INTERVIEW: MARK MCGRATH OF SUGAR RAY

Mark McGrath, the charismatic frontman of the iconic ’90s rock band Sugar Ray, has remained a staple in the music industry since their meteoric rise to fame with hits like “Fly” and “Every Morning.” Known for their signature blend of catchy melodies and laid-back vibes, Sugar Ray defined a generation’s soundtrack. In this interview, McGrath reflects on the nostalgic magic of the ’90s, the evolution of the music industry, and the joy of connecting with fans across generations. From recounting his favorite amusement parks to sharing tales of his unforgettable experiences meeting music legends, McGrath’s infectious enthusiasm and candidness offer a glimpse into both his personal life and the enduring legacy of his band. Join us as we dive into a conversation filled with heartfelt memories, humorous anecdotes, and a celebration of the music that continues to resonate with audiences today.

Asked how the start of the tour with fellow ’90s staples Barenaked Ladies and Fastball is going:

“It is really fun, because it reminds me of the summer of ’99, because back then, it was Fastball, Sugar Ray, and Goo Goo Dolls. What made that tour so special is that we each had the number one, number two, and number three songs in the country, and each week, a song would go up or down. Each one of us eventually had the #1 spot on the charts, and that was just like an incredible song. I don’t know if that’s ever happened before, where three bands on a major tour were switching positions at one, two, and three,” McGrath recalled.

The ’90s were a special time for music. Maybe it’s because those were my formative years and these songs were the soundtrack of the years that shaped me as a person. Perhaps there is more to that! What made this time period so unique is that the bands that haven’t charted songs in years can still tour large venues on the strength of their past catalogs. Continuing to reflect on Sugar Ray’s first major tour:

“That was really fun, and it was our first really big shed tour back then, so it was great,” he continued. “And to still be able to do that all these years later, I think about every day how grateful I am when I pull up in front of these big gigantic venues like Blossom Music Center, and the catering there, and the dressing rooms are amazing, and we traveled these beautiful buses and I just look out the crowd when Fastball’s playing or Barenaked Ladies, and I pinched myself that 25 years later, we’re still doing it. I think one thing about the ’90s that makes it so special is that it was the last time we shared entertainment collectively. Seinfeld came on at 9:00 on Thursday nights, and we all saw it at once. Records would come out on a Tuesday, and new videos would debut on a Friday on TRL with Carson daily. There was a real togetherness that streaming eliminated, a shared communal entertainment value that I think is so important when making decades of memories. We don’t have that anymore. I’m not saying it’s worse, it’s just different. I think that’s why people hold onto their memories from the ’90s and ’80s and ’70s so much, because you can actually have shared memories with friends, and that’s why it means so much. And when you’re in a communal setting like this on this tour, it really manifests that energy. It’s a blessing to be part of that.“

The music industry has been turned on its head since the peak success of Sugar Ray compared to 2025. When “Fly” was a #1 hit, FM radio was king, broadband internet was in its infant stages, and streaming, as well as social media, were merely science fiction. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to having gatekeepers (as long as you can break down the walls, as Sugar Ray did). McGrath was asked if he would rather have broken into the biz during the simpler times or have the present-day technology at his disposal when first making a splash.

“I think everything has its liabilities and assets. I was raised in the era I was, so it’s all I knew,” McGrath reflects. “I’m really dating myself now. You sent out a demo cassette to labels, and you prayed for the best, and you didn’t have a lot of information. You kind of had to figure it out by yourself. And that added a lot of character to the band. We really paid our dues to kind of be worthy of what we’re doing. Now, look at the Internet as an incredible tool. I always think about the internet. The good news is, everybody can do it. And that’s also the bad news. Meaning, it’s hard to sustain a career. You might get a little pop on TikTok or something like that, but without having any infrastructure or a label, it’s hard to sustain a career. I’m grateful to have come up with the time that I was familiar with and I’m grateful that social media doesn’t feed my career. It’s part of it, and I’m certainly involved in all of it, and it’s great for information, but I’m super grateful I have to wake up every day and take a picture of what I’m eating for breakfast to sort of validate my fan base at all.”

