His death, at his home in Boise, Idaho, was confirmed by the band\u2019s manager, Robert Hayes, who said in a statement released overnight that the cause was liver failure.<\/p>\n
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Former Smash Mouth frontman Steve Harwell has died.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Smash Mouth was founded in 1994 in San Jose, California, and was made up of Harwell, guitarist Greg Camp, drummer Kevin Coleman and bassist Paul De Lisle. Its first success came with the song Walkin\u2019 on the Sun<\/em> from the band\u2019s debut album, Fush Yu Mang<\/em> (1997).<\/p>\n An upbeat track with a dark undertow, calling to mind both the Doors and contemporary ska-punk, Walkin\u2019 on the Sun<\/em>, with songwriting credits going to all four band members, went into steady rotation on MTV and topped Billboard\u2019s alternative chart.<\/p>\n The song\u2019s music video laid out the band\u2019s aesthetic and attitude. Dressed in short-sleeve shirts and shades, with fedoras and soul patches, the four members looked like rougher versions of the image-obsessed retro hipsters depicted in the 1996 comedy Swingers<\/em>. The video features a dance party straight out of a 1960s beach movie and ends with a drag-race crash, with Harwell \u2014 beefy, with tattoos on his arms \u2014 behind the wheel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question of a particular style never once crossed our minds,\u201d Harwell said in a 1997 interview. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to be labelled as a punk band, a ska band, a surf band, a rock band, a pop band or a whatever band. We just wanted to be us, Smash Mouth, and leave it to the people to interpret what we are.\u201d<\/p>\n The band\u2019s big-time crossover came with All Star<\/em>, from its next album, Astro Lounge<\/em>, in 1999. Backed by harder-driving guitars, Harwell, with a slight sneer, sings an outsiders\u2019 anthem to ignore ridicule and shoot for the moon.<\/p>\n \u2018We had no clue how big Shrek was going to be. We sold millions of records off that alone.\u2019<\/p>\n All Star<\/em> \u2014 written by Camp \u2014 went to No. 4 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 singles chart, the band\u2019s best-ever chart position, and found a lasting audience through movie soundtracks. In 1999, it was used in Inspector Gadget<\/em> and Mystery Men<\/em>, and two years later the song got its broadest exposure when it played during the opening credits of Shrek<\/em>, the animated hit that featured Mike Myers as a grouchy but good-hearted ogre.<\/p>\n The Shrek<\/em> soundtrack \u2014 which also featured Smash Mouth\u2019s amped-up version of the Monkees\u2019 I\u2019m a Believer<\/em>, in the closing scene \u2014 went double platinum, and the film won an Academy Award for best animated feature. All Star<\/em> was everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had no clue how big Shrek<\/em> was going to be,\u201d Harwell recalled in a 2019 article in Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cWe sold millions of records off that alone. The song was reborn again.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, All Star<\/em> has lived on, becoming a rich source for online parodies. Nearly 25 years later, the song has garnered nearly 1 billion streams on Spotify alone, and the sound of Harwell\u2019s slightly raspy voice is still linked to the song\u2019s recognisable opening lines: \u201cSomebody once told me\/The world is gonna roll me\/I ain\u2019t the sharpest tool in the shed.\u201d<\/p>\n Steven Scott Harwell was born on January 9, 1967, and grew up in San Jose. He began his musical career as a rapper with the group F.O.S., which stood for Freedom of Speech. With a sound reminiscent of West Coast groups of the late 1980s and early \u201990s like N.W.A and Cypress Hill, it released a single, Big Black Boots<\/em>, in 1993. But by then, Harwell was already restless.<\/p>\n \u201cAround the time we were about to put out our single, this kid Snoop Dogg came out and changed everything,\u201d he recalled in 2017 interview with the music website Stereogum. \u201cI was at a radio convention in Las Vegas watching MC Hammer, of all people, and I just looked at my manager, \u2018I\u2019m tired of all this hip-hop \u2014 I want to start an alternative rock band.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n After Astro Lounge<\/em>, Smash Mouth released five more studio albums through 2012, with diminishing levels of success. In 2006, Harwell was a cast member on The Surreal Life<\/em>, a reality show on VH1 in which one-time celebrities live together; his fellow cast members included Sherman Hemsley of The Jeffersons<\/em>, Florence Henderson of The Brady Bunch<\/em> and Tawny Kitaen, known for her appearances in Whitesnake music videos.<\/p>\n Smash Mouth band members Mike Krompass, Michael Klooster, Randy Cooke, Steve Harwell and Paul De Lisle.<\/span><\/p>\n For the past decade, Harwell\u2019s career had been marked by health problems and occasionally erratic behaviour. In 2013, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart condition, and Wernicke\u2019s encephalopathy, a neurological condition that can affect speech and memory.<\/p>\n In August 2020, while many parts of the country were still under major restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Smash Mouth appeared at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a huge annual event in South Dakota, and performed before thousands of fans \u2014 very few of whom, according to reports and videos of the event, were wearing masks or taking any precautions.<\/p>\n Harwell drew cheers from the crowd \u2014 but wide condemnation elsewhere \u2014 when he said from the stage, \u201cWe\u2019re all here together tonight, and we\u2019re being human once again,\u201d and made a crude dismissal of the viral threat.<\/p>\n In 2021, Harwell left the band and retired from performing after a live show in upstate New York during which he was seen slurring his words, using profanity and apparently giving a Nazi salute.<\/p>\n Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell with his bandmates.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve tried so hard to power through my physical and mental health issues, and to play in front of you one last time, but I just wasn\u2019t able to,\u201d he said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n He is survived by his fiancee, Annette Jones; a brother, Mark; and three sisters, Carla Crocker, Michelle Baroni and Julie Harwell.<\/p>\n In 2022, Smash Mouth recruited a new lead singer, Zach Goode, and the group has concerts scheduled in coming weeks, including one on Thursday in Madera, California. Hayes, the manager, said the band was still scheduled to perform there.<\/p>\n In a statement Monday, Goode said: \u201cI love singing these songs every night and carrying on the spirit of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll in front of the best fans in the world. I will continue to try, in my own way, to honour what Steve and the band have created.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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