Conversation: Steve Harwell

One of the fixtures in the "new NASCAR's" advertising campaign is the popular rock group Smash Mouth.

Smash Mouth's front man, Californian Steve Harwell is an ardent motorsports fan. How bad has Harwell got it?

"I should have been a racecar driver," Harwell said.

AUDIO CLIPS Listen to the Conversation! 1.1 MB / 9:37 Listen

Bad enough that the vocalist's next goal is a wide-open test session with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.

"None of that Petty Driving Experience stuff," he said.

After a rehearsal for Smash Mouth's performance during the Busch Series awards ceremony at the Portofino Bay Hotel, Harwell talked with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to discuss his favorite NASCAR drivers, cultivating fans and creating converts to the sport, riding along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his hopes to own a NASCAR team.

Steve, you're living the busy life of a musician, but at the same time you're a race fan. How long have you been a Winston Cup fan?

Steve Harwell: I've been a race fan probably for as long as I could walk. Since I've been a kid, you know, I've been wrenching on mini-bikes and go-karts and cars -- building bikes and cars and racing go-karts.

It's kind of like my other passion, besides music. I should have been a racecar driver.

How do you feel about Winston getting out of the sport and Nextel coming in, as the series' primary sponsor?

Steve Harwell: I think that's good for the sport, really. I think the sport needs it and they're (Nextel) going to bring some things that Winston either can't bring, or hasn't brought.

The generations (of fans) change and the racing's changing. It's a much younger generation (watching Cup racing) now and Nextel is a much more hipper company to be coming in here. I think it's just going to be good all the way around.

What kind of parallels can you draw with you and the band's experiences with the public and what these athletes, racecar drivers, have to go through?

	Kevin Harvick

Steve Harwell: It's basically identical, in a weird way. When you're out of the car, you know, you're a rock star. Dale (Earnhardt) Jr., (Kevin) Harvick -- all those boys are rock stars in their own right.

The life of a musician is the same way. It's fans and you have to respect your fans and pay attention to your fans because your fans are the ones that make or break you. You can be the best driver on the track, but if you don't got any fans, you ain't got nothing.

I'd rather have 200,000 fans a weekend and finish dead last, personally, because winning races and not getting the satisfaction of the people screaming and cheering for you, it's not the same.

As a musician, when you go out and play shows, when people boo you -- I don't care who it is and where it is -- a boo is a boo and it doesn't feel good. I've driven around the back of a truck at Darlington with Tony (Stewart), and the crowd's booing and cheering.

I told him to lay down in the back of the truck so I could get all the cheers. I said, "You better lay down so we can get some more cheers (laughing)."

Who are some of your other favorites?

	Kurt Busch

Steve Harwell: I'm a gigantic Kurt Busch fan. I mean, he's a Las Vegas boy (where I live) and I think he's a brilliant driver. I think he's taken some knocks and I think he's created some things, which all young people do, whether it's in racing or music or whatever.

I've had the same experience as him. You (tick) off the wrong people and the backlash is pretty intense, but I think he's going to make it through it and I think he's going to be winning a lot of championships.

One driver, I got to tell you, that I get the biggest kick out of is Kevin Harvick. I love this kid, because the guy totally reminds me of myself. I love it because he's always in some (stuff) with some other driver.

He's always grabbing another driver and I just love it, man. That kid is just perfect for this sport. He is perfect for this sport -- a classic.

You've had an opportunity to do a ride along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Lowe's Motor Speedway (in a Petty Riding Experience car). How was that experience, and if you had to pick another driver to do one with, who would it be?

Steve Harwell: If I could've picked another driver, I would have loved to have had his dad (Dale Earnhardt) take me around, because as we were going around, he was talking about his dad.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He was just having a conversation with me at 180 miles an hour like we're on a Sunday drive to the damn liquor store or something.

He probably could have drank a beer and ate lunch at the same time, I don't know. But first of all, a ride-along is like being in a fighter jet and you're not being the pilot.

It's like being in your buddy's car and he's acting like a fool on a weekend and you're screaming and holding onto everything.

You know, if I'm not in control of the car, it's pretty scary. But after we went around a couple times I started breathing, actually, for the first time -- like on the second lap. And he's looking at me, laughing, literally laughing; and he started making me laugh.

