Mark Lanegan in 2012. Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images.
Mark Lanegan, a revered figure in rock and roll since the 1980s, has passed away on Tuesday morning (February 22.) His death was announced through his official Twitter account.
Born on November 25, 1964 in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan formed the band Screaming Trees in 1984 with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner, and Mark Pickerel. The group is credited with blazing a trail for grunge music, with Lanegan's distinctive, smokey vocals setting the group apart from other bands.
Screaming Trees went on to release seven albums, peaking commercially with 1992's Sweet Oblivion and the hit "Nearly Lost You." They split in 2000. “My experience in the Trees was like Fitzcarraldo," Lanegan told NME in 2020. "It was like dragging a boat over a mountain.”
Lanegan pursued a career outside of Screaming Trees throughout the band's lifetime full of rich material created both solo and collaboratively. He released a dozen solo albums starting with 1990's The Winding Sheet (Straight Songs of Sorrow, the final solo album released in Lanegan's lifetime, was released in 2020.)
After providing guest vocals on the Queens of the Stone Age album Rated R, Lanegan joined the band in 2002. Their subsequent album Songs for the Deaf was the group's commercial breakthrough and received two Grammy nominations. Lanegan ceased to be a full-time member after QOTSA shared their 2005 project Lullabies to Paralyze, returning for guest appearances on subsequent projects.
Lanegan's collaborations spanned across genres. He worked on full-length records with The Twilight Singers, Soulsavers, The Gutter Sisters, as well as songs with Depeche Mode, UNKLE, Massive Attack, Moby, and with Kurt Cobain on a covers album of songs by the blues guitarist Lead Belly. "The main thing I enjoy about doing other stuff," Lanegan said in 2012, "is that it allows me to step outside what I would normally do when left to my own devices. I get to see things through somebody else’s eyes and I’m always learning something from it. That’s really the key."
A case of COVID-19 in 2021 left Lanegan temporarily deaf and suffering numerous side effects. "I’d taken my share of well-deserved ass-kickings over the years but this thing was trying to dismantle me, body and mind, and I could see no end to it in sight," Lanegan wrote in his memoir Devil In A Coma.