In a recent interview with Sugar Ray’s tourmates, Fastball, the band suggested that the ’90s were a ‘weird time’ for FM radio. They claimed that the songs that made it to the airwaves during the mid & late ’90s would never make it into rotation today.

“I kind of have to disagree with my good friends in Fastball,” McGrath argued. “A great song is a great song. I don’t care what it is, what era it is; a great song will always break through. I don’t care what style. I’m going to have to disagree with that because Fastball writes such great songs. They’re untouchable. ‘The Way’ was going to find a way, pun intended, and ‘Out of My Head,’ it was such a beautiful piece of Beatles-esque craftsmanship that was going to find a way, too. So, you still see bands sneaking in, but not as much anymore. There’ll always be a lane for it, even though it’s getting down to one or two lanes instead of five anymore.”

This interviewer has interviewed more prominent ’90s acts in the past few weeks than usual. (That’s not a complaint! It’s an honor to talk to the bands that I grew up listening to!) However, these interviews are starting to sound like Groundhog Day; too much focus on nostalgia and strolls down memory lane. It’s time to mix it up and take a break from the music and tours of yesteryear and ask McGrath some questions that stray from the typical path.

Questions like: “Are you a fan of amusement parks?”

“I always have been! And then, when my kids were born, I have a 15-year-old kid now, who still loves going to amusement parks. So you see everything through kids’ eyes the second time,” McGrath said. “I really enjoy roller coasters and amusement parks. It’s super fun. We also have the opportunity to play at Epcot every year at Disney World. And it’s been a fun thing to see my kids grow at Epcot each year with other families. I really enjoy Disney parks.”

He mentioned his love of roller coasters. McGrath’s favorite place to take the thrill rides:

“In terms of a one-stop roller coaster spot, I’m going to have to say Magic Mountain in Los Angeles,” McGrath said with no hesitation. “It’s the one that I had a lot of first out there the first time I ever did. They have a roller coaster called a Colossus. And when I was younger, that was a mecca. That was the mountain you had to climb to really prove, to be like you, getting the courage, and they just keep adding all these insane, exciting, fun roller coasters.”

Fans of rock stars are often found starstruck when meeting their favorite artists. Many folks have undoubtedly been thrilled out of their mind to meet McGrath in person. He was asked if the tables have ever turned, and he himself was starstruck from meeting a specific person.

“So many times, Dude! I’m a fan first. I don’t really look at myself as a musician,” he explained. “I have had the pleasure of meeting Paul McCartney and hanging out with him. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Brian Wilson many times. I got to interview him through Extra. I’ve had the opportunity to perform with the Beach Boys many times, including with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. So, there’s a long list of people that I’ve met whom I’m still a big fan of today. I met Post Malone a while back. I’m a huge fan of his. I’ve never lost that fandom, thank God. It keeps me motivated, inspired, and most importantly, humbled.

Sticking with the theme of non-traditional questions…This interviewer and my wife have three dogs in the house. (Shoutout to Rito, Paco, and Hugo!) Curious of McGrath shares my love for four-legged friends:

“Since I’ve been able to, I’ve owned dogs. Dogs just make your life better,” he said emphatically. “In fact, I like most dogs more than I like most people! I have a dog right now, a King Charles Cavalier. Her name is Poppy. I’ve had multiple dogs throughout my life.”

In addition to his fame from fronting a popular ’90s band, McGrath equaled his success off the stage by earning him not one, not two, but three victories on the televised Rock and Roll Jeopardy. When quizzed if there is anything, outside of Sugary Ray, that he is more proud of:

There is not,” he admitted. “And apparently, it’s cool to a lot of other people, too, because I’ll go through airports, I’ll go through malls, and people know the songs, but they want to talk about Rock and Roll Jeopardy. And it’s usually people who can beat my ass. If you’re coming up to challenge the kid, you better be ready. So I can tell these people, they know their stuff.“

“A couple of weeks ago, someone on Jeopardy mentioned that they were in a band. He said that they sent me a Cameo, and we gave Mark McGrath three choices to name our band. He came up with our band name, which was something generic,” McGrath continued. “And Ken Jennings goes, ‘Oh, Mark McGrath! Jeopardy legend! The king of Rock and Roll Jeopardy.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah!’ Ken Jennings, the absolute GOAT, knows who I am!’ That was kind of a cool moment.”

