The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Screaming Trees

In the spring of 2020, Mark Lanegan released his memoir, “Sing Backwards and Weep,” and in it, he documented his troubled life in great detail, from his adventures and misadventures with Screaming Trees to his solo music career to his past struggles with substance abuse. Given that Lanegan’s tenure with the Trees was covered in several chapters, the book caught the attention of Van and Gary Lee Conner (pictured above in the ’90s), as the two brothers released statements denouncing the memoir. While it seems that Van deleted his statement (via Kerrang), Lee’s comments on “Sing Backwards” remain up on his Facebook at the time of writing.

“While many of the facts may be accurate, it is delivered with a venom that is perplexing,” Lee wrote. “I moved far, far past all my problems and confrontations with Mark many years ago and airing all this now, after half a lifetime, in a very public forum, seems vicious and petty. I had one conversation on the phone in the last 18 years with Mark and [it] was very cordial. Any history between the two of us ended when the band did, in the year 2000.”

In his interview with Kerrang, Lee Conner further alleged that Lanegan “never thought it necessary” to tell him what he planned to write about him on his autobiography, which particularly rankled him due to how negatively he was portrayed on its pages. And while he acknowledged that he’d like to have another conversation with the frontman, Lee said that he still questions Lanegan’s motives in joining the Trees, as he feels he might have simply used the band to “get famous.”