Smash Mouth Frontman Steve Harwell Dies at 56

Steve Harwell, the longtime frontman of the San Jose-based, Grammy-nominated pop rock band Smash Mouth has died. He was 56.

The band’s manager, Robert Hayes, said Harwell “passed peacefully and comfortably” Monday morning surrounded by family and friends at his home in Boise, Idaho. The cause of death was acute liver failure, Hayes said in a statement.

Smash Mouth was known for hits including the Shrek-featured “All Star” and “Walkin’ on the Sun.”

“Steve Harwell was a true American Original. A larger-than-life character who shot up into the sky like a Roman candle,” Hayes said. “Steve should be remembered for his unwavering focus and impassioned determination to reach the heights of pop stardom.”

Born in California in 1967, Harwell performed in a rap group called F.O.S. (Freedom of Speech) before forming Smash Mouth in 1994. Early support of the band came from Bay Area radio station KOME, who began playing the song “Nervous in the Alley,” helping Smash Mouth gain attention.

The band released two platinum albums on Interscope Records, the ska-fueled 1997’s Fush Yu Mang and 1999’s Astro Lounge. The second album featured some of the band’s biggest hits, including the Grammy-nominated, platinum single “All Star,” which appeared in the movie Shrek alongside their cover of the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.”

Humor was a driving force behind Smash Mouth’s success, and at the forefront was Harwell’s playful alt-rock voice and persona. He made a cameo in 2001 comedy film “Rat Race,” and had a well-documented friendship with the Food Network chef and host Guy Fieri, once collaborating together on an egg-eating challenge for charity in Dublin, California.

“His only tools were his irrepressible charm and charisma, his fearlessly reckless ambition, and his king-size cajones,” Hayes said. “Steve lived a 100% full-throttle life. Burning brightly across the universe before burning out.”

Harwell’s stage antics were unpredictable and well documented. In a 2014 appearance in Napa at the BottleRock music festival, he spent much of the set delivering obscenity-laden insults to fellow 1990s band Third Eye Blind.

Nothing, however, could stop the momentum of Smash Mouth’s biggest hit. While the Shrek generation transitioned into adulthood, “All Star” would go on to become a widespread meme, being remixed and mangled by clever internet users.

Harwell left Smash Mouth in 2021 and the band continued to tour with Zach Goode as the singer. The band released a statement at the time saying Harwell had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy eight years earlier, and had suffered “nonstop serious medical setbacks including heart failure as well as acute Wernicke Encephalopathy.”

Hayes had released a statement on Sunday saying Harwell was in hospice care.

Harwell will be cremated in Boise and buried in San Jose, California, alongside his mother, Hayes said.

KQED’s Gabe Meline contributed reporting.