By Martin Boulton
Mental As Anything founding member and songwriter Andrew "Greedy" Smith has died after suffering a heart attack in his car. He was aged 63.
Mental As Anything's 'Greedy' Smith has died.Credit: Rick Clifford
Band manager Grant Bartlett on Tuesday confirmed Smith had suffered a heart attack while driving in Sydney. An ambulance arrived promptly to provide treatment but he later died.
Mr Bartlett, who has managed the Australian pop-rock band for 16 years, said Smith's fatal heart problem came as a surprise.
"One of the healthiest guys I've seen," Mr Bartlett said.
Greedy Smith in 1990.Credit: Photographic
The band released a statement saying: "It is with an incredibly heavy heart to announce that one of the founding members of Mental As Anything, Andrew Greedy Smith passed away last night ...
"Our grief and confusion at this time are little compared to what Andrew's family will be feeling – our hearts and prayers go out to them."
Founding Mental As Anything member Reg Mombassa said the group was in shock that their friend had died so suddenly.
"We are all totally shocked. He seemed like such a healthy, energetic guy," he said.
"He wasn't the kind of guy who partied too hard, he enjoyed a drink when we were younger but he was a very serious performer."
Despite leaving the group 20 years ago, Mombassa said he regularly caught up with Smith and saw him as recently as last month.
Mental As Anything original members, from left, Peter O'Doherty, Chris O'Doherty (also known as Reg Mombassa), Greedy Smith and Martin Plaza at the 2009 ARIA Hall Of Fame Awards in Melbourne.Credit: Joe Castro
"We were still in contact. I spoke to him on the phone regularly and we would drop around to each other's house occasionally. I was doing the new cover for the greatest hits so we spoke a lot about that."
Mombassa said he would remember his friend and bandmate as "the most positive and cheerful person I have ever met in my life".
"He was a decent guy, he was kind to people, he cared about people," Mombassa said.
"The way he was on stage, that joyous stage presence was genuine, he was like that off stage, he cared about his fans and gave them the time of the day."
Original Mental As Anything bass player Peter O'Doherty said on Facebook on Tuesday that he "first met Greedy when he was at the National Arts School ... along with a bunch of other ratbags who would later become Mental As Anything".
"Greedy made an impression with his cowboy shirts and harmonica belt and earned his name by eating too much fried chicken one afternoon. Greedy had indomitable energy and never had a bad word to say about anybody," O'Doherty posted.
"He brought a love of country and rockabilly to the eclectic sound of the Mentals. It's such a shock to lose him so soon when he was still incredibly active and touring and releasing records. He'll be sadly missed."
Australian musicians Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool, Mondo Rock) and Ed Kuepper (the Saints, Laughing Clowns) were among those to pay tribute to Smith on social media, in the hours after his death was made public.
The most recent line-up of 'the Mentals' with Smith front-and-centre played in southern NSW's Tathra on Saturday night and was scheduled to perform in Melbourne on Thursday.
The group was formed in Sydney in August 1977 by Smith, along with Mombassa, Martin Plaza, Wayne "Bird" Delisle and O'Doherty.
Smith was also a vocalist, alongside Plaza, and keyboard player.
Smith was a regular on Countdown, not only performing with his band, but as a guest host who had a natural charm and enthusiasm for television. He was also a familiar face on TV show Hey Hey It's Saturday.
As well as writing songs and singing in the band, Smith also played keyboards, harmonica and bounced around the stage, smiling the whole time while Plaza and Mombassa on guitar and O'Doherty on bass at least appeared to be getting on with the more serious nature of rock 'n' roll.
And that was what genuinely set Smith aside from most people in rock and new wave bands, he genuinely looked like he was having the time of his life up on stage, and fans easily related to his sense of fun and exuberance.
The current line-up of the band was on a national tour with Smith, which first burst onto the Australian music scene with debut album Get Wet in 1979.
Mental As Anything had top 10 Australian hits with If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?, Too Many Times and Live It Up. The band's debut album featured the song The Nips Are Getting Bigger, which charted inside the top 20 in Australia and is still regularly played – among many other Mental As Anything songs – on radio stations around the country.
Mental As Anything was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 2009. Last month, Smith was inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his fiancee Fiona Docker and son Harvey.
with AAP