Karl Mueller

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Karl Mueller (July 27, 1962, Minneapolis – June 17, 2005, Minneapolis) was a U.S. rock musician. He was the bass player and a founding member of the Minneapolis rock/grunge band Soul Asylum.

In the early 1990s, after nearly a decade of constant touring and critical acclaim, Soul Asylum found themselves without a recording contract. Mueller worked for part of this time at a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. The band's future seemed an open question, as guitarist/singers Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy played around town as an acoustic duo. Finally, Soul Asylum signed with Columbia Records and released the album Grave Dancers Union in 1992.

The song "Runaway Train" became a hit, due in part to an innovative video featuring missing teens. Mueller's five-note bass solo was heard countless times around the world.

Soul Asylum's commercial fortunes would flounder yet again in the late 1990s, and once more the band seemed on the verge of breaking up.

In May 2004 Mueller was diagnosed with throat cancer and several benefit concerts were held to help him with the medical bills. In September of that year, Grant Hart and Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü reunited for the first time in seventeen years at the Rock for Karl benefit in Minneapolis. Paul Westerberg also made an appearance, as did Soul Asylum -- in Mueller's last public performance. In June of 2005, Mueller lost his battle with cancer, forty days before his 43rd birthday.

In July of 2006 Soul Asylum released The Silver Lining, a studio album featuring Mueller's last work.

Mueller was also pictured on the cover of the EP Clam Dip & Other Delights, released in 1988.

Mueller's wife Mary Beth lives today in Minneapolis.