Steve Harwell, the incendiary lead singer of the American alternative rock band Smash Mouth, has passed away from complications due to liver failure. He was 56.
Harwell was at the helm of the band when it released a string of hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These included 'Walkin’ On The Sun', 'Can’t Get Enough of You, Baby', 'All Star', and a cover version of the Monkees’ 1967 hit 'I’m a Believer'.
He was born Steven Scott Harwell on 9 January 1967 in Santa Clara, California.
Initially, Harwell was a rapper with a band called Freedom of Speech (FOS) and in 1994, he co-founded Smash Mouth with Kevin Coleman on drums, Paul De Lisle on bass and Greg Camp on lead guitar.
Smash Mouth was named after an American football term, meaning an offensive system relying on a strong running game where most of the plays run by the offense are hand-offs to the fullback or tailback.
The band soon became a major part of the burgeoning ska/punk scene and later adopted a range of retro styles that covered many decades of popular music.
They released their debut album Fush Yu Mang in 1997, which went double platinum on the strength of the turntable favourite 'Walkin’ On The Sun'. The single reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, Iceland, Italy, and Spain.
Smash Mouth went on to produce another six studio albums, the most recent being Magic in 2012.
In 1998, they scored another hit with 'Why Can’t We Be Friends', originally released by the LA funk outfit War in 1975. The song appeared on the soundtrack of the Kevin Bacon film Wild Things, which was released the same year.
Smash Mouth continued to dominate the airwaves in 1999 with their second studio album Astro Lounge. 'Can’t Get Enough of You, Baby', originally released by a psychedelic band called ? and the Mysterians in 1967, was the standout track. It was certified gold in Australia and appeared on the soundtrack for the teen movie Can’t Hardly Wait, released in 1998.
Astro Lounge also included Smash Mouth’s signature hit 'All Star', which was the band’s only appearance in the top 10 of the Billboard charts.
Harwell told Rolling Stone magazine:
'When Astro Lounge came, we had enough time under our belt touring, getting better. I was becoming a better singer and our sound started developing.'
'All Star' and 'I’m A Believer' gained legions of additional fans when they were used on the 2001 soundtrack for the DreamWorks blockbuster film Shrek. At the time of writing, 'All Star' had close to a billion streams on the popular audio app Spotify.
Also in 2001, Harwell suffered personal tragedy when his son Presley died at six months of age from leukemia. Harwell later set up a disease prevention fund in his son’s name.
As Smash Mouth’s fame spread across the world, Harwell became more and more in demand by the entertainment industry.
He made a cameo appearance in the 2001 film Rat Race and in 2006, he was a featured cast member on The Surreal Life, a reality show that aired on VH1, a music-orientated cable station in the United States. He also performed two songs, 'Beside Myself' and 'Everything Just Crazy', for a South Korean-Chinese animated film called Pororo, The Racing Adventure, in 2013.
In 2011, a writer at Something Awful, an American comedy website, offered Harwell $20 for eating 24 eggs. The story hit Twitter and other people came forward, offering bigger sums. Harwell said he would take up the challenge if he could receive pledges totaling $10,000 so that he could donate the money to St Jude Children’s Hospital.
The fundraising goal was reached in less than a week and Harwell completed the challenge at Johnny Garlic’s Restaurant in Dublin, California. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri, a personal friend of Harwell’s, prepared the eggs and the event ended up raising $15,000.
Very little is known about Harwell’s personal life except that he suffered serious medical problems since at least 2013 when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that can cause heart failure.
He was also diagnosed with a condition called Wernicke encephalopathy, which can impair motor functions, speech and memory. In addition to these ailments, Harwell struggled with alcoholism for much of his life.
In his later years, Harwell attracted negative media attention for appearing on stage while obviously under the influence.
In 2015, while performing at a food festival in Fort Collins, Colorado, Harwell started yelling abuse at the crowd and stormed off the stage after members of the audience pelted him with pieces of bread. Harwell later apologised for the incident in an interview with The Herald Mail.
Event organiser Jason Ornstein had offered to make an announcement instructing the crowd not to throw bread but claimed that Harwell “took matters into his own hands”.
Ornstein said:
“It wasn’t like anyone was going to get hurt by throwing bread up in the air…we just had to laugh because [Harwell] really made a fool of himself.”
In 2016, Harwell collapsed on stage at a concert in Urbana, Illinois, and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Smash Mouth finished the concert without him with bass player Paul De Lisle doing lead vocals.
In 2020, Harwell made headlines for all the wrong reasons when he played a crowded gig in South Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reportedly said, “fuck that COVID shit!” and seemed unmoved when the gig was later described as a super-spreader event.
Harwell finally went too far in October 2021 during a live performance at a beer and wine festival in Bethel, New York, that could best be described as a train wreck. The visibly intoxicated singer slurred his words, swore at the audience and appeared to give a Nazi salute.
In a statement following the performance, a spokesman said Harwell’s bizarre behaviour could probably be attributed to 'long-term medical issues' with 'numerous symptoms directly linked with his current medical situation'. In the wake of negative publicity, Harwell announced his retirement.
He said:
“I’ve 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’t able to.”
In addition to battling ill health, Harwell had a lot of difficulties in his personal life. In late 2019, his fiancée Esther Campbell filed a restraining order against the singer, accusing him of threatening behaviour and excessive drinking. However, in Harwell’s final days, it was reported that the pair had reconciled and that Campbell was by his side when he passed away.
While Harwell let his personal demons get the better of him on many occasions, he was nevertheless a true rock ‘n roller leading a rock star life. His raw talent was undeniable and won him legions of fans.
Band manager Robert Hayes described Harwell as 'a true American original'.
Said Hayes:
A larger than life character who shot up into the sky like a Roman candle, Steve should be remembered for his unwavering focus and impassioned determination to reach the heights of pop stardom. And the fact that he achieved this near-impossible goal with very limited musical experience makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable.
His only tools were his irrepressible charm and charisma, his fearlessly reckless ambition and his king size cojones. Steve lived a 100 per cent full throttle life. Burning brightly across the universe before burning out.
Mark Morton, guitarist with the American heavy metal band Lamb of God, said:
'RIP Steve Harwell. That Walkin’ On The Sun song is fucking great…you know damn well it is…and that dude lived through some really, really difficult stuff.'
A spokesperson for the alternative group Wheatus said:
'1 yr before our 1st record came out, I paced in a cold nyc apartment prepping for a show while someone else put a CD in and cranked it. It was `All Star’. It was new and I loved the snare sound and the layering of sampled drums w real ones and that unassuming voice.'
Former Third Eye Blind guitarist Kevin Cadogan, who collaborated with Harwell and made a few demos that were never released, said he was saddened about the death of his friend.
Said Cadogan:
'His voice and performances were iconic.'
Following his retirement, Harwell said he was “fortunate” to have achieved his dream of rock stardom.
He said:
“Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of being a rock star performing in front of sold-out arenas and have been so fortunate to live out that dream. To my bandmates, it’s been an honour performing with you all these years and I can’t think of anyone else I would have rather gone on this wild journey with.”
Jenny LeComte is a Canberra-based journalist and freelance writer.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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