Mark Lanegan details near-fatal COVID experience in new memoir 'Devil in a Coma'
When Mark Lanegan told us about the inspirations behind his new album, Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe, he said, “Things were getting crazy in my personal life” during the pandemic, when he and Joe Cardamone were making the album. But things were even crazier than he alluded to, as he nearly died earlier this year from COVID, having temporarily losing his hearing and gone into a coma. He wrote down his experiences and will publish them in new memoir, Devil in a Coma, that’s out December 14 via White Rabbit. Here’s more from the back of the book:
One blindingly bright morning in Ireland in March 2021, Mark Lanegan woke up and walked into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. Having gone completely deaf during the illness that had been slowly devouring his sick body, he found himself floored with cracked ribs unable to breathe. His body — burdened with a gigantic dose of COVID-19 — was quickly taken to Kerry Hospital with little hope of survival.
Slipping in and out of coma, Lanegan’s mind and body were left oscillating between life and death, unable to walk or function for several months. As his situation becomes more intolerable over the course of that bleakest of springs he is assaulted by nightmares, visions and regrets about a life lived on the edge of chaos and disorder. He is prompted to consider his predicament and how, in his sixth decade, his lifelong battle with mortality has led to this final banal encounter with a disease that has done for millions, when he has apparently been cheating death for his whole existence.
Written in vignettes of prose and poetry, DEVIL IN A COMA is a terrifying account of illness and the remorse that comes with it by an artist and writer with singular vision.
You can pre-order Devil in a Coma now. While Mark’s hearing has recovered, he is still having health issues. We wish you a full recovery.
Mark released his first memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, in 2020.
In other news, Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe just released a video “The Living Dead” which was filmed in Ireland where Mark was living and features Duff McKagan, who plays on the track. Joe Cardamone says he had a different kind of near-death experience while there. “The filming of the video took place in Killarney, Ireland after a 24-hour travel day where for the first time in my life, I drove on the wrong side of the road.” You can watch the video below.
