Dave Grohl has paid tribute to the late Mark Lanegan following the singer’s passing earlier this week. Grohl and Lanegan were both contributors to Queens of the Stone Age, and shared the stage as onetime members of the group.
The Foo Fighters frontman was asked about Lanegan’s passing in a new interview with The Independent, telling the UK publication, “[His music] was so pure and so real. If he sang about pain, you believed it, and if he sang about love, you believed it.”
Grohl added, “If you know anything about his story, or have read any of his books, you’ll understand why he sang what he did and why he sang it the way that he did. There was nobody like him. In Seattle he was much loved.”
Lanegan, who fronted Screaming Trees, was an official member of Queens of the Stone Age from 2001 through 2005, and contributed to five of the band’s albums. Grohl played drums on 2002’s Songs for the Deaf and 2013’s …Like Clockwork. The pair toured together as members of QOTSA in support of Songs for the Deaf in the early 2000s.
Grohl went on to recall the first time he met Lanegan, “When I first joined Nirvana I was living with Kurt [Cobain] in our tiny apartment — one weekend he said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go up to Seattle for the weekend and hang out with a friend, do you want to come?’ We went up to stay with his friend Dylan and we went to a show. I passed out on the couch and woke up in the morning and opened my eyes and Mark Lanegan was sitting in a chair right across from me. His first words to me were, ‘Who the f**k are you?’”
He continued, “I had just discovered his first solo album, which is a f**king masterpiece. It’s one of my most influential records. I didn’t necessarily know him as the Screaming Trees singer, I just knew him as himself. It’s heartbreaking.”
A couple nights ago, fellow grunge luminary Eddie Vedder honored Lanegan from the stage of his Seattle show, calling him a “one of a kind singer.” Other artists like Iggy Pop, Slash, Peter Hook (New Order), John Cale (The Velvet Underground), and more paid tribute to Lanegan via social media posts.
Grohl has been promoting Foo Fighters’ new horror movie, Studio 666. Consequence is celebrating the film’s release with “Foo Fighters Week,” offering several features related to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. You can also catch Foo Fighters on tour during their extensive 2022 outing, with tickets available here.
See Dave Grohl and Mark Lanegan performing together in Queens of the Stone Age in 2002 below.
