Gabriel “The Gun” Gonzalez, the unique trumpet participant in No Doubt, has died aged 57.
Information of his dying was shared with SPIN, and it was confirmed that the musician died following a motorbike accident that occurred in Hermosa Seashore, California.
Born in 1967, the musician first picked up the trumpet whereas he was nonetheless at school and was a part of his highschool band. Attending the Loara Excessive College in Anaheim, it was right here that he first met Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric.
The three of them labored collectively on varied songs again earlier than No Doubt selected that band identify. Initially, they have been going by the identify Apple Core, and lots of the early tracks stay unreleased.
As highlighted by Vice, a few of his work did make it onto ‘The Beacon Road Assortment’ – the second album shared by No Doubt, which was launched in 1995. Within the tracklist, he’s credited as a co-writer on the track ‘Complete Hate 95’. He’s additionally given credit score on the observe ‘Paulina’, taken from the self-titled debut album shared in 1992.
In his work outdoors of No Doubt, Gonzalez took half in varied musical initiatives across the SKA scene and contributed to releases from artists together with The Untouchables, Kingston A Go-Go, Save Ferris and The Skeletones.
Taking to Instagram on July 12 – in what could be his penultimate publish on the platform – the musician shared uncommon footage from considered one of No Doubt’s first televised performances.
In his most up-to-date publish, pals, household and followers have taken to the remark part to share their condolences to the musician. “RIP Gabriel. Met you solely as soon as and knew you have been a real and good human. Thanks for all the great vibes and good tunes brother,” one wrote, whereas one other shared: “I met him a number of years in the past when he labored at joes. Such an excellent man. Really easy to speak to and I loved his tales. Wow. Can’t consider this.”
Again in January, Gonzalez spoke to SPIN about his late fellow No Doubt band member, John Spence – who died by suicide aged 18 throughout the band’s early days – and the group’s beginnings.
“We have been all into Insanity and Prince Buster and all of the Trojan shit, so Eric began banging out some upbeat ska shit and we have been simply goofing off writing music and we’re like, ‘let’s type a bunch.’ Bing bang increase, that’s the way it occurred,” he advised the outlet.
“All of us form of knew that we have been creating one thing totally different, and being within the mod-ska scene within the early mid-’80s was a fairly spectacular factor.”