R.I.P. Mark Lanegan, Screaming Trees singer and solo artist
The iconic singer of the grunge era was a prolific collaborator, from his work with Queens Of The Stone Age to Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli
Aux News Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan, the singer for the Screaming Trees, frequent musical collaborator, and prolific solo artist, has died. He was 57.
News of the musician’s death came via a post on Twitter from his official account, saying Lanegan passed away the morning of Tuesday, February 22, at his home in Killarney, Ireland. No other information regarding the circumstances of his death are available at this time.
Lanegan rose to fame as the singer of Seattle rock band Screaming Trees, releasing seven albums and five EPs over the course of the group’s 16-year career, before disbanding in 2000. Starting in 1990 with The Winding Sheet, Lanegan also carved out an impressive discography as a solo artist, releasing 12 albums including the most recent, 2020's Straight Songs of Sorrow. He also frequently collaborated with other musicians, including a recurring role in Queens Of The Stone Age, three albums’ worth of material with singer Isobel Campbell of Belle & Sebastian, and his team-up with Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs, The Gutter Twins. His most recent release was a collaboration with former The Icarus Line member Joe Cardamone, called Dark Mark Vs. Skeleton Joe.
Lanegan was also a published author, most notably releasing his memoir, Sing Backwards And Weep, in 2020. He had previously put out a collection of writing called I Am The Wolf: Lyrics & Writings, in 2019, that assembled a variety of lyrics and short essays detailing his music and life. His most recent work, Devil In A Coma, recounted his medical crises stemming from contracting COVID-19 in early 2021.
Lanegan was notable for his distinctive baritone, a gravelly whiskey-on-sandpaper rasp that made him stand out amid the more traditional rock singers when his band first gained international prominence in the early ’90s.
Upon signing to Epic Records and releasing its major label debut, Uncle Anaesthesia, in 1991 (produced by friend and similarly rising star Chris Cornell of Soundgarden), Screaming Trees quickly became one of the leading lights of both the grunge explosion and the oft-referenced “Seattle sound,” despite the band leaning far more into blues rock and psychedelia than the heavier grunge sound of many of its contemporaries.
The musician spent much of those early years grappling with drug addiction, especially heroin, much of which was recounted in Everybody Loves Our Town: The Oral History Of Grunge. Despite this, the band reached its commercial zenith with 1992's Sweet Oblivion, which included the Singles soundtrack hit, “Nearly Lost You.” Soon after, infighting and creative drift led to a hiatus and eventual disbandment, with the group’s 1996 album Dust serving as its final official release. (A collection of unreleased recordings was subsequently put out in 2011.)
Lanegan will be remembered for his signature voice, to be sure, but also for the far-reaching scope of his musical output. Everything from blues to soul to punk to electronica was tackled by the restless musician, often within the span of a single album. He will be dearly missed—and for those who haven’t heard his early solo masterpiece, Whiskey For The Holy Ghost, please take a listen to its first track, “The River Rise,” and remember a towering artist, gone too soon.
Lanegan is survived by his wife, Shelley.
58 Comments
Absolutely gutted. What a talent. I found Lanegan through Queens of the Stone Age as a teen, and have dug into his solo stuff over the years. So sad.
my exact reaction. He is my favorite singer period. “Sweet Oblivion” is an awesome album, even though Lanegan all-but-disowned just about all Screaming Trees stuff before that. “Bubble Gum”…phenomenal. “Somebody’s Knocking”…the same. “Blues Funeral”….I could go on and on.For me, this is right up there with Chris Cornell dying…not a surprise but still devastating, particularly being so late in their careers.
His turn into more electronic influences was so weird and yet so interesting. Really loved his work with Duke Garwood and Isobel Campbell (seems like Campbell was exhausted by him, though). And it was amazing over the last few years seeing him finally openly happy. Heartbreaking news, for me.
One of my three favorite singers (couldn’t rank them if I tried). I’m absolutely devastated. Such a tragic loss. I’ve loved all of his solo stuff, and have been amazed at how prolific he’s been over the past decade. I had been holding out hope that he and Neko Case would do a full album of duets after he guested on a couple of her tracks.
Equally gutting for those of us lucky to follow him for years. Yeah, he battled his demons but he was quite the talent. Stolen from us too soon!
Sad to hear, although within the context of that scene he outlived a lot of other frontmen.
Frontmen from Seattle bands from that time – and not just grunge/alternative bands, but metal as well – have had a pretty rough go here.
From Andrew Wood on down.Eddie Vedder and Mark Arm, please be careful out there.
I’m not sure which ones you’re referring to. Geoff Tate is still alive.
David Wayne, Mike Howe, and Warrell Dane in particular.
