A meltdown over thrown dough, getting memed and being forever linked with 'Shrek'. Many
things have changed since the early 2000s, but when it comes to Smash Mouth, they’re infamous.
So where have they been?
Ask the average person what they believe Smash Mouth's biggest claim to fame is, and most will
say it's their song "All Star” which unforgettably appeared on the soundtrack of 2001's "Shrek."
While there's no disputing that the adventures of the famous green ogre and his fairy-tale
friends helped the band reach a wider audience, "All Star" had already been a smash single,
hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 in 1999. DreamWorks noticed this,
but according to The Ringer, the animation studio had other designs for the music for "Shrek."
In the production process for the film,
DreamWorks used "All Star" as a temporary track for the film's opening scene. However,
the team felt the song had been everywhere in the years prior and feared it would be overkill
to use it in the movie. The solution was to ask one of DreamWorks' signed artists, Matt Mahaffey,
to record a track that had a similar vibe to "All Star" and could work for the film's tone.
After teaming up with producer Eric Valentine, who actually produced "All
Star," Mahaffey believed he had cracked the code and delivered a hit. However, this all
changed when a cut was shown to DreamWorks Animation's then-CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Reportedly, Katzenberg asked why "All Star" wasn't used instead. The rest, as they say, is history.
"It's been a great help for our career and it's
a wonderful movie and a good thing to be associated with."
Thanks to the popularity of "Shrek," "All Star" continued to roll on,
becoming the earworm that never goes away and everyone knows the words to. It also appeared
as if Smash Mouth was achieving some real momentum, since 1999's "Astro Lounge" and
their 2001 self-titled album peaked at No.'s 6 and 48 on the Billboard 200 chart, respectively.
Naturally, the expectation was that their follow-up album would continue to build upon
the earlier success — perhaps even debut in the coveted No. 1 spot atop the chart. Unfortunately,
2003's "Get the Picture?" failed to ignite the charts or even catch the public's attention.
The album performed worse than previous efforts, peaking at No. 100 on the Billboard 200,
while also lacking a strong radio-friendly track in the same vein as "All Star" or even
"Walkin' on the Sun." Arguably, the album's biggest single was "Hang On,"
which was featured in the perhaps even more forgettable 2003 film "The Cat in the Hat."
Ultimately, "Get the Picture?" proved to be Smash Mouth's final album for Interscope Records.
Like many bands before and after them, Smash Mouth has experienced its fair share
of people coming and going, with bassist Paul De Lisle as the sole founding member still in
the band. However, the group was relatively stable from the late '90s to the mid-2000s,
until drummer Michael Urbano and guitarist Greg Camp departed.
Urbano left the band in 2006.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about his decision to leave when he did, he said -
"Things were spinning out of control. I think that there were just differences of opinion
about what we should do, and what direction we should take. It was time for me to go."
Camp parted ways with Smash Mouth in 2008,
and according to the guitarist's comments to The Mercury News at the time, trouble
had been brewing and he wasn't getting along with another bandmate, saying -
"It was just one of those things where either me or one of the other people in the band had
to leave, and if that person left, then that band wouldn't be together anymore."
Both Urbano and Camp did return to play with Smash Mouth in the
later years following their departures.
In the world of rock 'n' roll, there are numerous bands and musicians who have serious beef with
each other. Weirdly enough, Smash Mouth and Third Eye Blind also had some tension between them,
but the reason for their animosity doesn't seem too clear or obvious.
At 2014's BottleRock Napa Valley, Smash Mouth's then-lead singer Steve Harwell
took a shot at Third Eye Blind during the band's performance. SPIN reported
from fan accounts of the event that Harwell took to the stage and said -
"Third Eye Blind can suck my d***."
It wasn't the first time the singer had derogatory things to say about Third Eye
Blind or their singer Stephan Jenkins, having called him names in previous interviews. However,
Smash Mouth's manager Robert Hayes denied there were any real issues between the bands.
He told The Washington Post that it's all harmless banter between professionals, saying -
"Steve [Harwell] pretty much has a long history of poking fun at Stephan Jenkins.
There's no true bad blood there. They've toured and done shows together for quite a while."
Performing live isn't for the fainthearted or those quick to anger.
Having been around the block, one would expect Smash Mouth to be adept at dealing with hecklers
and hurlers in the crowd. Yet, according to TMZ, vocalist Steve Harwell wasn't seeing
the funny side of the audience throwing food at him during a 2015 performance.
Appearing at a Colorado food festival, Harwell was left unimpressed when the crowd chucked
slices of bread at him while he sang on stage. Video footage of the event showed
Harwell cursing and threatening physical violence against the audience members for their actions.
At one point, he wandered out into the crowd and looked like he was ready for a showdown with
anyone who would step up before a security guard intervened. Harwell seemingly calmed down and
returned to the stage to finish out the set, with no more doughy interruptions getting in the way.
While Smash Mouth's "All Star" was the anthem of the late '90s and early 2000s,
the song also received a resurgence in popularity in the late 2010s.
The fad stemmed from content creators who decided to create their own inventive remixes of the song
and post them on the internet. According to The Daily Dot, some creators sang the unmistakable
lyrics of "All Star" over the music of other songs, such as Adele's somber tearjerker, "Hello."
