Smash Mouth’s new singer used to be in a Weezer cover band

Sometimes art imitates life, and today it was announced that Smash Mouth‘s legendary, Shrek-defining song “All Star” has become reality. Because the band has told someone: “Hey now, you’re a rockstar,” and made him the new lead singer of the legendary band.

This announcement was made by the band on Kevan Kenney’s radio show. The group also performed their new song, a cover of Rick Astley’s meme-classic “Never Gonna Give You Up,” a big hit in the 1980s that was then resurrected in the late 2000s due to the popularity of the Rickrolling meme, where users would try to trick others into clicking on the song’s video.

During the show, Kevan interviewed Paul De Lisle, Smash Mouth’s bass player and one of the band’s founding members. During the interview, Kevan asked Paul to introduce the band’s new lead singer, noting that it was the first new singer in “decades of Smash Mouth.” De Lisle then introduced Zach Goode, declaring him to be the new frontman of the famous and highly-memetic band.

However, Zach actually has a long history in the music industry, and explained in the interview that growing up in San Diego in the 1990s means he’s performed alongside several big-name bands, before namedropping Korn and Deftones.

In fact, if you head to Zach’s website, you’ll see that he is amazingly prolific, having been a part of nine different bands, many of whom have released albums and received positive reviews. This includes the rock band Ghoulspoon, the ELO-inspired The Secret Seven, and, most interestingly, a band called Geezer.

Geezer is a comedy cover band that performs songs by Weezer and the Beastie Boys, usually by combining barbershop, ska, and punk. And they do all of this while dressed up as old men. The band became a cult favorite, performing with Weezer in a Kia advert, and they even opened for Vanilla Ice, Coolio, and Young MC.

On top of this, Zach has also done plenty of other work, including DJ-ing and voice-overs for many big companies, including Tostitos and Dr. Pepper, showing that while he might be unknown to many, this isn’t his first time in the spotlight.

It has been a hard few months for Smash Mouth, as the band’s former and best-known singer, Steve Harwell, retired in October 2021 after a controversial show during which he appeared to perform while intoxicated. After this show, Harwell talked to TMZ, where he said ongoing health issues were his reason for stepping down from the band.