Somebody once told me, about this film called Shrek which wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. The years started coming and never bothered to stop, thanks in part to the movie being a gigantic box office success. For Mike Myers and Dreamworks Animation, it was the start of something beautiful, but for the band Smash Mouth?
It was a movie that defined the band thanks to the All Star single that became an an anthem for an era. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Smash Mouth dropped a few details on the track. Which I kind of remember being used for Mystery Men? It was a weird time back then.
“When DreamWorks came to us, some of us were a little apprehensive,” said former Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp. “Because once you get your song into a family movie, you merge into this Disney zone. It’s like you’re out of Warped Tour Land and Credibility Land.”
Dreamworks didn’t give up though, and after the tragedy of the 9/11 Twin Tower bombings, the foundation was set for All Star to hit the soundtrack stage.
“As we were getting ready to put [the 2001 self-titled album, Smash Mouth] out, 9/11 happened. We have a single called ‘Pacific Coast Party,’ that’s basically ‘Hey, we’re all partying over here on the West Coast,’ and the East Coast was in rubbles,” said band manager Robert Hayes. “We decided to hold off on that, which seemed like a good time to go back to Dreamworks and say “Hey, we’ll do this for this Shrek movie.”
The only problem? Dreamworks had already finished production on Shrek, but the band managed to convince the studio to use All Star to open the film and I’m A Believer to close it. “We had no clue how big Shrek was going to be,” said lead singer Steve Harwell. “We had no clue. That was just a launching pad. The song was already a number one single, and then Shrek came out and we sold millions of records off that alone.”
From there, Smash Mouth had its trademark track, and even if they grew tired of the song over the years, it still proved to be a lucrative hit over the years to come. “It’s a double-edged sword for the band,” Hayes added. “Some of the guys totally embrace it and they love it. A couple of the other guys hate being associated with a movie all the time. From a managerial standpoint, I can say this: they sometimes really hated making the money, but they never hate spending it.”
Last Updated: May 19, 2021
