Posted on 06/21/2005 5:00:24 PM PDT by Drew68
By Charlie Amter
Soul Asylum cofounder Karl Mueller is, in the words of one of his songs, "Closer to the Stars."
The bassist for the hit-making alt-rock band died Friday in Minneapolis after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 41.
According to Mueller's longtime friend (and former Jayhawks manager) Maggie Macpherson, Mueller was due to have surgery Monday.
Mueller had been fighting the cancer since the spring of 2004, prompting Soul Asylum, with Mueller, and fellow Minneapolis rock legends Hüsker Dü to regroup for a special October benefit concert.
Mueller, along with frontman Dave Pirner, founded Soul Asylum in 1984. The band was a critically respected staple of college radio throughout the 1980s, and went on to platinum-selling success after the songs "Runaway Train" and "Somebody to Shove" off Grave Dancers Union went into heavy rotation on MTV during the grunge era.
Per the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy, as well as members of the Jayhawks and Babes in Toyland joined Mueller at his home Friday for a bedside vigil.
Soul Asylum finished a number of new songs recently, which, the Tribune says, are currently being shopped to major labels for an early 2006 release. It will be the band's first new offering since 1998's Candy from a Stranger.
Funeral arrangements are set for Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Mueller is survived by his wife, Mary Beth, and his mother, Mary.
Damn. 41 and dead of throat cancer. I can only assume (maybe wrongly) that smoking might have played a roll. Seems like a young age to pay the piper for one's vices. He's only 5 years older than me. Might be time to quit.
Their only song I liked was that one at the end of one of Kevin Smith's movies, and I completely forgot it.
I was thinking the same thing. 41 is too damn young. "Runaway Train" is still one of my favorites.
The band is probably best remembered for guitarist/singer Dave Pirner's status as onetime boyfriend to Winona Ryder.
I was expecting to read "heroin overdose" and not cancer. Typically at 41 it is some sort of drug or alcohol related misfortune.
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My thoughts exactly before I clicked on the article. I lost a cousin at 34 years of age about 3 years ago, he chewed tobacco and had everything from stomach cancer, throat cancer and even a brain tumor. Started in his stomach, and quickly spread throuhout his body like wildfire. He went right into the service out of high school, and retired when he was diagnosed. Buried with full military honors.
According to all the blogs, yes, Karl was a smoker. 41 is way too young to die especially when it could be prevented.
Aren't you thinking of Candle Box?
Not a bad one. I've always thought that "Black Gold" was one of the defining tunes of the early 1990s.
I'm so old and out of touch I never heard of Soul Asylum but I've heard of a song called "Runaway Train". Too bad for him........too young to die is right.
I love their late 80s album "Hang Time".
They just keep on dying in the music world. When will the madness end? Johnny Cash, half of McFadden & Whitehead, Dirty Ol' Bastard (We Hardly Knew Ye), Laura Branigan, that guy who played in that rock band, Anne Murray, Chris LeDoux, Sammi Smith, Ray Charles, that drummer whose name I can't remember, the Molly Hatchet guy, all dead. All of them. Pretty soon, we'll have no music to listen to at all, except that made by dead guys.
RIP Karl. Good to see Husker Du rebanded for the benefit, they were a far better band than SA imo, I would've loved to have seen them live in there heyday.
Yeah and we talk about thousands of issues entertainment,sports,politics,religon,taxes,offbeat...is that ok with you, Master?
Anne Murray isn't dead, is she?
Apparently not. I think I got her confused with Murray the K, who is officially dead.
Ah, I see. My Mom used to listen to her records when I was little, so that made me sad.
My favorite Anne Murray song was "Shadows In The Moonlight" from 1979. Can't think of too many others right now.
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