A statement on his official social media reads: “Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland,” a representative for Lanegan said in a statement. “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.”
It was reported that in late November 2021, Lanegan was “close to death” as a result of contracting Covid-19. Lanegan contracted the respiratory virus in March and was “slipping in and out of a coma” and went “completely deaf” after being rushed to Kerry Hospital in County Kerry, Ireland, with “little hope of survival”.
And the near-death experience saw the former Screaming Trees frontman “assaulted by nightmares, visions and regrets” about his “lifelong battle with mortality”, owning to living “on the edge of chaos and disorder”.
Mark, 56, penned a series of prose and poems about the terrifying ordeal and they feature in the upcoming tome ‘Devil In A Coma’, which was released in December 2021.
A description of the book reads: “One blindingly bright morning in Ireland in March 2021, Mark Lanegan woke up and walked into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. Having gone completely deaf during the illness that had been slowly devouring his sick body, he found himself floored with cracked ribs unable to breathe. His body — burdened with a gigantic dose of COVID-19 — was quickly taken to Kerry Hospital with little hope of survival.
Slipping in and out of coma, Lanegan’s mind and body were left oscillating between life and death, unable to walk or function for several months. As his situation becomes more intolerable over the course of that bleakest of springs he is assaulted by nightmares, visions and regrets about a life lived on the edge of chaos and disorder. He is prompted to consider his predicament and how, in his sixth decade, his lifelong battle with mortality has led to this final banal encounter with a disease that has done for millions, when he has apparently been cheating death for his whole existence.”
At this time, it is unclear if Lanegan’s death had anything to do with Covid.
Our sincere condolences to Mark’s friends and family during this time.
R.I.P
Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie 2022