Two thirds of that list is from Metal Church, which is some bad luck. I had also been under the impression Nevermore was from Texas instead.
Must’ve been the hat.
Wow. What a tragedy! His three albums with Isobell Campbell are some fantastic bits of music, some of those songs rival Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s best duets (worth checking out if that sounds cool to you). Also love his contributions on the Jeffrey Lee Pierce tribute albums. Saw him open live for Nick Cave once, what a line up. RIP!
Fuck
Damn. Horrible news. I loved the Gutter Twins and his stuff he did with QotSTA
Well, damn.
It’s not that long ago that i thought of people in the range of 57 as Very Old, but… damn. Only 57.
On one hand, yes. On the other hand, Lanegan (and his body) went thorough a lot. It’s amazing that he lived to the ripe old age of 57 and was as musically prolific as he was and kept his talent in tact to boot.
A real loss to the arts world. An iconic voice and talent that will probably only be truly fully appreciated after his passing, as were Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. Besides his better known solo works and band discography, he was also a fantastic musical collaborator. Particularly when pairing his baritone vocals to support the talents of several female artists, such as Isobel Campell. R.I.P. Mark!
I found the Screaming Trees about fifteen years ago. I found a couple of loose CDs in front of my house that had clearly fallen out of someone’s car – I assumed they belonged to one of my roommates, but no one recognized them. They sat on a counter for quite some time before I started listening to them out of curiosity. I don’t remember the other 3-4 apart from the fact that they didn’t really appeal to me, but the last was Sweet Oblivion and its blues-leaning grunge was great. Just an excellent album from top to bottom. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to the Screaming Trees (I just don’t listen to nearly as much music as I used to) but I’m going to spin some this evening.
VACCINATED!
Ah, dammit. I loved his work. Put him up there with Nick Cave in the pantheon of tortured, dark, and beautiful singer songwriters. I was really hoping to catch him live one day. His recent memoir, narrated by him, is well worth a listen. Is there a musical genre/scene that has a worse survival rate than Seattle’s grunge scene of the 90s? It seems like it was really brutal on its musicians.
When heroin is your scene’s mark of authenticity, attrition rate is going to be rough.
What gets me about the absurd death rate of the class of 89-91 is two things:1. even the ones who cleaned up, straightened out, had kids and kept producing mostly listenable music are often gone (miss you, Mr. Cornell)2. somehow Courtney Love is still alive.
I’m amazed that Al Jourgensen is still alive
100% correct. Dear lord.
Never got the hate for Love, Hole were a fucking awesome band, she was a fucking awesome lead – she survived massive trauma and continued to create, and was shouting about Harvey to anyone who would listen to the absolute destruction of her acting career.
Yeah, I didn’t phrase that well. To be clear, I think Courtney Love is a shockingly talented artist, actor and (of all things) essayist. (Seriously, it’s worth digging up her article about napster on the old salon.com from back in the early 00s.)…it’s just that she really seems to like drugs better than any and all of those things. 🙁 The fact that she’s still alive strikes me as a highly implausible miracle.
An addict is an addict, it’s a disease not a moral failing. Very few people aim to have three square meals of heroin a day. But with the context I understand your comment now and how it was intended to come across, thanks.
I really hope Vedder is taking care of himself.
Jazz in the 1950s had a pretty bad survival rate too. Not coincidentally, heroin was pretty common in that scene too.
I was lucky enough to see him live a few times (and sadly had tickets for the tour Covid forced him to cancel), never disappointed.
Fuck.
I’ve been a fan of Screaming Trees since 1991, so I’ll take this opportunity to push their SST era on everyone. It’s so fucking cool, and barely like the major label era (which I like too). Psychedelic garage punk more or less covers it.
Invisible Lantern is a God damned treasure, and Even If and Especially When too. But I also love me some Uncle Anesthesia too. Ocean of Confusion is just beautiful to me, and you get to hear Chris Cornell play recorder on Lay Your Head Down.Do yourself a favor and check this stuff out.RIP
Oh no :(. Mark Lanegan was a real one, damn. Since we had an Oasis piece last night, enjoy this bit from Lanegan’s memoir showing his “love” for Liam Gallagher.
That is fucking great, and probably as succinct a description of Liam I’ve heard.
Okay now I HAVE TO read his memoir. That’s excellent!
That stinks. Been a fan since “Even Now…,” and I had the chance to see Screaming Trees with 250 other people (it was PACKED) at a local bar in Toledo back on the “Buzz Factory” tour. (Yes, I am old now, and yes, it was awesome then.)
Alongside of Dinosaur Jr., they are the bands from that era/style I still listen to and enjoy the most.
Oh hey Toledo fam! Maybe I saw you on the Portside steps?
