The alt-rock band was on the receiving end of gentle ribbing online Wednesday after giving the reality star a glowing review: approving of her latest scantily clad selfie and her lyrical caption with a retweet.
“All that glitters is gold,” Kardashian wrote, modeling the two-piece in a mirror and quoting the idiom that the band undercut with their 1999 hit “All Star.” The Smash Mouth X account replied to the beauty mogul with “only shooting stars,” completing the lyric to their hooky pop song.
That might have been all well and good had the group not experienced the death of former lead singer Steve Harwell just days earlier. The band was called out by some X users for making a joke “too soon” rather than grieving the erstwhile frontman.
“Yall just lost the main guy and couldn’t like sit on this? Lmao,” quipped one X user.
“Aren’t y’all supposed to be mourning rn???” wrote another.
“who runs this account now help,” added another.
But some fans defended the tweet, further completing the lyric with an impromptu digital sing-along and arguing that Harwell would have approved of the online tête-à-tête.
“people saying ‘too soon’ really didn’t knew steve and it shows lol,” stated one user.
“it’s what he would have wanted,” added another.
“This is how we copeeeeeee,” a fan added, adding several applause emojis.
“Dunk on em one last time,” tweeted another.
“there’s no better way to remember my man steve that tweeting something he definitely would if he was around,” wrote another.
Harwell died Monday at his home in Boise, Idaho, at the age of 56, according to the band’s manager. Days earlier, TMZ reported that the musician had been in the final stage of liver failure and had entered hospice care.
The website also reported Wednesday that members of the group were not allowed to say their final farewells to Harwell in person because the musician didn’t want visitors while he was in hospice. The band’s manager, Robert Hayes, told TMZ that Harwell asked for privacy in his final days.
Incidentally, the band’s tweet preceding the Kardashian photo was a tribute to the late singer.
“Steve Harwell was a true American Original. A larger than life character who shot up into the sky like a Roman candle,” the tweet said. “Steve will be remembered for his unwavering focus and impassioned determination to reach the heights of pop stardom. Rest in peace knowing you aimed for the stars, and magically hit your target.”
The “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “I’m a Believer” singer retired from Smash Mouth in 2021 due to his declining health. At the time, he said it had been “so hard to power through” his physical and mental health issues.
Harwell’s retirement announcement followed a concert in upstate New York in which he slurred his words, threatened audience members and gave what appeared to be a Nazi salute to the crowd, according to The Times’ obituary.
A spokesperson for the band later said the musician had “suffered profusely over the years with several types of addiction,” leading to health conditions. Harwell had cardiomyopathy, which affects the heart’s ability to pump blood, and Wernicke’s encephalopathy, which “greatly impacted his motor functions including speech and impaired memory.”