Steve Harwell, Former Smash Mouth Lead Singer, Dies at 56

Steve Harwell, the previous lead singer of the rock band Smash Mouth, which was greatest identified for its ubiquitous 1999 hit “All Star,” died on Monday. He was 56.

His demise, at his house in Boise, Idaho, was confirmed by the band’s supervisor, Robert Hayes, who mentioned the trigger was liver failure.

Smash Mouth was based in 1994 in San Jose, Calif., and was made up of Harwell, the lead singer, Kevin Coleman on the drums, Greg Camp on the guitar, and Paul De Lisle on the bass. The band first broke out with their 1997 music “Walkin’ on the Sun,” which appeared on their debut album, “Fush Yu Mang.”

“‘Walkin’ on the Sun’ changed music. It changed the way people listen to music,” Harwell instructed Rolling Stone in 2019. “It was so different and it was so unusual, and it was so special. It just had that sound that we created. Ask anybody that’s tried to copy us, you can’t. You just can’t.”

The band loved even better success with the discharge of their subsequent album, “Astro Lounge,” in 1999, and its chart-topping hit “All Star.” The music, which was nominated for a Grammy Award, additionally appeared in quite a few movies, and loved newfound recognition two years later when it was featured within the opening credit of “Shrek,” the Academy Award-winning animated movie about an ogre voiced by Mike Myers.

“We had no clue how big ‘Shrek’ was going to be,” Harwell mentioned within the 2019 interview with Rolling Stone. (“All Star” additionally appeared on the soundtrack for the 1999 movie “Mystery Men,” whose characters function within the music’s music video.)

Since then, “All Star” has lived on, turning into a wealthy supply for on-line parodies. Nearly 25 years later, the sound of Harwell’s voice remains to be linked to the music’s recognizable opening traces: “Somebody once told me / The world is gonna roll me / I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“All Star” has near a billion streams on Spotify. “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “I’m a Believer,” a canopy of the Monkees music that additionally appeared on the “Shrek” soundtrack, have additionally garnered lots of of thousands and thousands of streams.

Harwell left the band in 2021 and retired from performing altogether after a reside present in upstate New York throughout which he’s seen slurring his phrases and utilizing profanity. Earlier that yr, Harwell had taken a break from reside performing due to coronary heart issues, based on a number of news media reviews on the time.

Smash Mouth, which has had a rotating lineup through the years, has not launched a brand new studio album in a couple of decade, nevertheless it has launched new singles, together with “Underground Sun” this yr, with a special lead singer.

The band nonetheless performs — together with a present scheduled for Saturday in Illinois — however it should perpetually be related to “All Star,” one thing that Harwell was conscious of.

“Nobody else could have sang that song.” Harwell instructed Rolling Stone in 2019. “It would have never been what it is now. I could’ve pitched that song to a million bands and they would have tried to do it, and it would’ve never been what it is.”