Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder have paid tributes to fellow Seattle scene alumni Mark Lanegan, who passed away, aged 57, at his home in Killarney, County Kerry on February 22.
Grohl played alongside Lanegan in Queens Of The Stone Age during the touring cycle for the band's Songs For The Deaf album, having first met the former Screaming Trees vocalist in 1990 on a trip to Seattle with Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain. Speaking to The Independent, Grohl describes Lanegan's talent as "so pure and so real.”
“If he sang about pain, you believed it," says Grohl, "and if he sang about love, you believed it.”
“If you know anything about his story, or have read any of his books, you’ll understand why he sang what he did and why he sang it the way that he did. There was nobody like him. In Seattle he was much loved."
By coincidence, Eddie Vedder was performing in Seattle on February 22, playing at the city's Benaroya Hall as the closing date of his US Earthling tour. Vedder paid his own tribute to Lanegan from the stage.
“I got here about four o’clock and all of a sudden my body started shaking a little bit,” he told the audience. “I started to feel really terrible and I think it was because I was having an allergic reaction to sadness. Because we lost … there’s a guy called Mark Lanegan. You know, there are a lot of really great musicians, some people know Seattle because of the musicians that have come out of the great Northwest. Some of those guys were one of a kind singers. Mark was certainly that and with such a strong voice.”
"It’s hard to come to terms, at least at this point," Vedder added. "But he’s gonna be deeply missed, and at least we will always have his voice to listen to and his words and his books to read, he wrote two incredible books in the last few years. Just wanted to process it and put it out there, let his wife and loved ones know that people in his old stomping grounds are thinking about him and we love him.”
Other musicians took to social media to salute Lanegan's life and legacy.
Iggy Pop led the tributes to the singer, posting "Mark Lanegan, RIP, deepest respect for you. Your fan, Iggy Pop"
Lanegan's former bandmate in Screaming Trees, Mark Pickerel, wrote "May you truly Rest In Peace Big Brother" and posted Lanegan's 1999 cover of Brook Benton's I'll Take Care Of You with the caption "I hope the angels are taking good care of you today"
The Velvet Underground's John Cale wrote, "I can't process this. Mark Lanegan will always be etched in my heart - as he surely touched so many with his genuine self, no matter the cost, true to the end. xx jc"
Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, a close friend, posted: "He was such a good man, and friend to my family. RIP Mark Lanegan"
Perhaps the most poignant tribute came from Lanegan's dear friend and former room-mate, The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, who recorded with Lanegan as The Gutter Twins, who simply posted a photo of the pair together.
