Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath and Craig Bullock Stop By the Stern Show

Mark McGrath and Craig “DJ Homicide” Bullock of Sugar Ray stopped by today to promote the release of their band’s “Greatest Hits” album featuring the hit single, “Psychedelic Bee”, which you may recall was originally written and performed by the then 11-year-old, Howard Stern.

Mark, who is a long time fan of the show, said it was kind of sad in there knowing that the E! guys would be finishing up their 11 year run soon. Howard asked how Mark was doing on “Extra” and he said he really loved it. Howard said he was always amazed at how self-effacing the whole band was.

They never really thought they were as good as they really were. Howard mentioned that Craig was also with Mark this morning, but that he never knew what to call him. Craig said he was going by Craig this morning. Howard wanted to know why a guy in such a successful band would go out and get a job on TV. Mark said their last album didn’t do so great so he was just covering his bets. He said they still often perform live when he’s on hiatus and joked that they’ll play anywhere he could smell churros cooking.

He said the last place they played a guy named Bobby Badfingers, (he snaps his fingers), opened for them and got called back for an encore. Howard asked the guys why they chose to put “Psychedelic Bee” on their album and Mark explained how Howard had helped get them started when they were struggling and this was his way of repaying him. Howard talked about how he figured he would earn about 85 cents per album and wondered how many albums the guys thought they’d sell. Mark said Howard could probably expect to make about $100,000. Howard liked that.

Extra on the Side

Howard asked Mark how he got his TV job.

Mark said he had no idea. One day he was on a tour bus, the next day he was on TV. He said an “Extra” producer had seen him on some MTV show and asked him to come in to do some auditions and the next thing he knew he was hired.

Howard thought that must piss off a lot of people who put in years of school and on the job experience to get to that point.

Mark agreed. He said he makes a pretty good living doing this, plus the money he makes from Sugar Ray makes for a good life and he knows he is very lucky.

Howard asked what his day was like and Mark described how he goes to his office and doesn’t do much more than get funny emails from Craig all day.

Howard asked Craig what he was doing these days and Craig said most recently he’s been taking care of his mother who had a stroke. Howard asked about the girls Mark’s been dating and Mark admitted that he was back together with his longtime girlfriend. He said he’s done some stupid stuff in the past and was lucky to have her back. He’s working on keeping her now.

Howard tried to get Mark to name some of the girls he’s dated, but Mark wouldn’t budge. Towards the end of the interview, Mark asked Howard what he thought of their remake of “Psychedelic Bee”. Howard said he loved it and offered up one of his other 6th grade songs, “Silver Nickels and Golden Dimes”. Howard said it was a very deep song about a hooker. Mark thought it sounded like a British Invasion tune from the 60s.

Howard gave the guys a plug for their “Greatest Hits” album in stores now and at Rhino.com.