Probably. I know that market inside it was the closest place to my house that sold Guiness back in 1989. (And yeah, I was talking about Frankie’s. I’m pretty sure you could cram 250 people in there, but it might have been less—even if it always seemed like more!)
In 1990, I briefly joined The Rivermen, a band I would never have even listened to, because they had a weekly night at Frankie’s and I was underage and had no other way to get in. I joined solely so I could get into other shows, and that only worked when the doorguys on other nights remembered me from the band. Before that, my best friend and I would show up hours early before they started carding to see if we could at least hear soundchecks. We heard a lot of half songs from a lot of great 80s college bands that way. Ended up hanging out for a few hours with a few of them. One of the upsides to being into that sort of thing pre-Nirvana.
“I had the chance to see Screaming Trees with 250 other people (it was PACKED) at a local bar in Toledo back on the “Buzz Factory” tour.”
Respect.
This was very recent and is very heartbreaking. RIP
The same day that Gary Brooker’s death was announced. A bad day for music. RIP, gents….
Andrew Wood, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Scott Weiland, Chris Cornell, Mark Lanegan. Can hardly believe it.
A voice of smooth gravel that made you understand and appreciate pain as you were dragged along through every tortured tale…
RIP my brethren spirit as a total contrarian against uptight society and also of it’s attempted indoctrination of weirdos like us to be a full on “normy”. HE was the one dude in the Seattle grunge scene that I could most relate to because like when I sang in my band, he and I were no poseurs, no rock star “Death To Stars” (one of the tracks on our album) type. Damn, he was on my list of ne’er do wells, miscreants & misanthropes to invite down to stare clearly & cleanly in the morning at sunrise over the Caribe.Yet, to be honest, it was shocking to a certain extend that he was still alive-a combo of booze and heroin were unfortunately his best companions as he wrote in his autobiography (great review by The Guardian in the comments) that I read at the start of the CV whilst escaping the China Virus and my sinister espana boss solo in Cancun Mexico in July of 2020. Riveting, raw, heartbreaking, true, dark, funny, scary-did i say funny? Dude says he probably should have died many times during his wild 20s/30s-verdad. As Orwell once said, “A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” My exact plan when I start working the chapters of my life to be presented in prosed confessional essay form.I’ll never forget seeing both Screaming Trees and the Mark Lanegan Band once each. For such a mess he ended up being pretty damn prolific the past decade or so and guested with so many acts including the Queens of the Stone Age. Massive. Loss. May The Toad Prophet Help You Cross Over.
Rip Mark. I enjoyed seeing you in 2010
Music lost a singular talent with Lanegan’s passing. His voice was certainly distinctive, and like Leonard Cohen’s, got more expressive as time passed. However, Lanegan’s biggest talent may have been his talent for collaboration. In addition to his work with Screaming Trees and some of his more visible work, he collaborated with PJ Harvey, Soul Savers, Martina Topley-Bird, Duke Garwood, and many others. I doubt he ever turned down anyone in his rolodex who wanted him to contribute to a project, and in turn, a lot of people were willing to return the favor. While that level of collaboration often suggests a willingness to phone it in or to enlist others to cover for an artist’s deficiencies, that was not the case with Lanegan. I have never heard him turn in a bad performance, no matter whom he performed with or what genre he was performing in.
So much of his recent solo stuff was really a collaboration with Alain Johannes, who used to be in a wonderful band called Eleven (with his wife Natasha Schneider, who also collaborated with QotSA and sadly passed away a few years back). I loved all of his collaborations. Such varied work, all united by his incredible voice.
His work with Soulsavers was fantastic!
RIP to a legend. His voice accompanied me on a lot of lonely night and winter drives in my teens and early 20s.
If we’re going to talk about his solo albums, we have to include Mike Johnson (bassist for Dinosaur Jr in the 90s) who co-produced the first 4 or 5 including Whiskey for the Holy Ghost and Scraps at Midnight which I think were Lanegan’s best. He innovated that plaintive tremolo guitar sound that typified so much of Lanegan’s work.
I first learned about Lanegan (and Screaming Trees) through Queens of the Stone Age. I was freshly 16 when Songs for the Deaf came out and one of my friends and I were into early bittorrent bootlegging stuff. His family got cable internet first so he started being able to download video files which was a big god damned deal. One day he came over and had festival footage from the European tour that QOTSA had done with Lanegan and Dave Grohl right after the album came out. MTV2 had broadcast four songs a handful of times and one of them was Lanegan singing Song For the Dead. Even with Grohl at the height of his drumming prowess, Lanegan owns the performance just by standing in one place and fucking roaring. I was a soft kid and he was scary. We were both pretty transfixed by the performance and decided to find out about his first band Screaming Trees (which Josh Homme name checked in a lot of press for SFTD).
