Entertainment
'Sharknado 2' Star Mark McGrath From Sugar Ray In The '90s To Now — Photos
From Megashark vs. Giant Octopus to Frankenfish, those Syfy original movies are pretty intoxicating. They lean into the silly B-movie disaster genre with increasingly ridiculous concepts, cheesy-though-often-kind-of-impressive FX, and casting choices designed to delight your nostalgia button. The team at Syfy is back with sequel Sharknado 2: The Second One , starring Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray fame.
The singer has been through quite the wild ride: from famous internationally touring frontman to hosting stints on Extra and Don't Forget the Lyrics and now to the Syfy original movie. Lending his voice to hits such as "Every Morning" and "Fly," McGrath, along with the rest of Sugar Ray, was an inescapable force in their day. While the band didn't have too much lasting power, they did fuel the sound of late '90s summer for a couple of years.
Fans can breathe easy though. Despite all of the changes (specifically the "not being the lead of a top-charting band anymore" part) McGrath is still how we knew him in the '90s, albeit with less frosted tips (though aren't you glad about that part?) Here, we walk through the best of McGrath, then and now, and showcase how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Then: Swimming With His Clothes On
Or, some sort of vertical underwater planking really, as seen in the “Fly” video. While it seemed he and his bandmates rode the fame train together in the ’90s, they aren’t so buddy-buddy anymore, with some disputes over the current status of the Sugar Ray brand. While you may not see the original lineup during a nostalgia tour, you can still relive the decade’s magic via the music video (the late ’90s were basically one giant California pool BBQ).
Image: Youtube (Screengrab)
Now: Swimming With Sharks
…and Judah Friedlander. There’s way more where that came from, as McGrath’s Twitter feed is filled with insider Sharknado goodness. You’ll recognize Friedlander from his role as Frank on 30 Rock, but that’s not McGrath’s only connection to the show. In the episode “Subway Hero” Dennis calls Liz out for never supporting his band, and a cut away reveals him warbling “Fly” off-key in a dive bar (because if you had to imagine one person in a Sugar Ray cover band, it’d probably be Dennis Duffy).
Then: Tatted and Shirtless
Even though you might not have admitted it then, Mark McGrath was super hot in the ’90s. Sure, it was in a kinda douchey, super tatted up kinda way where you were pretty sure he would be mean to you (unlike a certain gentle-souled TRL host), but that body was pretty out of control. In 1999 he popped off his shirt to be shot for Rolling Stone, and the walls of teenage girls everywhere got a little more sex appeal, even if you still loved you some boy bands.
Image: Mark Seliger/Rolling Stone
Now: Shirted & Nip/Tucked?
The tattoos are still there (albeit fewer of them) and McGrath is definitely a little older and more inclined to wear a shirt. McGrath did admit to some laser tattoo removal, specifically on his neck, on the Wendy Williams Show after a spirited story about the birth of his children. In the clip, Joel McHale seems to think he’s still kind of a douche, but I’d reckon the self-aware McGrath doesn’t mind. In a 2013 Rolling Stone piece, McGrath admitted that he’s “done a lot of douchey things” and gets it if people might not like him.
Then: Racy Candies Cover Boy
While we’re clutching our pearls over Miley today, Candies’ ads were pretty risque, especially for a brand targeted at the youth set with spreads plastering the pages of magazines like Teen People. Basically, if you grew up in the era, you won’t really ever get to say “In my day” because in your day, you literally watched Mark McGrath get it on in a bathroom after spraying his nether regions with a novelty fragrance. You can re-live the totally ’90s magic via Youtube where the ads still exist in their entirety, and are starting to look shockingly vintage, which is impossible because the ’90s where practically yesterday. Right, guys?
Image: Candies via The Perfume Girl
Now: Kinda Square Proud Papa
The hitched-with-kids McGrath proudly posts about his kids, boasting equally about both his son and daughter’s athletic abilities, which is pretty refreshing. McGrath wed Carin Kingsland in 2012, after almost two decades of being on-and-off, proposing to her at the Viper Room where they first met in 1994.
Image: mark_mcgrath/Twitter
Then: Posing Next to '90s Stars
McGrath has been photographed with some of the biggest stars of the decade, like the departed Aaliyah, a teenaged Britney Spears, and Victoria’s Secret supermodels.
Image: Teen People via cametogivelove/Tumblr
Now: Posing Next to '90s Stars
McGrath still rolls with the homies of his heydey, though the swag quotient of his company is up for debate. He still hangs with some peeps from the nostalgia circuit, like Train frontman Pat Monaghan, who we’re sure makes just as good a posing partner as Tyra.
Image: mark_mcgrath/Twitter
Then: Performing and Touring
Of course, with those hit singles under their belt, Sugar Ray toured all over including revival festival Woodstock ‘99 (which basically killed and buried any romantic ’60s nostalgia that may have been left). The band playfully named their followup album 14:59 in honor of critics who said they were just one hit wonders, referencing the famous Warhol line about 15 minutes of fame. While the album produced several hits, the 1999 release was also the beginning of the end as the band wouldn’t make it too far into the ’00s.
Now: Still Touring
That is, until they were away long enough to cash back in on the band’s name. McGrath has taken to touring on the nostalgia circuit with other notables from the past. He performed in the Summerland tour with Everclear, Marcy’s Playground, and Lit and is currently embarking on a tour with Smash Mouth, Fast Ball, and the Gin Blossoms among others in the Under the Sun Tour. Yes, that last sentence was from 2014. As much things change, they still say the same, so if you’re really hankering to relive your youth, just frost your tips and get ready to catch your favorites on tour.
