'All Star' singer dead at 56 from liver failure: '90s rockers then and now — How they've transformed over the years

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Rock music truly flourished in the ’90s. From Blues Traveler and the Black Crowes to No Doubt and the Cranberries, the decade put out some amazing rockers. We’re checking up on some of the most popular rock stars of the era to see what they look like and what they’re up to these days…

Smash Mouth frontman Steve Harwell, who co-founded the San Jose, California, band in 1994, shot to fame along with bandmates Kevin Coleman, Greg Camp and Paul De Lisle as their 1997 song “Walkin’ On the Sun” climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock tracks chart. 

A few years later, 1999’s “All Star” and “Then the Morning Comes” became two more big hits for Steve and his bandmates, with “All Star” later becoming practically ubiquitous in the 2000s after it was used in films including “Mystery Men” and “Shrek.”

Keep reading to find out what happened to Steve and see more ’90s rockers then and now…

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After their ’90s and early 2000s success, Smash Mouth continued to make music but never delivered another hit quite as catchy as their early singles. Frontman Steve Harwell suffered a devastating loss in 2001 when his 6-month-old son, Presley, died from leukemia. A dozen years later — following years of alcohol struggles that would continue — Steve was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and Wernicke encephalopathy, a brain injury that most often affects people who consume a lot of alcohol, and continued to face health issues.

He retired from performing in 2021 after making headlines with a troubled performance at a beer and wine festival during which he appeared to be intoxicated and threatened audience members. Nearly two years later on Sept. 4, 2023, the Grammy nominee died at 56 from acute liver failure while in hospice care, surrounded by family and friends, at his home in Boise, Idaho, Smash Mouth’s manager confirmed.

MORE: Rock stars when they were young

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Brad Arnold, the frontman for 3 Doors Down, wrote the hit “Kryptonite” during a high school algebra class. His band performed it live in 1997 and released the song to local radio in their native Mississippi in 1999. In 2000, it went mainstream, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Top 40 chart.

MORE: The most famous band the year you were born

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After the success of “Kryptonite,” 3 Doors Down, fronted by Brad Arnold, released more 2000s hits like “When I’m Gone” and the power ballad “Here Without You” off their second album and “Let Me Go” and “Behind Those Eyes” off their third album, “Seventeen Days,” which debuted at No. 1, as did their self-titled fourth album in 2008.

In the decade that followed, they endured lineup changes as guitarist Matt Roberts left the band for health reasons; he passed away in 2016 at 38 from a prescription drug overdose. Bassist Todd Harrell faced legal issues including vehicular manslaughter and DUI charges in 2013 and 2014 and exited the group, leaving Brad — who got sober in 2016 — as the only original member. 

The band, which is known for its conservative politics, performed at former President Donald Trump’s inauguration concert in 2017. Brad split from his first wife, Terika Roberts, in the mid-2000s and in 2009 married second wife Jennifer Sanderson, a childhood friend from his Mississippi hometown with whom he reconnected.

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Shirley Manson got her start young, joining her first group in her teens as a keyboardist and backup vocalist. The record label saw something special in the Scottish musician and made her the frontwoman of Angelfish, which got her recognized by Garbage — the Wisconsin-based band that also includes Butch Vig, who famously produced Nirvana’s “Nevermind.” In 1995, Shirley released her first album with Garbage featuring hit singles like “Stupid Girl,” “Only Happy When it Rains” and “Vow.”

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Shirley Manson is still the frontwoman of Garbage and still rocks vibrant red hair. The group has released seven studio albums and earned seven Grammy nominations since their start in the ’90s — and they’re still performing live in 2023. The band went on hiatus temporarily in 2006, leading Shirley to pursue other artistic endeavors, like acting. She appeared on the FOX series “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” in 2008 but returned to music and started working with Garbage again in 2010. She’s been married to the band’s sound engineer, Billy Bush, since 2010.

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Mark McGrath served as the hunky frontman of Sugar Ray, a rock group from Southern California that originally formed in 1986. It took the band more than a decade to achieve a breakout hit — their 1997 tune “Fly” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks. The group released their bestselling album, “14:59,” in 1999. It yielded three massive hits: “Every Morning,” “Someday” and “When It’s Over.”

