STAY FROSTY
Mark McGrath nerds out the Sugar Ray way.
Anyone near an MTV playlist at the turn of the Willennium knows Mark McGrath’s curriculum vitae: four frothy alterna-pop megahits with Sugar Ray, a constant presence in the tabloids, a hosting gig on Extra, and a stint as the unofficial ambassador of frosted tips. But the whole time, deep inside that sleeveless bohunk flexing on the cover of Spin beat the heart of a true nerd.
“Hey, can I access the old editions of CREEM?” interjects McGrath, completely unprompted, around a half hour into our conversation. “I can’t imagine. [Doing] a deep dive from, like, ’72 to ’84? You’d never see me again.”
In the days before major-label fame and Scooby-Doo cameos, McGrath was slicing his stomach on stage like Iggy Stooge. Sugar Ray would sample the Germs and cover Black Flag. McGrath dominated VH1’s Rock & Roll Jeopardy! on three separate occasions. His band’s latest album, Little Yachty, might have a version of “(Escape) The Pina Colada Song” on the inside, but there’s a visual tribute to the Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry on the outside.