Soul Asylum Bassist Dies

06/21/2005 10:34 AM, E! Online
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 legend Hsker D to regropu 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.