Mark McGrath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Mark Sayers McGrath (born March 15, 1968) is the lead singer of rock band Sugar Ray. He currently hosts the television entertainment show Extra.
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, but grew up in California. He graduated from Corona del Mar High School and then majored in Business Communication at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles. He worked as a truck driver before making his success in music.
McGrath made his Broadway theatre debut in Little Me in 1982. He has also appeared in The Three Musketeers (1984) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1998).
McGrath moved through a few different bands before he went into Shrinky Dinx, one of them being Newport Beach's Electric Kool Aid, an early band with Anton Newcombe and Matt Hollywood of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. McGrath was in this band for only one day.
McGrath met and began singing with a band called Shrinky Dinx in 1992. By 1994, the band had changed its name to Sugar Ray following a threat of lawsuit by Shrinky Dinks manufacturer Milton Bradley. Sugar Ray landed a record contract with Atlantic Records, but their initial record was not successful. The band achieved a number one hit with "Fly" in 1997, and the band went on to even greater success (see Sugar Ray for details).
Charismatic and personable, McGrath's personal popularity soared as he appeared on national magazine covers such as Rolling Stone and Spin. He also made numerous appearances on MTV, VH1, and various talk and awards shows. People magazine named him the "Sexiest Rocker" of 1998. In 1999 McGrath was a member of the short-lived side project The Wondergirls that included Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots.
He contributed the track "Reaching Out" on Strait Up, a tribute album to late vocalist Lynn Strait. He appeared in the video of "Angel's Son," another song written for the album (by Sevendust) and performed with the band during their appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In the 2000s, he began making guest appearances on television shows such as Las Vegas and North Shore, and made a guest appearance with the rest of Sugar Ray in the 2002 movie Scooby-Doo. He had a previous cameo appearance in the 1997 movie Father's Day. In 2002 he was referred to in the Kid Rock song Cocky (album).
In 2004, he was the headliner, alongside Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind at The Justice Ball, an annual fundraiser for the Los Angeles-based charity Bet Tzedek Legal Services - The House of Justice. This performance took place at Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California.
In 2004 Mark was invited to do a collaboration of the song Party for Two by country music super star Shania Twain. Their song debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the week of September 18, 2004 at number 39, Twain's third highest debut of all time, and highest of the week. The single spent 20 weeks on the chart and climbed to a peak position of number seven on December 25, 2004, where it remained for one week. "Party for Two" became Twain's sixteenth top ten single and twenty-second (seventh consecutive) top twenty single. It also peaked at number 58 on the Hot 100.
He began his stint as co-host of the Extra television show on September 13, 2004.
During the 2004 season, he worked as a guest judge for American Idol auditions that were aired in early 2005.
McGrath co-hosted the NBC broadcast of the 2005 Radio City Music Awards With Jaime Pressley. In addition, he performed a cover version of the Beach Boys' Getcha Back for the soundtrack of Herbie: Fully Loaded, a Walt Disney Pictures movie of the same year.
McGrath is the current host of Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll.
In 2007, McGrath co-hosted the infomercial for the 10-disc collection The Buzz Box, released by independent record label Razor & Tie.
On 8 August 2007, McGrath said he broke up with his girlfriend of four years during the concert at SingFest, which was held in Singapore.
Currently McGrath is the host of the new show, Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.