Mark Linkous, a singer and songwriter whose music, released under the name Sparklehorse, was renowned in indie-rock and alt-country circles for its haunted, allusive themes and fragile beauty, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47.
He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Linkous was pronounced dead at the scene. According to his family, Linkous owned the gun that he used.
On four Sparklehorse albums, released between 1995 and 2006, and in numerous collaborations, Linkous developed a style that sent sunny, Beatles-esque melodies through a filter of crackling, damaged folk-rock, and his songs were filled with entropic imagery.
Read more from the New York Times.