My friends and I were grunge dorks. We liked punk, pop punk, metal, and Radiohead, but we went hard for Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and the Sub Pop all star bands like Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, etc. That extended to their indie rock and hardcore influences and contemporaries like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Minute Men, Black Flag, Big Black, etc. The Screaming Trees albums Uncle Anesthesia, Sweet Oblivion, and Dust were favorites of ours. I have fond memories of being a jackass in flannel and CRANKING this organ solo at 2:07 while my friend filled up his shitbox Buick at the gas station.
If I hadn’t found out about Mark Lanegan through Queens of the Stone Age, I would have through Nirvana. I fell for Nevermind hard at the tail end of jr high and was starting to get into the biographies and bootlegs and such around the same time I started getting deep into grunge in general. At some point in 1989 or 90 Lanegan and (then Screaming Trees drummer) Mark Pickerel started a very short-lived Leadbelly band with Kurt and Krist from Nirvana called The Jury. They did a session at Jack Endino’s studio and the Lanegan-sung cover of In the Pines/Where Did You Sleep Last Night ended up on his first solo album (Cobain sang three songs that were eventually released in the Nirvana box set With The Lights Out).
I was lucky enough to see him perform live once. I was 21 when Lanegan’s band with Greg Dulli, The Gutter Twins, released their only album and toured. My QOTSA torrent friend and I drove up from our town in Northern Illinois to see them at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI which is a smaller venue with a capacity around 400 people. I had my first three pints of Spotted Cow, stood 20 feet from Lanegan and “the Afghan Whigs Guy,” and bought one of my first three brand new vinyl LPs because I had recently bought my first turntable and was tired of listening to the hand-me-down records that I had scavenged from my and other friend’s parents. It was such a satisfying experience. Lanegan said fewer than 15 words. Seven of them were “Thank you. I’m having a great time.” while he mean-mugged the shit out of the monitor directly in front of his mic stand. I remember zombie-era Letterman being particularly jazzed about their performance and saying, “… Whoa! God I enjoyed that! Would you guys be available to travel cross-country with me? I think it would be fun, don’t you? A lot of a fightin’ and stuff?” That was true to my experience.
This one hurts a lot. I am mostly an electronic music guy but came across the many, many different Lanegan projects and collaborations and there was a period of time that I saw him twice or three times a year with each project (he toured a lot in festivals and I was very much into festivals for some years, and then I ended up seeing him in smaller gigs). So I take him as part of my ever changing musical education. This was my first contact to his voice, while I was about to enter some uni class and I skipped the first minutes because I was impressed.
I guess the trees are finally silent.
I knew about Screaming Trees, but I only got into Lanegan through his work with Greg Dulli (Gutter Twins, assorted Twilight Singers tracks). This is sad news. RIP.
Lost track of Lanegan and his work, though I always heard good things through the years. I still have my copy of Screaming Trees’ Dust, which I bought the week it came out still maintain is wall-to-wall great, one of the few underrated albums from the Seattle grunge thing. Somehow, no matter how many times I hear it, I am never psychically ready for that harmonium (?) solo on “Sworn and Broken.” If you’ve heard the song before, you know what I’m talking about. RIP
I had tickets to see him during Covid, was pissed when he outright cancelled the tour, then found out how hard Covid hit him.One of the last few singers of a certain place in time, he will be missed.
I graduated HS in ‘92 and have struggled with opioids most of my life due to lifelong disability and chronic pain (I never spiked a vein though, which is one reason why I’m currently still drawing breath) when I first heard Pearl Jam’s Alive I immediately said “this band is gonna be huge” when I first heard the riff to Soundgarden’s Rusty Cage (and just BadMotorFinger in general) consider my young mind, blown. We buried a close friend in ‘95 after an ATV accident and we put many things in the casket with him including a copy of Alice in Chains Dirt. So when I noticed you didn’t mention Mad Season’s Above, which was Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and the sorely missed and arguably greatest Rock Vocalist of all-time Layne Staley. I felt compelled to include some info about the band, they released one album and I believe it to be one of the best albums of all-time. Obviously, that’s my opinion, but since it was their only release I think some people overlook it. Mark Lanegan contributed guest vocals on “I’m Above” and “Long Gone Day”; he is also credited for co-writing the music to those tracks along with McCready and Martin. Lanegan also wrote the lyrics for the three bonus tracks on Disc 1 of the deluxe issue – “Locomotive”, “Black Book of Fear”, and “Slip Away”. Anyway, maybe one of the most talented musicians to come out of Seattle he certainly will be missed. I hope he is jamming with Kurt, Chris and Layne now……..may he RIP.