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Mark McGrath and the guys of Sugar Ray continued to make music well past the ’90s. In fact, they released their seventh studio album, “Lil Yachty,” in 2019. Mark has dabbled in hosting, leading the entertainment news show “Extra” from 2004 through 2008 and hosting the game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!” in 2010 as well as the second season of “Killer Karaoke” in 2013. He tried reality television too, appearing on season 1 of “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2018 (he came in third) and competing on “The Masked Singer” in 2021. These days, he also works as a DJ, hosting a show on SiriusXM’s The ’90s on 9 channel. The musician has been married to Carin Kingsland, with whom he has twins, since 2012.

MORE: Stars who broke up the band

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John Popper led the group Blues Traveler, which released their self-titled debut album back in 1990. But it wasn’t until their fourth studio album, 1994’s “four,” that they achieved mainstream success thanks to the hit single “Run-Around.” The tune won the band their first Grammy.

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John Popper and the men of Blues Traveler are still making music today (and John still loves hats!). They released their 14th album, “Traveler’s Blues,” in 2021 and scored a Grammy nomination for best traditional blues album. Singer John welcomed his first child, daughter Eloise, in 2015 with wife Jordan Auleb; they split in 2018.

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Hole frontwoman Courtney Love is one of the formidable ladies of ’90s rock. Her band released their first album, “Pretty on the Inside,” in 1991 and followed it up with two more albums that decade — “Live Through This” in 1994 and “Celebrity Skin” in 1998. The group split in 2002. Courtney was famously married to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain from 1992 — the same year they welcomed daughter Frances Bean Cobain — until his death in 1994.

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These days, Courtney Love still looks youthful (though some can be attributed to going under the knife) and still makes music. After going solo for a time, she reformed Hole in 2010 and released a new album, “Nobody’s Daughter.”In 2013, she started performing as a solo artist again. Acting was also a big part of her life for a time. She started in the ’80s and had memorable roles in a few films including “Sid and Nancy,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Man on the Moon” and more recently landed roles on “Sons of Anarchy” in 2014 and “Empire” in 2015. She also wrote a memoir, “Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love,” in 2006.

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Chris Robinson and brother Rich Robinson founded the Black Crowes in 1984, but it wasn’t until 1990 that they released their debut album, “Shake Your Money Maker.” Their next album, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” became an even bigger hit, topping the Billboard 200 chart in 1992.

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He’s still got those luscious locks! Though his group never duplicated the success of their first two albums, Chris Robinson and the Black Crowes continued to make music through the early ’00s. They took a hiatus from 2002 to 2005 during which the frontman worked on some solo projects, but ultimately, the band reunited and found chart success again with their album “Warpaint” in 2008. Chris and brother Rich Robinson formed the Chris Robinson Brotherhood in 2011 during another Black Crowes hiatus. They had a few more rocky periods before reuniting in 2019.

With three failed marriages under his belt — the most notable being his early aughts union with actress Kate Hudson, which produced son Ryder Robinson — Chris married for a fourth time in 2020, tying the knot with Camille Johnson. He also shares a daughter with third wife Allison Bridges.

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The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan became a massive rock star in the ’90s when the group’s album “Siamese Dream” turned them into a mainstream music act. They became one of the biggest bands of the decade before splitting in 2000.

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Billy Corgan is still making music… but he’s got a lot less hair these days! He started a new band, Zwan, after the Smashing Pumpkins’ members went their separate ways in 2000, but that band ultimately dissolved as well. Since then, he’s tried his hand at solo music and revived his old group, releasing the Smashing Pumpkins’ 10th studio album, “Monuments to an Elegy,” in 2014, which led to a reunion tour in 2018. More recently, he’s been working solo again.

Billy has also dabbled in the world of professional wrestling: He’s the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance. He’s been with Chloe Mendel, the creative director and co-founder of Maison Atia, a luxury outerwear brand, since 2012. The couple, who share children Augustus Juppiter and Philomena Clementine, got engaged in 2022.

