The lead singer of Smashmouth, Steve Harwell, just announced that he's retiring. In 2015, the band played the Taste of Fort Collins, where I was there for that meltdown.

Smashmouth recently appeared at event in New York state and put on, what's been widely commented as, a 'horrible' show, thanks mostly impart to Harwell.

The band was all over the place in the 90's, especially with the song  'All Star' and 'I'm a Believer' being huge on the radio and being included in the blockbusters, 'Shrek' and 'Shrek 2.'

They had a great moment in the sun, without question; you could say they were, indeed, walking on the sun, they were that hot. Fame, and time, seem to have taken their toll on lead man Harwell.

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He was in the news recently in news about his heart condition, and how he was taking a break. That break seemed to have ended too soon. On October 9, 2021, he was back on stage, apparently drunk off his butt and yelling at concert goers.

He reportedly, among a lot of thing, raised his hand in a Nazi salute, and threated to kill a fans 'entire family.' The term 'off the rails' comes to mind.

I was alerted to the Oct 9 appearance via a Twitter post. *Harwell uses NSFW language, here:


I have a strong connection to Harwell and the band, after being ON STAGE at the Taste of Fort Collins in 2015, when Harwell 'went off' on fans for throwing slices of bread at the stage.

WHAT WAS THE DEAL AT TASTE OF FORT COLLINS?

There was a vendor at that Taste of Fort Collins that was giving away bread. During the concert on the night before, fans were throwing bread at the band, and the band kind of got into it.

The next night, with the Smashmouth show, Harwell was not having it. Maybe more than a little drunk, with people throwing bread up at them, he got 'super upset.'

WHAT HAPPENED?

He kept yelling at the 'fans' that it was rude, etc. He threatened to walk off if they kept it up. They kept it up, he walked off.

I was the DJ that was at the concert to be the person to say, 'Thanks for coming, everybody get home safe!' after the show was over, so I was right there off-stage. The promoter came up to me:

You need to go out there and say something.

Like what?' I said

Like, if they want to see the show they need to stop

OK....

And, I swear, I had the mic in my hand and was approaching the stage, when here comes Harwell storming at me. He is a big guy, I am not. He storms over and grabs the mic out of my hand-

I got this.

Then he rushes out and began yelling again; I really though he was going to hurt someone. There wasn't anything I could do, nor should have done; it wasn't my party, and I wasn't about to approach that guy.

If you missed the video, let's recap: Again, this is NSFW stuff:

As part of his retirement statement, Harwelll wished his former band nothing but the best, and he'll be their biggest fan.

Good Luck, Steve. Hang in there.

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