Rock and Roll Lifestyle?

Soul Asylum's bassist, Karl Mueller, died at age 41 this week of throat cancer.

When I was in high school I was enamored with the Twin Cities' music scene (so maybe it's no coincidence I live here now), and Soul Asylum was at the center of it. They also used to come to play at Grinnell once a year.

Soul Asylum was such a great band in the late 80s and early 90s. They struggled with their bout with fame but Hang Time, Made To Be Broken, and And The Horse They Rode In On were required listening for me on a daily to weekly basis back in college in high school.

Anytime you hear or read that a rock and roller dies young, you figure he was living a crazy Chris Farley life of self-destruction. While throat cancer is usually tied to the self-destructive habit of smoking, what struck me in reading about Mueller's life is how he was pretty much just an average guy.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Another longtime friend and local music maven, LeeAnn Weimar, said: "Karl was an intelligent guy and had a dry, sarcastic, sardonic wit. And he was a damn good cook. He and [his wife] Mary Beth liked to entertain. He was a really good friend."...

...Said Minneapolis singer-songwriter Paul Metsa: "Karl was blue-collar and a barroom buddy in the best sense of the word. He had a tremendous work ethic. I will never forget seeing him on a Friday night on David Letterman and the following Monday working the kitchen at the Loon Bar and Café downtown."

As for Mueller's bass playing, Metsa called it "both deceptively effortless and incredibly powerful."

Said Hart(Grant Hart of Husker Du fame): "It was never a flashy thing, but that was the core of his humility."

Pat Montague, owner of J.D. Hoyt's restaurant and bar, where Mueller's wife used to work, knew him "as a guy who did crossword puzzles at the bar every day. You'd never know he was in the music business. He was a down-to-Earth guy."

Mueller could often be seen walking his two Scottie dogs -- one black, one white -- around his south Minneapolis neighborhood. But he was famous for what he did with Soul Asylum for more than two decades.

Click here for the whole story.