Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan is an American singer, songwriter and poet from Ellensburg, United States. Born in 1964 and dying in 2022, he is best known for his work in grunge and alternative rock, and for a deep baritone voice that becomes one of his defining features.

Career with Screaming Trees and solo work

Lanegan begins his recording career in 1984 as the lead singer of Screaming Trees. With the band, he releases seven studio albums and five EPs before the group disbands in 2000. During that period he also starts a solo career, issuing his first solo album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. He goes on to release 12 solo studio albums in total, including Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, Scraps at Midnight, I’ll Take Care of You, Field Songs, Bubblegum, Blues Funeral, Imitations, Phantom Radio, Gargoyle, Somebody’s Knocking and Straight Songs of Sorrow. His solo records receive critical recognition, although they achieve only moderate commercial success.

Collaborations and associated acts

After Screaming Trees ends, Lanegan becomes a frequent collaborator with Queens of the Stone Age and serves as a full-time member from 2001 to 2005, during the Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze period. He is also a member of Mad Season, and later forms The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003. His other collaborations include work with Isobel Campbell, with whom he releases three collaboration albums, and Duke Garwood, with whom he releases two. He also contributes to recordings by Moby, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers, Tinariwen, The Twilight Singers, Manic Street Preachers and Unkle. In addition, he takes part in an unreleased Lead Belly covers project with Kurt Cobain.

Writing and later years

Lanegan is also a published memoirist. In 2020 he releases Sing Backwards and Weep, encouraged by Anthony Bourdain, followed in 2021 by Devil in a Coma, a memoir centred on his near-death experience with COVID-19. He spends his final years living with his wife Shelley Brien in Killarney, Ireland.