Shane MacGowan Passes Away at 65

(USNewsBreak.com) – Many new aspiring musicians hit the scene every year. However, no level of success is ever guaranteed, and the journey to the top is difficult. Yet, every once in a while, a singer makes such an impact that many in the industry revere their efforts. That was the case with Shane MacGowan, who shot to fame with the Irish band The Pogues. Sadly, he recently passed away days shy of his 66th birthday.

On November 30, Victoria Mary Clarke, MacGowan’s wife, took to Instagram to share the news of her husband’s passing. She later revealed the singer-songwriter had died of pneumonia. A Dublin hospital, where he had spent several months recovering from an infection, had released him just days prior. It was just one of many health problems that had surfaced for him in recent years.

Sunday Morning Passage

Celtic folk-punk singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan, the beloved chain-smoking, hard-drinking longtime frontman of The Pogues, has died at the age of 65. https://t.co/OoCCQHJzSa

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) December 1, 2023

MacGowan was born to Irish parents on Christmas Day 1957 in Kent, England. He regularly returned to the country, where he settled down later in life. During his youth, he was very into literature and eventually used that inspiration to create songs that touched the hearts of his adoring fans. One of those was Irish President Michael Higgins, who honored MacGowan after his death, calling him “one of music’s greatest lyricists,” whose “words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history,” per Irish publication RTE.

While MacGowan played in Nipple Erectors, known as the Nips, in the 1970s, he later went on to form Pogue Mahone, which became The Pogues with Spider Stacey and Jem Finer. Sadly, his behavior caused his bandmates to oust him from the band in 1991, but that didn’t stop him from forming another band and continuing to produce music and tour.

In 2015, MacGowan broke his pelvis and lived the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair. His wife, sister Siobhan, and father, Maurice, survive him.