Mark Lanegan

Possessing one of rock's most menacing, gravelly growls, Mark Lanegan – born November 25, 1964, in Ellensburg, Washington – survived the ragged nihilism of the grunge era to become a well-travelled musical journeyman, collaborating with a diverse range of artists and carving out a solo career dealing in post-punk Americana. A dysfunctional childhood led to drug addiction and jail time in his teenage years, but a love of punk rock prompted him to form Screaming Trees in 1984 and they soon found themselves part of the Seattle scene alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. They landed a major label deal with Epic Records and received plenty of airplay on MTV, but their psychedelic, muddy thrash placed them firmly on the alternative rock fringes. Exploring his interest in blues and American folk songs, Mark Lanegan released his debut solo album The Winding Sheet in 1990, including a cover of the traditional standard “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” with Kurt Cobain providing backing vocals and guitar sprawl. Follow-ups Whiskey for the Holy Ghost ((1994) and Scraps at Midnight (1998) were full of weathered melancholy and black mystery and earned comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Lee Hazelwood. Screaming Trees split in 1999 and Mark Lanegan went on to join Queens of the Stone Age. He also duetted with Belle and Sebastian's Isobel Campbell on three acclaimed records and formed The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs. His 2004 record Bubblegum featured appearances from PJ Harvey, Josh Homme and Izzy Stradlin and he achieved his biggest chart success by reaching Number 21 in the UK with his seventh studio album, Blues Funeral, in 2012. Other collaborations include work with electro producers Soulsavers, Greg Dulli's project The Twilight Singers and English guitarist Duke Garwood. In 2017, Mark Lanegan released his tenth solo album Gargoyle. A collaboration with Garwood, With Animals, came in 2018, along with the announcement of a joint European tour to promote the album. Continuing to maintain a yearly release cycle of new albums, he returned in 2019 with the critically acclaimed solo effort Somebody’s Knocking, promptly following it up with 2020's Straight Songs of Sorrow. Also in 2020, he released the first of two memoirs, Sing Backwards and Weep, which was followed a year later by the second, Devil in a Coma, which detailed his near-death experience with the COVID-19 virus. In 2021, Mark Lanegan – under the pseudonym Dark Mark – released a split single with Skeleton Joe featuring the song “Dark Mark Theme”. On February 22, 2022, Mark Lanegan died at his home in Killarney, Ireland. He was 57 years old.