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Feb 22, 2022 By Mark Redfern

Mark Lanegan has died. The singer/songwriter and former Screaming Trees frontman was only 57. A statement has been issued to the press via email and also posted on Lanegan’s official Twitter page. No cause of death has been given.

The statement reads: “Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland. A beloved singer, songwriter, author and musician he was 57 and is survived by his wife Shelley. No other information is available at this time. The family asks everyone to respect their privacy at this time.”

Lanegan was born in 1964 in Ellensburg, Washington, and Screaming Trees were formed in 1984 by Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bassist Van Conner, and drummer Mark Pickerel. The band’s debut album, Clairvoyance, was released in 1986, although it was 1992’s Sweet Oblivion, the band’s sixth album, that proved to be the band’s commercial breakthrough, featuring the singles “Nearly Lost You,” “Dollar Bill,” “Shadow of the Season,” and “Butterfly.” The band was associated with the Pacific Northwest grunge movement of the early ’90s, as well as alternative rock. Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell had produced the band’s fourth album, Uncle Anesthesia, and Lanegan also worked with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic on a project. Lanegan’s debut solo album, The Winding Sheet, was released in 1990 via Sub Pop.

The Screaming Trees broke up in 2000, but Lanegan has continued to release solo albums over the last few decades. Over the years Lanegan has also collaborated with a number of notable musicians and had various other bands and side-projects. He released three albums with former Belle and Sebastian vocalist Isobel Campbell. He was an official member of Queens of the Stone Age for 14 years. He put out two albums with Duke Garwood. The Gutter Twins was a collaboration with The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli that led to one album, 2008’s Saturnalia.

Langegan’s last solo album, Straight Songs of Sorrow, was released in 2020 via Heavenly.

The album featured various special guests, including Dulli, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, and Ed Harcourt. His last album was 2021’s Dark Mark vs. Skeleton Joe, a collaboration with former The Icarus Line member Joe Cardamone. In 2020 Lanegan’s memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, was published.

Lanegan had a long history of substance abuse issues, but was 10 years sober as of 2020. In 2020 Lanegan and his wife Shelley Brien moved from Los Angeles to Killarney, Ireland. In 2021 he was hospitalized with severe COVID-19 and almost died. That motivated him to go from believing in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and being vaccine-hesitant to saying in an interview with Consequence last December that he would get boosted. His COVID experience was covered in another memoir, Devil in a Coma, released last year.

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