Mobilenews24x7 Bureau
Seattle, Feb 23 : Grunge icon Mark Lanegan, former singer of American rock band Screaming Trees, was found dead on Tuesday of unspecified causes. He was aged 57.
Mark Lanegan was known for his dramatic baritone voice which was iconic of the early 90s grunge movement in the United States. His death was announced in a Facebook post from Lanegan’s official account:
“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. We ask: Please respect the family’s privacy.”
Screaming Trees were formed in 1984 and performed a blend of hard rock, edgy gloomy pop and psychedelic rock making them a symbol of the emerging alternative rock- grunge movement in the 90s.
Lanegan never enjoyed major commercial success like Nirvana, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains, but through seven full-length albums with Screaming Trees, 10 solo records, and collaborations with Queens of the Stone Age and many others, he won a devoted fan base and was respected by many including critics and his fellow musicians of several generations.
“Mark Lanegan will always be etched in my heart — as he surely touched so many with his genuine self, no matter the cost, true to the end,” John Cale of the Velvet Underground said on Twitter.
Iggy Pop tweeted, “Mark Lanegan, RIP, deepest respect for you. Your fan, Iggy Pop.”
“Mark Lanegan was a lovely man,” tweeted New Order and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, with a photo of Lanegan joining him on stage. “He led a wild life that some of us could only dream of. He leaves us with fantastic words and music! Thank god that through all of that he will live forever.”
The band’s major label debut for Epic Records, 1990′s “Uncle Anesthesia”, was co-produced by Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell.
The single “Bed of Roses” would get them played on MTV and modern-rock radio.
The group approached their commercial in the early 90s, with 1992′s “Sweet Oblivion” and the single “Nearly Lost You,” which remains Lanegan’s biggest hit and best known song, thanks in part to its appearance on the soundtrack of the Cameron Crowe film “Singles”.
The group would technically remain a unit until 2000, but Lanegan increasingly focused on his solo career during the 1990s, creating music that was quieter, more bluesy, and more broody, earning him the nickname “Dark Mark.”
His voice made him a sought-after collaborator with his fellow Seattle musicians. He sang on projects with Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and recorded a series of Leadbelly covers with Kurt Cobain. Though never released, Cobain would use their arrangement of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” in a memorable performance on “MTV Unplugged.”
Lanegan would lend his voice to five albums for Queens of the Stone Age, starting with their 2000 breakthrough “Rated R.”
He made three albums as a duo with Belle and Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell and formed another duo, The Gutter Twins, with The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli.
He and wife Shelley Brien moved to Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland in 2020. He contracted Covid-19 soon after. He would write about that, his long struggle with drugs and alcohol, and his decade of sobriety in the memoir, “Devil in a Coma.”
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