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Gwen Stefani has been the frontwoman of No Doubt since 1986. The ska-punk-pop band released their first album in 1992. Their self-titled debut wasn’t a hit but their second album, “Tragic Kingdom,” catapulted them to fame in 1995 thanks to major hits like “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak.” The group racked up 10 Grammy nominations and two wins over the years.

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Gwen Stefani doesn’t age! The beauty became a household name not only due to her work with No Doubt but the solo career she embarked on during the band’s hiatus, which began in 2004. She delivered several smash hits with her solo debut album, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.,” and has since released three more solo studio albums. She reunited with No Doubt for their most recent album, 2012’s “Push and Shove,” and some performances in 2015. The singer famously dated bandmate Tony Kanal for years before meeting Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, whom she wed in 2002. The rock couple, who had three sons together, split in 2015 amid a nanny cheating scandal. That same year, Gwen started dating fellow “The Voice” judge Blake Shelton, whom she wed in 2021. She and the country music star have collaborated musically many times throughout their relationship.

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English rock band Bush, led by singer-guitarist Gavin Rossdale, found fame with their 1994 debut album, “Sixteen Stone.” It produced hits like “Comedown”, “Machinehead” and “Glycerine” that helped Bush become one of the biggest rock groups of the decade.

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Gavin Rossdale and the guys of Bush took a break in 2002 but reunited in 2010 and have continued to release new music and tour. During their break, Gavin put out a solo album, “WANDERlust,” which yielded a moderate hit, “Love Remains The Same,” and formed another band, Institute, that released one album before breaking up in 2006. He also ventured into acting, appearing in films like “Zoolander” in 2001, “Little Black Book” in 2004 and “Constantine” in 2005 and TV shows like “Criminal Minds” in 2009.

He was famously married to another ’90s rocker, Gwen Stefani, from 2002 until their marriage ended amid a nanny cheating scandal in 2015. They share three sons. He’s also the father of British designer Pearl Lowe’s daughter, model Daisy Lowe, which was discovered after a 2004 paternity test, and became a grandfather when Daisy welcomed her first child in 2023.

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Polly Jean Harvey started out as a member of the band Automatic Dlamini in the late ’80s but made a name for herself in the ’90s when she started going by PJ Harvey and started a band with the same name. The English multi-instrumentalist released four influential and critically acclaimed albums during that decade: 1992’s “Dry,” 1993’s “Rid of Me,” 1995’s “To Bring You My Love” and 1998’s “Is This Desire?”

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PJ Harvey continued to make incredible music: She’s the only artist to have been awarded the prestigious Mercury Prize twice (for 2001’s “Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea” and 2011’s “Let England Shake.” Her most recent album, “The Hope Six Demolition Project,” was released in 2016; it scored her her seventh Grammy nomination. Her next effort is due in 2023. PJ has also continued to tour and has worked as a composer, writing music for Broadway’s “Hedda Gabler” and the long-running production of “Hamlet” at London’s Young Vic. She also enjoyed fresh attention when her music was used extensively on the hit period drama series “Peaky Blinders.”

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Hootie and the Blowfish dominated the ’90s with their unique rock sound. Their 1994 alum, “Cracked Rear View,” spawned four massive hits — “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry,” “Only Wanna Be with You” and “Time” — and went on to be ranked the 19th bestselling album of all time in the U.S. Lead singer Darius Rucker and the guys won two Grammys before going on hiatus in 2008.

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1990s superstar Darius Rucker and his Hootie and the Blowfish bandmates got back together in 2019 for a full reunion tour and released a new album, “Imperfect Circle,” that same year. But before Darius and the group reconvened, the frontman released a solo R&B album before finding massive success as a solo singer in the country music world, in 2008 becoming the first Black artist to reach No. 1 on the country charts and in 2009 becoming the first Black artist to win the CMA Award for best new artist.

He continues to enjoy success in Nashville. In 2020, he and wife Beth Leonard announced their divorce after 20 years of marriage. They share two kids; he also has a daughter from a previous relationship.

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