So we're flying around and you know what? The Petty School is so awesome because they set those cars up (and) they actually drive almost as good as the damned regular Cup cars, from what I hear. Dale even said, "Man, this thing drives better than my car around this track."

They set them up so they drive pretty easy, but what an experience that was, to be in a car with him and to see from my eyes, sitting next to him, what this kid does. Then I started picturing 43 other cars around him, banging and bumping.

It's the most intense thing I could ever possibly imagine -- being in the middle of a pack and you're the one man out. Nobody's working with you and you're going backwards. It's just crazy, but I would love to be that guy -- because I think driving is even more intense than music, to me.

Your adrenaline never stops (when you're driving). When you're on stage singing, you know, after the third or fourth song things smooth out and you're in your groove. Just like in racing, I guess you do, too -- but I don't think the adrenaline, I mean the blood is just pumping through your body at that speed.

You've done the Petty Driving Experience at Charlotte. Where else would you like to do it -- possibly at your home track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

Steve Harwell: I'd like to do it at Vegas. I'd love to do Daytona, and I'd love to do it at Bristol. I think Bristol would be wild.

Would you like to take it a step further, and actually race?

Steve Harwell: Oh, for sure. I've seriously thought about it. I've done some Legend Car stuff, you know, just the beginning stuff. But there's some cool little things to do.

I've been to different schools, like the Panoz School for road racing stuff and things like that, but I don't know. The honest to God truth, I would love to team up with some people and become a team owner, one of these days. That's kind of where I want to head.

I don't know, maybe I would do a Busch team or something -- start out there and work my way up. But I really think it's intriguing to me -- racing, period. If you can't drive it, you might as well own it and have somebody else drive it.

Other groups have done videos and what not, activities with race drivers. Does Smash Mouth have any plans to do anything like that?

Steve Harwell: Well, I can't do it now because Three Doors Down already did it (a video with Stewart and Earnhardt Jr.) and (if I did) I'd be following, I wouldn't be leading. But I would have loved to have (done it). I've got a lot of friends in the racing business -- from open wheel, CART and IRL, to Winston Cup to drag racing, the NHRA and stuff like that.

I just like being involved in it, music-wise. That's enough for me, to have (the song) "Hang On" to be in the commercials on Sunday and to have that happen, and they play another song called "Hot." To just be able to play the races and to be on Dale's car a couple years ago (was cool).

One thing I definitely want to do, maybe this next year, is to do a full Smash Mouth car; whether it's in a Busch race or in a Cup race -- I really want to plaster a car with Smash Mouth all over it.

I imagine your touring schedule is pretty hectic, so how many races do you anticipate you and the guys getting to in 2004? Do you have any musical events planned in conjunction with races?

Steve Harwell: Next year I'm going to try to get to at least, because I haven't had a chance, and we're not going to be touring right away after the first of the year so I'm definitely going to Daytona and I go to Indy every year.

I did go to the Brickyard one year but I go to the Indianapolis 500 a lot. I'd like to hit a bunch of races. I took our guitar player Greg (Camp) to Bristol. He's never been to a NASCAR race, didn't get it, never understood it, so we took the busses because we had a couple days off.

All the rest of the band went home and Greg and I and the (bus) driver and my tour manager drove out to Bristol and we parked next to Brooks & Dunn. We drank tequila for three days and that kid came out of there and just had the time of his life, man.

On Sunday, you know, hung over, and it was just this roowwrr-roowwrr-roowwrr as the cars are going by -- and we're just looking at each other, going "Give me a beer, man, this is crazy!" The crowd is completely nuts there (and) I could not believe the energy at that place.

It's a big place, but it's a small track. It holds a lot of people, and they're (cars) just whipping around this thing and they're just bouncing and banging and what an intense thing (it was). He loved it, man.

And he's hooked?

Steve Harwell: You know what, it's the funniest thing. He calls me, on Sundays -- like, he'll call my hotel room if we're on the road and he'll say, "Are you watching the race?" And I'll go, "No, man -- I'm taking a (dump)."

He says, "You got to watch the race, Kurt Busch just got into it with Jimmy Spencer." I remember he called me during that race. There was another time he called me when I think it was Tony Stewart came in and spun (Jeff) Gordon after the race (at Bristol). I was just crackin' up.