Mark Lanegan, the co-founding singer of seminal grunge band Screaming Trees, has died at age 57. The news was confirmed in a press statement and the musician’s social media.
No cause of death has been announced.
“Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland,” the statement reads. “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.”
Screaming Trees formed in 1985, with Lanegan joining guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bassist Van Conner and drummer Mark Pickerel in Ellensburg, Wash., a small town located a little more than 100 miles from Seattle — the future home of the grunge movement that bloomed in the ’90s with Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
While never as commercially popular as those groups, Screaming Trees were massively influential, melding psych-rock, hard rock and even hints of folk across their eight studio albums (including 2011’s Last Words: The Final Recordings). Lanegan’s surging, shadowy voice became the band’s signature on classic LPs like 1992’s Sweet Oblivion and 1996’s Dusk.
After — and even before — the band’s breakup in 2000, Lanegan remained active on his own and in other bands. He released 12 solo albums, from 1990’s The Winding Sheet through 2020’s Straight Songs of Sorrow. His other notable projects include the Gutter Twins, a collaboration with the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, and contributing occasional vocals to Queens of the Stone Age.
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