Lynn Marrie hats help rock for Sublime’s Bradley House

A Sublime Life Sobriety Festival attracted a host of fans and sober living proponents to Oceanside Civic Center on May 11 where a supportive community immersed itself in a variety of activities including live music, insightful speakers and interactive activities.

Inspired by late Sublime front man Bradley Nowell, the Nowell Family Foundation sponsored the event to acquaint folks with its Bradley House addiction recovery project. Intended to serve the music community, its programs combine the strength of the industry and those who have been touched by the power of music with opioid recovery programs.

The day’s festivities concluded with an evening Sublime fam jam at Oceanside Art Museum. VIPs received the requisite swag bag containing all sorts of goodies including a tip of the hat from Long Beach jewelry artist and home entrepreneur Lynn Marrie.

Lynn Marrie and Jakob Nowell enjoy the celebration of sobriety together/Courtesy

“Through God’s mercy and grace I have chosen to live a clean sober life since Dec 31, 1995,” Marrie said. “I love helping people see their light. Finding my way to freedom after I got clean was actually the hardest part. You have no idea how to do life without a way to escape the reality of being in reality 24/7. Much thanks to the entire Nowell Family Foundation, I am honored to contribute the “Sublime Life Sobriety Festival hats.”

“Our small business mission is to serve and give back big,” Marrie said. “Our roots started in Long Beach over 25 yars ago designing and producing exclusive tee shirt designs for Hot Topic, Guitar Center, Journeys and the list goes on including YMCA camps, local school fundraisers, Earth Day events and field trips.”

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These days, Marrie added, “We are shifting into serving the event market better to serve or small businesses, nonprofit organizations and local communities.”

Marrie also is pursuing two other art meets culture meets the people (who love dogs and custom jewelry) projects. Dog Crush Club — follow it at @dogcrushclub on Instagram — is the place to go for everyone who has a crush on their dog.

“I am a member of the Dog Crush Club and love Event Custom Tees,” Sandwell said. “When I have a project, Lynn makes it more special with her creative genius.”

“Dog Crush Club was inspired by my puppy ‘Hunny Star,'” Marrie said. Annual membership includes custom bandanas for family dogs, hand painted commissioned pet portraits and other custom-made merchandise intended for pet owners and their charges.

A third Marrie project features one-of-a-kind handcrafted jewelry for the fashionable crowd. More information is available on Instagram at @madame24official – handcrafted jewelry. “It’s created for you by hand with love,” Marrie said.

Back to the hats and addiction recovery

“Why, how, we recover is so vital,” Marrie said. “The Nowell Foundation Mission ‘Bradley’s House’ is so unique and powerful. Music is healing. Recovery is a healing process. Mixing music with recovery is the perfect melody.”

Bradly Nowell, lead singer, helped form the ska punk rock band Sublime in 1988 along with Eric Wilson on bass and Bud Gaugh on percussion at Long Beach in 1988. The band rocked to major success in the 1990s concluding with its Number One single on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, “What I Got.”

Unfortunately, “What I Got” dropped two months after Nowell, who struggled for years with addiction issues, died of a heroin overdose on May 25, 1996. Surviving band members revived the band in 2009, adding Nowell’s son Jakob Nowell in 2023.

Bradley Nowell’s sister Kellie Nowell founded the Nowell Family Foundation in July 2017 to help struggling musicians overcome opioid addiction. “It won’t help bring Brad back but it might help someone else’s family from getting the same devastating news that I did,” she said when she created the Foundation.

“Jakob, my nephew, was in rehab,” Kellie Nowell said to OC Music News. “One of the things we noticed is he tended to gravitate towards other musicians in the program…There are things that are unique to people in the music industry when they’re going through this because, obviously, being a sober musician is very, very challenging.”

The Nowell Family Foundation opened Bradley House sober living facility in December 2023. It has eight beds for opioid recovering male musicians with hopes for a female musician facility in the future. Funded through $350,000 in donations, Bradley House so far has graduated a dozen guys from its free sobriety program.

The Foundation takes care of all room and board while providing access to meetings and outings, daily check-ins, group activities. For more information, visit its website at https://thenowellfamilyfoundation.org/.

“I knew the late great Buddy Arnold, trumpet player / jazz musician, who co-founded M.A.P. The Musician’s Assistance Program back in 1992,” said Billy Wirth, Los Angeles producer-actor many will remember from his starring role in “Lost Boys.”” It helped many musicians and the community struggling with addiction, now part of Music Cares.

“It’s so great to learn about the Nowell Family Foundation and Bradley’s House that are doing such important work,” Wirth continued, “helping musicians and artists with addiction and recovery.”

Said Marrie: “The Nowell Foundation Mission “Bradley’s House” is so unique and powerful. Music is healing. Recovery is a healing process. Mixing music with recovery is the perfect melody.”

Wirth added: “Also check out the rad hats that Lynn designed in support of A SUBLIME LIFE the 1st annual Sobriety Festival. They are way cool.”