Shane MacGowan, the frontman of Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band The Pogues, died Thursday. He was 65.
“It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of Shane MacGowan,” his family said in a joint statement shared on The Pogues’ Twitter.
Last year, MacGowan shared that he was diagnosed with encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic. He was also recently hospitalized for health problems earlier this month, the BBC reported.
MacGowan “died peacefully” at 3 a.m. on Tuesday with his wife and other loved ones by his side, according to the statement.
“Prayers and the last rites were read which gave comfort to his family,” the statement continued.
The family asked for privacy at this “very sad time” and said that further details would be announced shortly.
His wife, a British Journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, also shared an emotional message about the musician while announcing his passing.
“I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love ❤️ of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese,” she wrote on Instagram on Thursday along with a throwback photo of MacGowan.
Clarke said that she is “blessed beyond words” to have met him and loved him and shared that she was “unconditionally” loved by him for so many years filled with “joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.”
“There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world,” she said. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presence in this world you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music.”
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“You will live in my heart forever. Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ You meant the world to me.”
Clarke had celebrated their 5-year wedding anniversary just days before his passing by sharing an Instagram photo of herself kissing him as he sat in a hospital bed.
The “Fairytale of New York” songwriter fronted The Pogues from 1982 until the band split in 2014.
Born in Kent, England, the rocker is survived by his wife, his sister Siobhan and his father Maurice.