Mr. Lanegan’s vocals and songwriting skills were respected by critics and other musicians, many of whom he collaborated with. He befriended and worked with the singers Isobel Campbell, Greg Dulli, Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell.
Mark William Lanegan was born on Nov. 25, 1964, in Ellensburg, Wash., a small farming city, according to his IMDb page. His parents, Dale and Floy, were teachers, according to his well-received 2020 memoir, “Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir.”
One of his first memories of music, he said in the interview with the YouTube channel FaceCulture, was when he was at a fishing pond with his father and heard a song and thought, Oh man, that’s sad-sounding. He later discovered that the song was the 1974 track “Love Hurts” by the Scottish rock band Nazareth.
Offstage, Mr. Lanegan was candid about his drug use and a self-destructive lifestyle. In his memoir, he chronicled his journey from a “self-loathing redneck” to a rock star to a homeless heroin addict. He wrote about how his monthslong battle with Covid-19 confined him to a hospital in “Devil in a Coma,” a memoir he released in December.
He is survived by his wife, Shelley, SKH Music said. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
In July 2019, Mr. Lanegan appeared on the podcast “Come to Where I’m From,” where he talked about how humbling it was when fans shared how his music changed their lives.
“It’s kind of hard,” he said, “to think that your music is something that affects other people the way that the music you loved affected you.”
Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