This interviewer has been to more concerts than most people on the planet could ever see in five lifetimes. One of the coolest things I’ve seen as I’ve aged past 40 years of age is people my age bringing their now concert-age-appropriate offspring to see the bands that they grew up listening to and loving. It’s mind-blowing to see multiple generations of fans rocking out together to the same band. McGrath was asked if he has noticed this trend at shows in recent years.

“It’s one of the most magical things you could see from the stage,” McGrath said. “You see that the family there is enjoying songs that you wrote. You can see them sort of connecting with their memories. But again, making new ones and then having your music be worthy of you exposing your children to the music of Sugar A in the nineties and all that great time, just, it validates us as songwriters that we deemed worthy of your memories. Because I have those memories with my mom, who’s no longer here, but I have, the songs are still here. When I hear Orleans dance with me, I want to be a partner. You know that song, right? Of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah. My mom and I used to sing that when I was like eight years old, when I lived back in Connecticut. So my mom’s no longer here, but that song is still here. And it brings me such a melancholy joy when I hear that song. And to be able to elicit that response from other people and their families, obviously. Obviously, we want people to be alive and join the music in Sugar Ray, but the fact that we’re worthy of people’s memories is so special and verified. I wish it upon every band because it’s just such a gift from the heavens. And I’m just, like I said, I’m just grateful every time I see it.”

Sugary Ray has unique marketing styles over the years, including video game and movie song placements, including a band cameo in a Scooby-Doo film in 2002. McGrath was asked about these efforts and how they aided in the band’s success.

“I would love to say there was some kind of grand scheme plan behind it all,” McGrath said. “And I think success breeds opportunities. So we were lucky. We had some summery breezy type songs and the Scooby-Doo folks just felt we could write a song for the movie and it felt that it was kind of in the air. And I love, Scooby was our favorite cartoon growing up. Rodney and my are guitar players’ favorite by far to be in the live action remix to actually be in the movie. We flew to Morton Island, which was off the gold coast of Australia, and we pulled up the spooky island literally and lived there for five days with these crazy Australians that were partying their brains out. And it was the most fun I’ve ever had that five days later we’ve been crawling off the island. They’ll get me out of here. It’s too dangerous. But that was great. And there’s a lot of people a lot smarter than me that really got us in some wonderful things In terms of soundtracks, video games, Atlantic Records had two floors of a publicity and marketing department that really worked overtime. We were involved in a lot of the conceptualization as well. It’s something I like to be involved in, but there was a lot of great ideas and really kept us afloat and we were willing to take the opportunities too. We let people do their jobs, which really benefited us a lot.

McGrath’s wife, Carin Kingsland, works in the beauty industry. McGrath’s hairstyle in 1997 made women swoon; they immediately fell in love with the rockstar. (He was once voted “Sexiest Rocker” in 1998!) Was it the Mrs. who came up with his iconic hairdo?

“No! I wish she did, but she did not come up with this,” McGrath admitted. “She’s actually an esthetician, which is facials and things like that.”

The real story:

“An old buddy of mine was in beauty school in 1997, and we were going to film our video the next day, which became ‘Fly.’ My buddy swore to me he could dye my hair, because I saw a picture of Scott Weiland in Rolling Stone Magazine. I always thought Scott had the coolest aesthetic ever. He was just the coolest thing ever. He was kind of our generation’s Bowie. I was wearing a three-piece suit, and it was in Rolling Stone. I gave my buddy this picture, and I should have known there was going to be a problem the first time when he pulled into the house to start dyeing my hair. He hadn’t graduated yet, mind you, from beauty school. He came in with a case of beer. I’m like, ‘Ooh, it’s going to be one of these nights.’ So we ended up dyeing my hair. It was so painful. He forgot to put the protectant on, and I begged them to get it off. I couldn’t take any more. And that was the result, a kind of spotted hairdo. And I thought I ruined the video shoot because I showed up the next day, and everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, what did you do to your hair?’ My hair was kind of slicked back, wasn’t spiky like it is now. It was an absolute drunken accident by my buddy, but he’s still a stylist today. So that’s the good news. And he kind of invented that hairdo by accident!”