Musician and author Mark Lanegan, best known for his work with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins, died at his home in Ireland on Tuesday morning, according to a statement. He was 57 years old.
“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,” the statement reads. “No other information is available at this time. The family asks everyone to respect their privacy at this time.”
Born in Ellensburg, Washington, on Nov. 25, 1964, Lanegan first rose to prominence as the founding lead singer of psych-rock quartet Screaming Trees, who went on to release eight studio albums and five EPs before disbanding in 2000. Lanegan would release his first solo album The Winding Sheet in 1990 and release a dozen solo albums in his lifetime, the most recent of which was 2020’s Straight Songs of Sorrow.
Lanegan joined Queens of the Stone Age full-time in the early 2000s, appearing on their career-highlight album Songs for the Deaf, as well as 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze, and would continue to contribute to the band’s output in a featured capacity. During that same period, he also collaborated extensively with Belle & Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell—the duo’s collaborative 2006 album Ballad of the Broken Seas was Mercury Prize-nominated, and they would release Sunday at Devil Dirt and Hawk in 2008 and 2010, respectively—and Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers, who released an album (Saturnalia) and EP (Adorata) as The Gutter Twins in 2008.
Lanegan was a prolific collaborator throughout his career, working with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, Neko Case, Duke Garwood, The Twilight Singers, Soulsavers, UNKLE, Mad Season, Moby, Cult of Luna, The Armed, Manic Street Preachers and many more.
Lanegan published his first book in 2017, I Am the Wolf: Lyrics & Writings, and two memoirs, Sing Backwards and Weep and Devil in a Coma, in 2020 and 2021. The latter book detailed his near-death experience with Covid-19, which resulted in a months-long hospitalization.
Hear Lanegan perform with The Gutter Twins and Screaming Trees below, plus a solo set.
