crowds, he’s definitely staying really level headed throughout. I’m really glad for that ‘cause I’ve seen people’s egos go past Mars really fast. He seems to keep it on a professional level moreso than a lot of people that I’ve seen.

Is there a hierarchy in this group when it comes to writing new material or are you guys pretty democratic?

Not at all. We look at it as a joint effort as we did back then. Before there was any type of greed or status or whatever. We were just some kids writing songs in a garage and we put our all into it and that’s what came out. Yeah, Brad wrote the lyrics and a lot of the music but we all did it together as a band. It wasn’t one person doing everything. We always had it as a brotherhood type thing.

What level of nervousness do you have going out live and touring, knowing there’s a lot of diehard fans that, at least at first might not be on board with the new record?

Those people stay on the computer and don’t go outside and they definitely don’t wanna pay to come see us if they’re so opposed to us. I’ve heard some boos at a couple of shows but it’s quickly overpowered by everybody having a great time and cheering. I’ll just leave it at that. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to come out and see us.

Does that kind of piss you off? Like you were saying, this was a band, not just one person. This is your band and you should have the right to do what you want with it.

I don’t let it piss me off because I just know that in this world, no matter what having to do with music, there are people everywhere and there’s people that are a bunch of haters and there’s always gonna be haters and always going to people that are into us and that’s an individual’s choice to make. Everyone can have their own opinion. If they don’t like us, I’m not gonna get mad about it. I don’t give a shit ‘cause there’s always a lot more people that like us anyways otherwise we wouldn’t be playing these shows.

It does work out. Look what happened with AC/DC. They had the same thing happen and nobody sits back and says they died with Bon Scott.

Of course I’d rather hear Bon Scott but you can’t hear him live ever again. He’s dead. Done. I’m not sure what his name is, but that guy (Brian Johnson) … I don’t know if you’ve been to an AC/DC concert, but I have. The band and the singer are way in the back, you don’t even see ‘em. It’s the Angus Young show and  he’s in the front sweating on you the whole time they’re playing. He doesn’t stop moving the whole set. He must come out of the dressing room jumping up and down. That’s AC/DC. To me, AC/DC is that.

That said, what do you see as the future with Sublime with Rome?

I’ll never be able to jump up and down like what’s his name. I can still play the bass good and the future is what we make of it really. We just play our shows and try and be the best we can without stepping on other people’s toes. I don’t know why I say that. We’re just trying to make a living and trying to play the music that we love, that we created when we were kids. I’m just glad to still be able to play with my bros and play those songs. I’m very happy about that.

If you could share the stage with any bands past or present, which ones would you choose?

Frank Zappa and the Mothers and the Butthole Surfers. Bob Marley, something like that.

Right on.

We share the stage with the Dirty Heads and I grew to like that a lot. They’re a great band and they can drink themselves to death every night and I don’t have to.

Eric, I appreciate you taking the time to visit with me on this hectic day. I appreciate it.

Yeah, sorry about the vet thing. Instead of holding him, I had the vet goons grab him so I could do the interview. He’s probably hog tied right now in back but it’s alright. He can handle it.

You take care.

Cool, man. Thanks a lot.

Bye.