Steve Harwell, the lead singer of Smash Mouth, the choice rock band recognized for the cheerful pop perennial “All Star,” died on Monday. He was 56.
The information was introduced by the band’s supervisor, who stated Harwell died at his house in Boise, Idaho.
On Sunday, TMZ reported that Harwell was within the remaining stage of liver failure and had entered hospice care. Harwell retired from Smash Mouth in 2021, citing his well being. “I’ve tried so arduous to energy by way of my bodily and psychological well being points, and to play in entrance of you one final time, however I simply wasn’t in a position to,” Harwell introduced on the time.
The retirement adopted a live performance in upstate New York wherein Harwell slurred his phrases, threatened viewers members and gave what gave the impression to be a Nazi salute to the group. A spokesperson for the band later stated Harwell “has suffered profusely through the years with a number of forms of habit” resulting in well being situations that included cardiomyopathy, which impacts the guts’s capability to pump blood, and Wernicke’s encephalopathy, which “vastly impacted his motor capabilities together with speech and impaired reminiscence.”
Harwell fronted Smash Mouth from its inception in 1994. Mixing a kitschy throwback sound with a ska-punk sensibility, Smash Mouth specialised in hooky pop tunes delivered with a slight wink, as heard on their first hit, 1997’s “Walkin’ on the Solar,” and crystallized on “All Star,” the 1999 single which turned their signature tune.
A Prime 10 come across its launch, “All Star” shortly seeped into the pop-culture bloodstream, changing into omnipresent in movies, TV, sporting occasions, commercials and radio over the following twenty years. In 2001, “All Star” appeared on the soundtrack to the smash animated movie “Shrek,” alongside the band’s perky model of the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Each songs turned fixtures within the CD rotations of a technology of fogeys and kids.
Smash Mouth embraced “All Star’s” ubiquity and the alternatives that got here with it, with Harwell stepping exterior of the group to seem on the sixth season of MTV’s “The Surreal Life” in 2006. Largely, although, Smash Mouth stayed on the street, the place for many years Harwell fortunately sang the band’s hits for nostalgic followers. “Why would I get tired of taking part in them?” he stated of “All Star” and “Walkin’ on the Solar.” “These are in all probability among the best-written songs ever.”
Smash Mouth in 1999.
(Bob Berg / Getty Pictures)
Born in Santa Clara, Calif., on Jan. 9, 1967, Harwell was the son of a UPS truck driver, rising up in a cushty middle-class household. Gravitating towards music at an early age — his first pop idol was Elvis Presley, adopted by David Lee Roth — Harwell made his skilled debut in his early twenties as a member of F.O.S. (Freedom of Speech), a rap outfit that signed with Scotti Bros. By the point the group launched the 12-inch single “Huge Black Boots” in 1993, Harwell soured on F.O.S., deciding he’d quite be a singer in a rock band. With drummer Kevin Coleman aboard, he began poaching musicians from different San Jose bands, bringing guitarist Greg Camp and bassist Paul De Lisle into the Smash Mouth fold by 1994.
The band headed south to Los Angeles. After a showcase on the Roxy, Interscope signed Smash Mouth and despatched them into the studio with producer Eric Valentine, who had simply labored on the eponymous debut by Third Eye Blind.
On a lot of the band’s 1997 debut “Fush Yu Mang” — its title a nod to Al Pacino’s mush-mouth Cuban accent in “Scarface” — Smash Mouth mined a ska-punk sound, however “Walkin’ on the Solar,” a fab beachside rocker delivered with a thrift-store aptitude, supplied a change of tempo and have become successful on MTV and various rock radio. Stated producer Valentine, “They’d this doubtful distinction of getting a really, very profitable report, however it was additionally one of the returned albums as a result of the very seen single, ‘Walkin’ on the Solar,’ was so completely different than the remainder of the report.”
Smash Mouth corrected this downside with 1999’s “Astro Lounge,” whose very title alluded to the easy-listening vibe that powered their large hit. “All Star” and “Then the Morning Comes,” two songs added on the final minute after report label execs informed the group they didn’t hear a single, acquired radio airplay, notably “All Star,” written by Camp, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
With its catchy and affirmative refrain, “All Star” turned a staple on radio, at ball video games, on commercials and in films. “You possibly can not stroll right into a grocery retailer or activate the tv with out listening to ‘All Star,’” stated the band’s supervisor, Robert Hayes. DreamWorks Animation requested to make use of “All Star” for “Shrek” and the band finally acquiesced to the request, including a canopy of “I’m a Believer” for good measure. “I’m a Believer” turned the band’s remaining hit, peaking at No. 25 on the Scorching 100.
By the early 2010s, Smash Mouth had embraced its position as an alt-rock oldies act, signing up with Sugar Ray to launch the Below the Solar bundle tour in 2014. However because the band stabilized, Harwell’s well being worsened. In 2013, Harwell acquired a prognosis of cardiomyopathy. He subsequently suffered a sequence of well being issues, together with coronary heart failure and Wernicke encephalopathy, an sickness recognized colloquially as “moist mind” that impacts speech and reminiscence. Over the following decade, Harwell’s onstage habits turned more and more erratic on account of his sickness, culminating within the October 2021 present in New York. After a video of the efficiency went viral on the web, Harwell retired from public life. Paul De Lisle, the band’s lone remaining founding member, carried on with Smash Mouth, including Zach Goode as their new lead singer.
Harwell is survived by his fiancee, Esther Campbell. In July 2001, Harwell’s son Presley died on the age of 6 months from acute lymphocytic leukemia. The singer later created a medical analysis fund in his son’s title.
Occasions assistant managing editor Craig Nakano contributed to this report.
