Bradley's Dalmatian

Lou Dog, the fourth member of Sublime

If you grew up in California in the 1990s as I did, the first words Bradley Nowell sings on Sublime's major label debut album will be familiar ones:

"We took this trip to Garden Grove

It smelled like Lou Dog inside the van"

Lou Dog, or King Louie, was Bradley’s beloved pet Dalmatian, named after his grandfather Louie Nowell.

Lou Dog was also a band member in all regards except the playing of music. He wandered the stage during Sublime concerts, was featured on the cover of Sublime albums and music videos, and mentioned often in lyrics. As Aaron Barrett of the band Reel Big Fish remembers, Louie “was everywhere, always around backstage. You never saw [Bradley] without his dog.”¹ Bradley reportedly paid $500 for Louie, which he saved up to afford. The previous owner had tied him to a toilet seat in his front yard.²

Image from Sublime’s liner notes.

Louie became deaf after being on stage for so many years :/ On a number of later tracks, you can hear Brad say "Louie Louie Louie Louie" into the loud speaker because by that time, that was the only way Louie could hear his name called.

In "What I Got," one of Sublime’s biggest hits, Bradley sings, "Livin' with Louie Dog's the only way to stay sane," as well as "I don't cry when my dog runs away."

It turned out that second lyrical assertion was mentira. In the early 1990s, Lou Dog disappeared and Bradley’s widow remembers the singer laying on the couch that week crying. Bradley covered the Camper Van Beethoven song "The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon" and changed it to "Lou Dog Went to the Moon," and while Lou was missing, he recorded this song to his home answering machine as a sort of audio lost dog poster.

When Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose in bed at the Ocean View Motel in San Francisco, Lou Dog was with him.

Bud [Gaugh, Sublime drummer] found him. What I heard is that Lou Dog was on the bed, licking Brad's face…Lou was licking the vomit off of him, his face was green-colored. There was no saving him. Obviously it was over.³

After Bradley’s death, Lou Dog was left to Bradley’s friend and he died five years later. Sublime has an official “Lou Dog” playlist on their Spotify profile where you can listen to songs about King Louie.

If you’re keen to see Louie in live action, here’s the official music video for one of those songs, “I Love My Dog”:

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1. FIVE CLASSIC STORIES ABOUT SUBLIME'S MASCOT, LOU DOG

2. So much of the information about Louie can be found on the Lou Dog Sublime Wiki page and this Extra Chill article.

3. From Sublime's Last Show: The Oral History