Former No Doubt Member Passes Away

Gabriel Gonzalez, No Doubt’s original trumpet player recently passed away on September 12th in a fatal motorcycle accident in Hermosa Beach, CA, as per a family representative who confirmed to SPIN . He passed away at the age of 57. He is survived by his three children.

Gabriel Gonzalez passes away

In addition to No Doubt, Gonzalez also played in ska bands such as Save Ferris, the Untouchables, the Skeletones, and Kingston A Go Go.

Gonzalez is recognized as a co-writer on No Doubt’s “Total Hate ‘95” and “Paulina.”  Born July 11, 1967, Gonzalez was a first-generation Cuban American. He played trumpet in the band at Loara High School before he joined forces with Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric, who also attended the school. After playing on and off with No Doubt in the ‘80s, Gonzalez attended Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Gonzalez spoke to SPIN in January about his late fellow No Doubt band member, John Spence and the group’s pre-No Doubt era under the name Apple Core. “We were all into Madness and Prince Buster and all the Trojan shit, 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,” he said of No Doubt’s origins.

He mentioned that he contributed to composing many of the band’s original early songs, although most of them have not been officially released.

“We all knew that we were creating something different, and being in the mod-ska scene in the early to mid-’80s was a pretty spectacular thing,” the trumpeter said.

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