Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan gained prominence through vocals delivered in a deep, strong, and sensuously forbidding nicotine-ravaged growl, achieving that recognition once the Screaming Trees secured modest mainstream attention during the 1990s. As a vocalist and songwriter he established a distinct personal identity, with his output consistently shaped by blues influences and his willingness to follow a darkly poetic sensibility into any style his muse suggested. Solo releases ranged across the semi-acoustic atmospheres of 1990’s The Winding Sheet, 1998’s Scraps at Midnight, the exploratory hard rock of 2004’s Bubblegum and 2012’s Blues Funeral, and the polished electronic textures of 2014’s Phantom Radio and 2020’s unsparingly confessional Straight Songs of Sorrow. Frequent collaborations linked him with Greg Dulli, Queens of the Stone Age, Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers, and Duke Garwood.

Born November 25, 1964, in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan later described his upbringing in a dysfunctional household and recounted how a strong appetite for liquor and drugs during his teenage years produced repeated legal troubles. At age 18 he formed a friendship with Van Connor based on shared musical interests; originally recruited to play drums alongside Van and brother Gary Lee Connor, Lanegan was soon judged a stronger singer than percussionist, prompting Mark Pickerel to join on drums in the group that became the Screaming Trees. Their debut album, Clairvoyance, appeared in 1986, yet commercial breakthrough arrived only in 1992 when “Nearly Lost You”—featured both on the Singles soundtrack and on Sweet Oblivion—unexpectedly succeeded through heavy MTV rotation.

Lanegan had already begun a solo career by the time “Nearly Lost You” charted. Sharing with Kurt Cobain a deep interest in the blues, especially Lead Belly, the pair assembled a side project called the Jury with Krist Novoselic and Mark Pickerel to record an EP of Lead Belly material. Although that project dissolved quickly, Lanegan repurposed a recording of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” made with Cobain and Novoselic as the foundation for his first solo album, the darkly atmospheric The Winding Sheet in 1990. The record received strong reviews, yet after “Nearly Lost You” succeeded Lanegan and the Trees embarked on an extended tour; the band’s already tense relationships deteriorated further amid prolonged road life and heavy drinking. Once the Sweet Oblivion tour concluded, the group paused, allowing Lanegan to record his second solo album, 1994’s Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, whose dynamic arrangements again drew critical praise for his commanding vocals and intense lyrical vision. The Screaming Trees finally issued the follow-up to Sweet Oblivion in 1996, but Dust did not replicate the earlier commercial impact despite modest success for the single “All I Know” and the band’s inclusion on the 1996 Lollapalooza bill.

Lanegan’s third solo album, Scraps at Midnight, emerged in 1998, followed in 1999 by the covers collection I’ll Take Care of You. After performing at the 2000 Experience Music Project opening in Seattle, the Screaming Trees announced their breakup. With that band gone, Lanegan pursued extensive collaborations; earlier contributions had already included tribute albums for Willie Nelson and Skip Spence plus Mike Watt’s Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, and in 2000 he supplied guest vocals on Queens of the Stone Age’s breakout Rated R. Though never an official member, he became a key associate of Josh Homme, appearing on Songs for the Deaf (2002), Lullabies to Paralyze (2005), and Like Clockwork (2013). In 2003 he joined former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli on the Twilight Singers’ Blackberry Belle and later contributed to She Loves You (2004) and Dynamite Steps (2011); the pair also recorded the 2008 Gutter Twins album Saturnalia under their own name. An EP of duets with former Belle and Sebastian member Isobel Campbell, Ramblin’ Man, appeared in 2005, leading to three full collaborative albums: Ballad of the Broken Seas (2006), Sunday at Devil Dirt (2008), and Hawk (2010). Soulsavers enlisted Lanegan for It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s the Way You Land (2007), Broken (2009), and The Light the Dead See (2012). He also participated regularly in the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, contributing to We Are Only Riders (2009), The Journey Is Long (2012), and Axels & Sockets (2014).

Amid this collaborative activity Lanegan maintained his solo output. 2001’s Field Songs continued the dark, roots-oriented style associated with him, while 2004’s more rock-focused Bubblegum became the first album credited to the Mark Lanegan Band, though the tracks employed a rotating cast of musicians including Josh Homme and PJ Harvey. A second Mark Lanegan Band release, Blues Funeral, arrived in 2012; two further albums followed in 2013—a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood titled Black Pudding and the covers set Imitations. Phantom Radio, the third Mark Lanegan Band album, appeared in 2014, and 2015 saw Lanegan team with producers and remixers including Moby, UNKLE, Soulsavers, and Mark Stewart on A Thousand Miles of Midnight: Phantom Radio Remixes. Two career retrospectives appeared around this time: Light in the Attic’s Has God Seen My Shadow? An Anthology 1989–2011 in 2014 and Sub Pop’s vinyl-only One Way Street in 2015, which reissued his first five solo albums.

Gargoyle, written with frequent collaborators Alain Johannes and Rob Marshall and featuring guest appearances by Josh Homme and Greg Dulli, was released in 2017; that same year Lanegan published his first book, the lyrics-and-essays collection I Am the Wolf. He reunited with Duke Garwood for 2018’s With Animals, an album centered on spare, evocative electronic backings. Somebody’s Knocking, another project with Johannes and Marshall, arrived in 2019 and included Greg Dulli’s guest vocals on “Letter Never Sent.” In April 2020 Lanegan issued the memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, an unflinching account of his musical life and addiction struggles; while revisiting those experiences he channeled his emotions into new songs that became Straight Songs of Sorrow, released in May 2020. In 2021, having relocated from the United States to Ireland, he contributed to Manic Street Preachers’ The Ultra Vivid Lament, Moby’s Reprise, the Soulsavers album with Dave Gahan titled Imposter, and Cult of Luna’s The Raging River. He also formed the project Dark Mark vs. Skeleton Joe with Joe Cardamone of the Icarus Line; their self-titled album, a brooding blend of rock and electronics, appeared in October 2021. A second memoir, Devil in a Coma, documenting his severe COVID-19 illness and hospitalization, was published in December 2021. This proved to be Lanegan’s final work; he died at his home in Killarney, Ireland, on February 22, 2022, at age 57.