Mark Lanegan has detailed his near-death experience from COVID-19 in a new memoir, which will be published next month.

Devil In A Coma will see the grunge musician share prose and poetry that he wrote while he was ill with the virus.

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According to a press release, Lanegan went completely deaf after contracting coronavirus and, later, suffered cracked ribs and breathing problems. After being rushed to hospital, he spent months in bed, “slipping in and out of a coma”.

The star was also unable to walk for months, and says he was forced to confront his own mortality and address the way he’d lived his life up until that point.

White Rabbit Books
Credit: White Rabbit Books

Devil In A Coma will be published on December 14 by White Rabbit Books. Publisher Lee Brackstone said: “Devil In A Coma is the latest work by a master of many forms, who has once again made art out of suffering and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Unsparing – of both himself and the world we now find ourselves in – and grotesquely compelling, this book could not be more visceral and intense if it were written in blood.”

In March, Lanegan released a poetry book called Leaving California, which merged “the lines of harsh reality and paranoia, beauty and reflection, and the wisdom of the escape artist”, according to publisher Heartworm Press.

Meanwhile, the musician and Joe Cardamone announced a collaborative project in August, called Dark Mark vs Skeleton Joe.

“The fact that it’s not like anything either one of us have done before is what makes this so interesting for me,” Lanegan said of the project. “When you have done as much stuff as Joe and I, you have to constantly search for the different and challenging to keep yourself engaged.”