The rock band's manager, Robert Hayes, has insisted in a statement that the group took all the safety precautions possible at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.
- Aug 11, 2020
AceShowbiz - Smash Mouth has become the latest musician to ignore all the social distancing guidelines and hold a concert amid the pandemic era. The "I'm a Believer" hitmaker performed in front of a packed, unmasked crowd at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota on Sunday night, August 9.
While most musicians avoided mentioning the elephant in the room when they held a show during this pandemic era, it wasn't the case with Smash Mouth. In footage making its way round the Internet, singer Steve Harwell could be seen yelling, "Now we're all here together tonight. F**k that COVID s**t!"
KOTA reported on Monday that organizers were expecting 250,000 from around the country to attend the event overall, though it was not clear how many people attended the annual event that night.
Following the event, backlash was inevitable. "Such disrespect of 160,000 people who have died and the medical professionals who are having to struggle with being overwhelmed to try and save us," one person commented. "Coming from an old has been who should know better. By the way folks if he gets covid, he'll be able to pay for his hospital stay," another said.
"Your brain gets dumb but your head gets dumb? the years really don't stop coming? what's the best angle here," one other wrote. "Steve Harwell probably just wants to die because of how we memed his life achievement. This is collectively our fault," an individual said, as one person simply commented, "Hey now you're a shit head."
Even though Smash Mouth has yet to directly respond to the outrage, the band's manager has stressed in an email that they took all the safety precautions possible at the event. "The promoter did a fantastic job with their Covid protocol. They had a very strict social distancing and mask policy in place for all workers," Robert Hayes said. "Everything backstage was sanitized, etc. The band has their own Covid addendum to their rider as well and the promoter and venue adhered to all of our requests. We spent endless hours advancing this event to make sure that it was pulled off as safely as possible and we are very happy with the outcome."
