Colson Baker, a.k.a. mgk, says he had to convince the National Guard to let him through a blocked road amid California fires to ensure a key sample on his new album could be cleared.
Lost Americana, out Friday (Aug. 8) and available on platinum metallic vinyl as a Complex exclusive, finds the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards nominee tapping into one of rock’s most enduring hits on “Starman.” The track’s chorus relies heavily on one of several hooks from Third Eye Blind’s quadruple-platinum “Semi-Charmed Life,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 and ultimately spent 43 weeks on the chart.
In addition to its main interpolation, the song seemingly tucks in a straight-up sample of the original Stephan Jenkins-led hit’s signature Lou Reed-esque “doo-doo-doo” refrain.
“I wanted to clear this sample so bad and it was hard because it’s a very popular song and the writer is an amazing modern-day poet and songwriter, a huge soundtrack for my life growing up,” mgk told fans at a recent dive bar pop-up in New York, as seen below. “I was really intimidated to ask him and then one day I was feeling froggy so I leapt and I called him. I said, ‘Hey, are you around?’ And he was like, ‘I’m actually in town. My house is in Malibu if you wanna come by.’”
At the time, mgk explained, the Pacific Coast Highway was “blocked off” due to devastating fires in the region.
“So many homes were burnt and lost in that strip there, this iconic strip in California,” he told fans. “You can only get through if you have a resident pass, like if you have a house there. I do not. I pull my car up to the National Guard and I was just sitting there like, dude, please be a young army man who likes mgk.”
At first, mgk, as expected, was told he wouldn’t be able to get through.
“I said, ‘Dude, I’m gonna be completely honest with you. I’m trying to clear this song for an album that means a lot to me,’” he recalled. “‘The guy to clear it is right in there, so will you believe in this mission and let me accomplish it?’ He was like, ‘Go ahead, bro. I better hear it on the album.’”
“Semi-Charmed Life” remains a rock and pop radio mainstay nearly 30 years removed from its original release. It’s one of a slew of gargantuan hits found on Third Eye Blind’s Jenkins and Eric Valentine-produced 1997 self-titled debut album, with “Jumper” and “How’s It Going to Be” also standing tall as Hot 100 top 10 hits in their own right.
As a sign of 3EB’s longevity, Jenkins and company were famously shouted out on Pusha T’s Ye-produced It’s Almost Dry track “Dreamin of the Past” in 2022, like so:
“Still I climb, rockstar, Third Eye Blind”
The following year, the band played Pharrell’s Something in the Water festival in Virginia Beach.
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