Bruce Springsteen is one of the admirers of The Pogues frontman and poet Shane MacGowan, who died on November 30, 2023. The American stadium rocker considers the Irishman to be one of the most timeless songwriters ever, as he explained in an interview on the Irish “Late Late Show” on RTÈ One in 2021.
“He’s the man, you know? I truly believe, as I sit here on my radio show, that most of us will be forgotten in a hundred years. But I believe that Shane’s music will be remembered and sung. “It’s just deep in the nature of things,” Springsteen said at the time.
“For me he is a master and I really appreciate his work and the work with The Pogues,” the musician continued.
Springsteen visited MacGowan in Dublin
In May 2023, Springsteen visited the ill MacGowan in Dublin. MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke posted a picture of the two at the time and wrote: “What a great honor and wonderful experience to be visited by the Boss. Such a thoroughly wonderful man and a total genius.”
It was also Clarke who announced her husband’s death in an emotional statement on November 30, 2023. “I don’t know how to say it, so I’ll just say it. Shane, who will always be the light that I have before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and the most beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the beginning and the end of everything I hold dear “went to Jesus and Mary and his beautiful Mother Therese,” Clarke wrote.
“I am blessed beyond measure to have met him and loved him and been loved by him so infinitely and unconditionally and so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures to have experienced. There is no way to describe the loss I feel and the longing for just one more of his smiles to light up my world. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your presence in this world, you have made it so bright and you have brought so much joy to so many people with your heart, soul and music. 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,” the statement continues.