While some musicians may take offense to becoming a meme,
Smash Mouth embraced it. Speaking to The Daily Dot, Steve Harwell said -
"Our standard answer is 'Hey We Invented The Meme.'"
In a separate discussion with Rolling Stone, guitarist Greg Camp admitted it's humorous to
see all the memes and songs created, and that Smash Mouth is okay with it. Interestingly,
he revealed that from a technical perspective, "All Star" is actually
ideal for remixes and mash-ups because of its specific key, tempo, and melody.
In June 2019, Rolling Stone put together a retrospective piece about Smash Mouth that
looked at the band 20 years after the release of "All Star." The expansive article interviewed
various members of the band as well as some of the key players in the group's history.
While everyone agreed "All Star" was the song that changed everything for the band,
guitarist Greg Camp also put matters into perspective by
talking about the flip side of the song's unparalleled success, saying -
"It's bittersweet. Once you do something like that,
everyone expects you to keep on doing it. Your bandmates, your managers, your record label,
everyone's just like, 'Yeah, just do that again. Just write another one of those.'"
Camp explained how there were various factors that contributed to the overwhelming popularity
and success of "All Star," and it wasn't as easy to replicate it as some people might imagine.
In a way, it was like Smash Mouth had captured lightning in a bottle by being at the right place
at the right time. While the song catapulted them into the sphere of popular culture,
it also loomed over them — and nothing they ever did from then on could top it.
Social media doesn't have many rules,
but there is one law everyone must abide by: thou shall not slander Taylor Swift.
"What is she a singer?"
"She's much more than a singer Chris! She's… She's… she's the queen! A goddess!"
Yahoo reported that Smash Mouth learned this the hard way after posting a now-deleted
tweet where they referred to Swift's 2020 album, "Folklore," as, quote, "borelore."
Whether they were being serious or horsing around was irrelevant,
since the internet took notice of the transgression and instantly reacted. The
self-proclaimed Swifties, in particular, were having none of it and took to social
media to let Smash Mouth know what they thought of their comment and music.
One person who made his feelings very clear was "Teen Wolf" star Dylan O'Brien, tweeting simply -
"F*** Smash Mouth."
The backlash towards the band was intense and unrelenting, as fans weren't about
to let them get away with their one-word review of Swift's new album. In the end,
Smash Mouth deleted the tweet, which was probably the wisest thing to do.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
The world shut down as everyone tried to contain the spread of the virus.
One of the industries that was most affected by the collective shutdown was live entertainment.
Many groups couldn't hit the road or perform to a wide audience, since the threat that COVID-19
would spread among people in close spaces was too great. When live music slowly started to return,
there were regulations put in place to control the number of people allowed in a venue,
mandate the use of masks, and keep social distance between concertgoers.
Unfortunately Smash Mouth decided to ignore these
guidelines and found themselves embroiled in controversy when
one of its concerts was identified as a superspreader event by the Independent.
"This is their concert on Sunday in South Dakota,
a large mostly maskless crowd gathering near the stage."
Reportedly, more than 100 people tested positive after attending the August 2020
concert. According to the report, Steve Harwell took the opportunity to tell the crowd -
"F*** that COVID s***."
Smash Mouth without vocalist Steve Harwell is like cereal without milk — it just feels unnatural.
However, in 2021, fans had to make peace with the fact that Harwell decided to call it quits.
According to TMZ, Harwell announced his departure from Smash Mouth, saying -
"To our loyal and amazing fans, thank you, all of this was possible because of you.
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."
According to TMZ's sources, the singer's health had rapidly deteriorated over the years, with
Harwell experiencing numerous issues that impacted both his everyday life and performance levels.
"Steve's had a lot of medical problems,
you know he has um, cardiomyopathy and heart problems so, you know, he retired."
After the infamous Smash Mouth show at the Big Sip made headlines for all the wrong reasons,
namely because of Harwell's eccentric behavior during the set after being pelted by pastry,
the decision was made to call it a day. Harwell's representative told
The New York Post that the singer was disappointed to have had to make the
decision but there was no other way he could continue due to his health issues.
While many bands have forged ahead with new lead singers, there was a question mark surrounding
Smash Mouth after Steve Harwell's departure. Unquestionably, a large part of the band's
success was due to his instantly recognizable voice and tone. Would another vocalist be
able to pick up the mic and belt out the band's hits in the same way as Harwell?
Chatting to Audacy's Kevan Kenney, bassist Paul De Lisle explained how Smash Mouth had known about
Harwell's health issues for a while, so they were prepared when the inevitable happened.
The band had long decided they wanted to carry on,
so they put out a call for a new singer and Zach Goode stepped up.
Goode explained how he decided to email the band out of the blue, thinking they would never respond
to his message. When they did, the conversation started between the different parties.
Shortly after announcing Goode as the new singer, Smash Mouth unveiled a brand-new single.
It wasn't an original number that showed off Goode's versatility or the direction
the band's songwriting would take moving forward, though. Instead,
it was a cover of Rick Astley's troll-worthy smash-hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up."