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(CNN) --
Mark Lanegan, a pioneering vocalist in the Seattle grunge music scene known for fronting the group Screaming Trees, has died, family and friends confirmed on his verified Twitter account.
He was 57 years old.
The cause of his death was not immediately announced.
Mark Lanegan, a pioneer of the Seattle grunge music scene and leader of the influential band Screaming Trees, has died at the age of 57.
Though he often downplayed his contributions to indie rock, the deep-voiced performer helped usher in a new era for the genre that saw many of his collaborators rise to international fame.
He also collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age, launched a prolific solo career, and published poetry and two memoirs.
Lanegan co-founded Screaming Trees in the mid-1980s, but it wasn't until their sixth album, 1992's "Sweet Oblivion," that the group finally broke through nationally.
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The Screaming Trees were an influential part of the Seattle grunge scene, where bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana began their careers.
Lanegan wrote about his friendship with late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in his 2020 memoir, "Sing Backwards and Weep."
Like Cobain, Lanegan was a regular drug user.
It wasn't until after Cobain's death, at the insistence of Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, that he finally went to rehab in the late '90s and again in the 2000s, she wrote in her biography.
He had been sober for almost 20 years when the book was published, Rolling Stone reported at the time.
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Lanegan's music career took a different path after Screaming Trees disbanded in 2000. He continued to make solo albums, which he began releasing while still a member of the group.
She joined Queens of the Stone Age for a few years and also collaborated with artists like Isobel Campbell, who was in Belle and Sebastian.
"In order to continue in music, I had to distance myself from the whole Seattle thing," he told Rolling Stone in 2020. "I had to stay away to avoid being known as this drug addict ex-grunge singer who never made it."
In August 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Lanegan moved to Ireland with his wife, Shelley Brien.
The stay was meant to be temporary, he told Spin last year, but the "physical beauty" of the area convinced him to stay.
Last year, Lanegan fell ill with covid-19 and nearly died, an experience she documented in another biography, "Devil in a Coma," published in December.
He was put into a medically induced coma and spent weeks in an intensive care unit in Ireland.
"From the moment I was brought out of my chemically induced sleep and told what had happened and where I had been, I was determined to survive this nightmare, even though I had very little, really, no say in the matter and I had no ammunition to fight," he wrote.
Friends and fans remember Lanegan
Fellow musicians and music lovers publicly mourned Lanegan's death.
Peter Hook, co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, said that Lanegan was a "charming man" who "led a wild life some of us could only dream of".
"He leaves us with some fantastic lyrics and music!" Hook tweeted.
"Thank God that through all of that he will live forever."
KEXP, a public radio station in Seattle that has long championed alternative artists, called Lanegan "a rare talent, a true vision, and a dear friend of the station."
The band Garbage, which emerged a few years after Screaming Trees, praised Lanegan's unique talents in a tweet.
"A very talented artist blessed with hues of honey, gone too soon," the band said.
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