Steve Harwell, the lead singer of the group Smash Mouth, passed away Monday at his home in Boise, Idaho. The death has been confirmed by the representative of the band, which became famous at the end of the nineties with its album Fush Yu Mang and for lending to soundtrack of Shrek the topic all star, which is close to 1 billion streams on Spotify. Harwell, 56, had received palliative care this Sunday after liver disease.
“Steve must be remembered for his steadfast dedication and passionate dedication to reaching the pinnacle of fame in the world of pop,” the band said Monday morning after his death was made public. Harwell was the most visible face of the group, born in 1994. The group has climbed the charts since the release of their 1997 debut, produced by Eric Valentine (Joe Satriani, Queens of the Stone Age, Maroon 5). The song Walking on the sun it became the presentation of the group’s sound, which combined the laid-back coastal sound of southern California with some ska-punk. Unlike other similar groups such as Sublime, Sugar Ray and Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth found a larger audience by sneaking onto hit radio and regular MTV programming in the network’s heyday and alternative rock years.
His first record closed with Why Can’t We Be Friends, a cover of a theme from War. It was a nod to the influence that Smash Mouth had from South Los Angeles bands. Harwell was born in northern California, in the town of Santa Clara. He grew up in a working-middle-class household whose idol was Elvis Presley. Before forming Smash Mouth, Harwell sang for FOS (Freedom of Speech), a rap group with which he did not find the necessary chemistry and disbanded after releasing a single. In 1994 he formed Smash Mouth with Greg Camp and Paul De Lisle. A talent scout saw them at a concert at the mythical Roxy theater in Los Angeles and signed them to the Interscope record label.
International fame came to Smash Mouth with their second album, astrolounge (1999). The album cover, with bright colors and a space theme, let fans know that the group was redoubling their commitment to their sound style. Among the topics stood out all starwhich became the group’s anthem and the only song from their discography that they placed in the Top 10 of bill board. The song, written by Camp, was featured in dozens of commercials and movies. It touched global omnipresence in 2001, when Dreamworks used it in the first movie of Shrek With I’m a believer a version of the Monkees classic. The song then had a new life in the digital age. His first lines became a sound meme that accompanied funny videos in search of virality. also gave rise to countless parodies.
Harwell’s history with the group that launched him to fame was not always a happy one. In October 2021, after more than two decades of concerts and tours, the singer made a controversial appearance in Bethel, upstate New York. The 1990s group became a trending topic in the social media age because Harwell came out onstage drunk. The musician appeared knocking over drinks and staggering. What he sang was not understood. He insulted a fan who claimed the state in which he appeared. “I’m going to kill your fucking family, I swear,” said Harwell, who at another point in the same concert gave a Nazi salute to the audience. “I wish this guy could get clean because this is so sad. I hope they take him off tours and send him to 90 meetings in 90 days because if not soon we will have another dead rock star on our hands, ”said the lead singer of Eve6, another group of the time, after the incident.
The chaotic concert was a blow to the group, which was forced to replace Harwell with another singer. The Smash Mouth leader then announced that he was putting a break in his trajectory. This was because he suffered from a heart condition that caused his blood to pump slowly. The middle TMZ announced Sunday that Harwell was in the last stages of liver disease and had received hospice care. Hours later, his death was reported.
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