Alternative/ska rockers No Doubt got their start in Anaheim, California back in 1986. One of the band’s original members was trumpet player Gabriel Gonzalez who helped co-write some of the bands first songs. Gonzalez also received songwriting credits for the No Doubt tunes “Total Hate 95” and “Paulina.”
Sadly, Gonzalez passed away at the age of 57 following a motorcycle accident earlier this month. Gonzalez also lended his talent to numerous bands like Save Ferris, Kingston A Go-Go, The Skeletones and The Untouchables.
“We all kind of knew that we were creating something different, and being in the mod-ska scene in the early mid-’80s was a pretty spectacular thing,” he told Spin Magazine back in January of No Doubt’s formation. “We were all into Madness and Prince Buster and all the Trojan sh*t, so Eric started banging out some upbeat ska shit and we were just goofing off writing music and we’re like, ‘let’s form a group.’ Bing bang boom, that’s how it happened.”
In what turned out to be one of his last Instagram posts published on July 12, Gonzalez shared footage of No Doubt’s first televised performances. He is survived by 3 children.
