Mark Lanegan, the gruff-voiced singer and songwriter who led Screaming Trees to fame during the Seattle grunge explosion of the early 1990s before going on to play as a member of Queens of the Stone Age and in duos with Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs and Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell, died Tuesday at his home in Killarney, Ireland. He was 57.
His death was announced by a spokesman, Keith Hagan, who didn't specify a cause of death.
Caked in guitar distortion but graced with a yearning melody that Lanegan delivered in his parched croon, "Nearly Lost You" became a top-five alternative-rock radio hit for Screaming Trees in 1992. It benefited from both Nirvana's success the year before with its blockbuster "Nevermind" and from the song's placement in Cameron Crowe's grunge-scene romantic comedy "Singles."
