Mark Lanegan (born November 25, 1964 in Ellensburg, Washington) is a singer and songwriter both as a solo artist and as frontman for numerous bands, most notably Screaming Trees, which played a slightly grunge-influenced kind of rock.
In 1990, his first solo album, The Winding Sheet, was released on the legendary label Sub Pop, which also hosted Nirvana and many others. Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain even joined Lanegan on this album, on the tracks "Down in the Dark" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" as backing vocal and as guitar player respectively. Nirvana's bass player Krist Novoselic joined in on bass on the latter track, a Leadbelly cover, which would later appear on Nirvana's Unplugged album.
Lanegan also appears on a great lot of songs and albums by other artists in very different genres, mostly because he has a very characteristic voice. He has been a Queens of the Stone Age member for one album and a tour, for example. Other references are Mad Season, Masters of Reality, Melissa Auf der Maur, Martina Topley-Bird, Mondo Generator and The Twilight Singers.
On his latest album, Bubblegum (2004), Lanegan was joined by an army of artists from different bands, including: P. J. Harvey (solo artist); Aldo Struyf (Millionaire); Dimitri Coats and Melanie Campbell (Burning Brides); Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri and Troy van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age); Chris Goss (Masters of Reality); Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs, The Twilight Singers) and Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin (Guns N' Roses). This list is far from exhaustive.
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