Sugar Ray first landed on the music charts with their song "Fly," which was released
in June of 1997 and was an instant summer anthem.
For the next several years, the band released three more successful singles and became a
'90s staple.
Their lead singer, Mark McGrath, was also rising to fame in his own right and was even
named the sexiest rock star in 1998 by People Magazine.
Now, almost 20 years later, the spiky-haired singer is rarely in the spotlight.
So, what ever happened to Mark McGrath?
Here's a look at what he's been up to lately.
Turning to TV
McGrath put his solo fame to good use in 2004 when he joined the showbiz-focused TV show
Extra as a co-host.
Even though he had this regular gig, he didn't leave Sugar Ray.
The band continued to tour and record new music for the four years McGrath was a host.
But eventually, Extra got a new host in Mario Lopez.
McGrath's time as a news correspondent was over.
McGrath reportedly left the show of his own free will because he wanted to spend more
time making music with his band, but it wouldn't be the last time he'd make a play for some
small screen recognition.
When Don't Forget the Lyrics! got a reboot in 2010, McGrath was ready to make his return
to syndicated television.
The popular game show was moving to VH1, and McGrath and the show were going to let contestants
test their lyric skills for a chance to win cold hard cash.
It sounded like a recipe for success, but the show was cancelled just a year later.
Two years later, McGrath returned as a game show host when he signed on to host the eight-episode
second season of TruTV's Killer Karaoke.
Becoming a family man
The Connecticut-born singer got two huge blessings in 2010 when he and his then-fiancee, Carin
Kingsland, welcomed twins, a boy and a girl.
McGrath gushed about little Lydon Edward and Hartley Grace, saying, "We are so lucky.
I don't think you can prepare for the love we are feeling."
After the birth of their twins, McGrath and Kingsland finally decided to tie the knot.
In 2012, the couple got hitched in southern California in front of 60 friends and family
members.
The couple told People, "After 18 years of breakups, makeups, beautiful twins and an
unwavering love that provided some pretty damn good song lyrics, we are happy to announce
that we are finally married!"
The couple's twins even got to participate in the wedding, walking down the aisle as
the flower girl and ring bearer.
Turning into a tour guy
With the help of Art Alexakis of Everclear, McGrath created a '90s summer tour in 2012.
The Summerland Tour had an impressive bill with Sugar Ray, Everclear, Lit, the Gin Blossoms
and Marcy Playground all ready to bring back '90s rock.
McGrath told Rolling Stone, "The Nineties nostalgia factor is kinda coming into play
now.
It's great to be at the point where we're at the receiving end of it.
The idea was to go out and play a show that was top-to-bottom hits…
We weren't reinventing the wheel.
Every decade has their tours.
There's the Sixties, the Seventies, the Eighties...But nobody had done the Nineties yet, so Art Alexakis
and I kinda got together and did it."
But even if they just wanted to fly, the project hit some turbulence.
Alexakis and McGrath didn't exactly see eye to eye.
McGrath told Rolling Stone, "Unfortunately, Art and I have different ideas about what
the tour is about.
He's doing his own thing now, and I put together a tour called Under the Sun."
McGrath's own '90s-centric tour was much like the first, but as he described it, it was
a bit more inclusive than the last one.
He said, "If you had a hit in the Nineties, you are welcome to play it.
I can see Naughty by Nature playing as well as En Vogue and the Gin Blossoms.
The Nineties were sort of the Lollapalooza age where people just threw aside genres of
music."
"It feels like home again"
The tour launched in 2013 with Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Smash Mouth, Vertical Horizon
and Fastball.
It lasted for a couple of years and brought out '90s fan favorites Better Than Ezra, Uncle
Kracker, and Eve 6 in the final run.
Dead but not really
McGrath found himself at the center of an internet hoax a couple of years ago when Twitter
thought he was dead.
It all started when a media company sent out a press release saying the pop singer had
been killed.
The press release claimed that McGrath had been shot and killed on the set of of Adult
Swim's Hot Package, a show featuring McGrath, which at the time had yet to debut on TV.
Many people figured out that the shocking press release was sent out merely to spark
interest in the show, but plenty took the death announcement at face value.
"The public is in panic mode."
When McGrath learned of his alleged death, he took to Twitter to set the record straight,
writing, "Final word on the death hoax thing, I knew nothing about it and found out the
same time you did…sorry about any confusion."
Going solo
In 2015, McGrath released his first solo endeavor, a five-track EP called Summertime's Coming,
crowdfunded through Pledge Music.
He said of the release, "I've been so inspired to write music again with my friends in the
band, so much in fact, that that the idea is to release an EP every six months…
We found a great place to do that very thing right here at Pledge Music, and an even better
place to take you all along for the ride."
Trying the thespian route
In addition to new music, Mark McGrath has also tried his hand at the acting scene, with
appearances in films like Scooby-Doo and Uptown Girls.
That hasn't helped him turn into a full-on movie star...but he did get a recurring role
in those Sharknado films, so it's not been a total wash.
"The greatest thing about Sharknado is legitimate actors are trying to get into it and they're
being turned away."
Hey, at least he knows where he stands in the grand scheme of Hollywood.
Reunited and it feels so good
Although Sugar Ray hasn't released an album since 2009's Music for Cougars, that doesn't
mean the band has broken up.
The remaining members of Sugar Ray still play festivals together and those set lists include
the band's most well-known songs.
McGrath said, "We never once skip the four hits from Sugar Ray, and we play them in their
original capacity.
No jazz exploration on 'Fly' like Sting or something.
Never."
But McGrath is still running a solo act, too.
Alone, McGrath will be featured on the I Love the 90s Tour that begins in July 2017.
He'll join era favorites like TLC, Naughty by Nature, Montell Jordan, Blackstreet, Coolio
and more.
So, he's clearly making good on some of his most famous lyrics.
"There's no time to think about starting or the end.
We'll find out, I'm told, my mother, she told me so.
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