Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave, & Bono Pay Tribute To The Late Shane MacGowan

On November 30, news of Shane MacGowan’s death was made public. The late musician’s wife, Victoria Clarke, shared a note about their life together. Fans flooded social media to show their support of MacGowan and his group, The Pogues. Now, fellow musicians like Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave, and Bono have taken to their platforms to pay tribute.

“Ah, the blessings of the cursed. Shane McGowan’s torrid and mighty voice is mud and roses punched out with swaggering stagger, ancient longing that is blasted all to hell,”wrote Waits in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “A Bard’s bard, may he cast his spell upon us all forevermore.”

Springsteen took to Instagram to share a statement on behalf of himself and The E Street Band. “Over here on E Street, we are heartbroken over the death of Shane MacGowan,” he wrote. “Shane was one of my all-time favorite writers. The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics are unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon. I was fortunate to spend a little time with Shane and his lovely wife, Victoria, the last time we were in Dublin. He was very ill but still beautifully present in his heart and spirit. His music is timeless and eternal. I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now.”

“Shane was not revered just for his manifold talents but also loved for himself alone,” wrote Cave in a newsletter. He continued to honor Sinéad O’Connor, who passed in July. “A beautiful and damaged man, who embodied a kind of purity, innocence, generosity, and spiritual intelligence unlike any other.”

“Shane MacGowan’s songs were perfect, so he or we his fans didn’t have to be,” wrote Bono in an upload on X.