Nick Cave paid tribute to his friend and occasional collaborator, Mark Lanegan, in his Red Hand Files newsletter. Lanegan, who fronted Screaming Trees before embarking on a solo career, died Tuesday at the age of 57.
“I encountered Mark many times over the years — we engaged in some extremely dubious escapades back in the Nineties; he sang ‘White Light/White Heat’ and ‘Fire and Brimstone’ with Warren [Ellis] and me on the Lawless soundtrack; he recorded my favorite ever Nick Cave cover — an astonishing version of ‘Brompton Oratory’; we did something together for the Jeffrey Lee Pierce record, I think; and he toured and hung out with us on the Bad Seeds’ 2013 Australian tour,” Cave wrote.
With Lanegan, the feeling was mutual. In his 2020 memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, he describe Cave’s music as one of his biggest inspirations. “I’d been a huge fan of Nick Cave for years,” Lanegan wrote. “I felt a deep connection to his music, and he and the Bad Seeds had been a central influence on the solo records I’d been toiling away at for some years now.”
Cave continued his tribute by praising the way Lanegan duetted with him on one of the Bad Seeds’ classic songs on the 2013 Australian tour. “Go online and watch Mark sing Blixa [Bargeld’s] ‘father’ part with me in ‘The Weeping Song’ on that tour,” Cave wrote. “As a frontman, I move around a lot on stage, I can’t help it, it is a habitual nervous thing, a kind of neurotic compensation for a voice I have never felt that comfortable with. But watch Mark, watch how he walks onto the stage, plants himself at the mic stand, one tattooed fist halfway down the stand, the other resting on top of the mic, immobile, massive, male. When the time comes to sing, he simply opens his mouth and releases a blues, a blues lived deeply and utterly earned, and that voice tears right through you, his sheer force on stage absolutely humbling. A greatness, Mark, a greatness — a true singer, a superb writer and beautiful soul, loved by all.”
A few days after Lanegan’s death, drummer Barrett Martin also paid his respects on Instagram. Martin joined Screaming Trees in time to record their Sweet Oblivion album, which contained the group’s breakthrough hit, “Nearly Lost You,” as well as its 1996 follow-up Dust. He was also a member of Mad Season, the supergroup that featured Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready; Lanegan co-wrote and performed on two songs from their only album, 1995’s Above.
“Mark was full of contradictions to be sure, but how else could he be, when he was destined to sing the blues?” Martin wrote. “Only those who understand the darkness of humanity can also sing about its light, and Mark could sing both, superbly. Because of that contradiction, we [in Screaming Trees] understood Mark in a way that only a literal band of brothers can understand, because we saw it all, firsthand, together, in those decades on the road and in the studio.
“Mark had a voice for the ages, truly one of the great American vocalists of all time,” he continued. “Critics often claimed that his voice came from whiskey drinking, but Mark sang like that when he was young and sober, an ancient voice transplanted inside a young man’s body. By the way, we never saw Mark touch a drop of whiskey — gin & tonic was his preferred drink, and a lot of cigarettes.”
Martin went on to write that after Screaming Trees broke up in 2000, the band joked that its members could finally become friends and that they kept in touch occasionally. When Lanegan published Sing Backwards and Weep — which contains several brutal passages about his Trees bandmates — Martin wrote that it took some time to make sense of it. “After the initial shock wore off, we all made peace and laughed at Mark’s wry sense of humor and great storytelling style,” he wrote. “Mark had the ability to tell the most horrific of stories, yet have you chuckling out loud as he spun the yarn to its conclusion. He had that sharp wit that all great writers have, because he also had a keen view into the hearts of people – and he showed us the full spectrum of humanity.”
Lanegan’s frequent collaborator, Isobel Campbell, also remembered Lanegan fondly in an essay for The Guardian. Between 2006 and 2010, Lanegan and the former Belle and Sebastian member recorded three albums together. “People said we were beauty and the beast,” she wrote. “Yet I witnessed your beauty and I could frequently inhabit beast. Light and dark. Angel and devil. Of our records, you said you were ‘happy for me to do the heavy lifting.’ Yet you brought my songs to life.”
Earlier this week, Eddie Vedder also paid tribute to Lanegan at one of his solo concerts, in Seattle. “There are a lot of really great musicians, some people know Seattle because of the musicians that have come out of the great Northwest,” he told the audience. “Some of those guys were one-of-a-kind singers. Mark was certainly that and with such a strong voice.”
Faith No More appear to be hinting at a return to the stage in 2027.
The influential alt-metal band have remained mostly quiet over the past decade following the release of their reunion album ‘Sol Invictus’ in 2015. After its arrival, they played what would become their most recent live performances in 2016 and later called off several touring plans in the years that followed.
Now, however, they seem to be preparing fans for something new. The group recently shared an image of a concert crowd on social media with nothing more than the text “2027” placed across it.
No additional information accompanied the post, but it quickly sparked speculation among fans, many of whom believe a full scale tour announcement could be coming next year.
After wrapping up their 2016 run of shows, the band intended to return to the road in 2020. Those plans were ultimately abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further touring plans surfaced in 2021 as venues began reopening, but those dates were also cancelled before they could begin. Frontman Mike Patton later explained that mental health struggles were behind the decision and revealed he had been diagnosed with agoraphobia during the pandemic.
Until recently, a reunion seemed unlikely. Patton spoke about Faith No More’s lengthy break and said that he did not “see it as a sad thing”.
Speaking on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast and reflecting on whether he felt a “sense of closure” after the 2016 tour, the vocalist said: “I didn’t really think so at the time, but, yeah, maybe. I think that we all kind of felt it, but it was unspoken.”
“It’s funny: when you’ve been in a band or a musical situation for a period of time, you always, in the back of your head, you’re kind of thinking, ‘Well, maybe this is it.’ And I don’t mind that feeling,” he added. “I don’t see it as a sad thing. I see it as being present and being able to really appreciate it while it’s happening.”
Faith No More have never formally announced a breakup following the cancellation of their 2021 tour, although other members have suggested in recent years that the chances of touring again were uncertain.
Last year, guitarist Roddy Bottum discussed the band's future and admitted they were in a “really weird spot”. “I can’t really tell you what’s going on. I don’t know myself. I get different information from people… and I’m in the band,” he said.
Drummer Mike Bordin echoed similar thoughts last spring, saying that he and some of the other members were willing to perform again, but claimed Patton was “unwilling to do shows with us”.
In addition to leading Faith No More since 1989 after replacing original singer Chuck Mosley, Patton has also been involved with projects including Mr Bungle, Fantômas, and Tomahawk.
Tomahawk recently unveiled plans for their first tour in 13 years, with a series of US dates scheduled for this summer. The run begins in Nashville next month and will also see Patton and his bandmates reunite with longtime labelmates Melvins for the first time since 2003.
Patton has also recently launched his tour with Avett Brothers and teamed up with Jehnny Beth on the new single ‘Look At Me’.
