While on the beach this past weekend at Audacy's Riptide Music Festival, Sublime With Rome's Rome Ramirez dropped by the Hard Rock Artist Lounge to talk with host Ashley O about the festival atmosphere, his move from L.A. to Nashville, and more.
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Currently a Nashville resident, Rome tells us he's appreciating the sun and warm weather of Florida as the bite of cold begins to nip away at fingers and toes back home. "It was really nice to come here," he says. "In fact, I knew I was going to the right place because when I boarded my plane this morning I saw all of my fellow passengers and they were all in their mid-sixties wearing Crocs and board shorts -- kind of like this -- and I was like, 'Oh, we're going to Florida! I can't wait!'"
"It's literally like 80 degrees here, wonderful paradise. 30 degrees, cold and freezing in Nashville," he adds. "I don't understand it." But that certainly doesn't mean the California native isn't fond of his adopted city. "I love Nashville, my wife not so much, but I love it out there," he explains. "I do a lot of songwriting and producing -- it's what I've done a lot of the time while I've been on the road with Sublime; it's just a love of mine producing for other artists -- and Nashville is a huge music capital in the United States alongside Los Angeles and New York, and now Miami... So, I always spent a lot of time in Nashville."
Interestingly enough, it was his wife, Taylor, who first suggested the move to Music City, and Rome jumped at the chance. "Watching what the pandemic did to Los Angeles, it was heart-wrenching as an L.A. guy," he says. After the move, he was able to dive right into his passion and the experience so far has "just been awesome," he adds.
In Nashville, "music is everywhere" he continues, "and In L.A., the art is so multi-faceted; You have the entertainment companies... social media companies. There's just so much different entertainment out there, and Nashville is so predominantly music. That's where I feel at home."
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"It's good to have different perspectives as you grow through life, I think," Rome says of the move, and on that topic, Ashley brought up the fact that it is about to be the 15th anniversary of Sublime With Rome, which began playing shows again in 2009 following the death of original Sublime singer Bradley Nowell in 1996.
"I started singing and playing guitar with this band when I was 18 years old and now I'm 35, and we've done so much and we've gone everywhere in the world. It's just been such an amazing, beautiful journey," Rome says.
"Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I would be here singing these songs for people all throughout the world, especially as a kid when I first discovered the band," he admits. "But here we are, and I think it's beautiful because I've been gifted this opportunity to be able to play these songs for generations of people, like two generations, now we've been doing it for almost 20 years. To see these kids grow up and come back, bring their kids, or in this instance now with Sublime, you know, they're a cool band. I mean, it's awesome."
"They had the recipe, Brad [Nowell], Bud [Gaugh], and Eric [Wilson]," Rome says. "They knew what they were doing, you know, even if they didn't, it worked and it turned me into a fan. It's cool to be able to be singing these songs and looking out and seeing the youth coming... it's a gift to be able to be the vessel for that."
Listen to Ashley O's full chat with Rome Ramirez above, and stay tuned for even more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.