Shane MacGowan, the legendary frontman of Irish band the Pogues, died early Thursday, his family announced online. He was 65.
The “Fairytale of New York” songwriter died at 3 a.m. with his wife and family by his side, his band announced online.
“I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it,” his wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, also wrote on Instagram.
“‘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 of the “love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel.”
A cause of death was not immediately clear on Thursday, but MacGowan had suffered a number of health issues over the past few years.
He received treatment in December 2022 for encephalitis — an enlargement of the brain — and spent more time in the Intensive Care Unit over the summer.
MacGowan, who has been in a wheelchair since 2015, was back in the hospital earlier this month for an unknown condition.
Born in Kent, England on Christmas Day 1957, MacGowan demonstrated his storytelling abilities from a young age.
He won a Daily Mirror literary prize when he was just 13, and earned a scholarship to Westminster School in London for his essays.
“I didn’t last there very long,” MacGowan told the Guardian in 2013. “I got nicked for smoking a joint and was kicked out.”