Van Conner, the bassist for the Grunge band Screaming Trees, has died. His brother and bandmate Gary Lee Conner shared the news on Facebook: “Van Conner bassist and Screaming Trees songwriter died last night of prolonged illness at age 55.
In the end, it was pneumonia that caught him. He was one of the closest friends I have ever had and I loved him immensely. I will miss him forever and ever…” His death comes less than a year after the passing of Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan (November 25, 1964 February 22, 2022).
In addition to Screaming Trees, Conner sang and played guitar in the side project Solomon Grundy and briefly played on the live version of Dinosaur Jr. Later in the ’90s, he played with Josh Homme in Gamma Ray, An early version of Queens of the Stone Age. In addition to session work, his later projects included Gardener, Musk Ox and VALIS, which also featured his younger brother Patrick Conner.
Conner formed in high school the band Explosive Generation with his brother Gary Lee Conner and Mark Pickerel. That band later became the Screaming Trees with the addition of singer Mark Lanegan in 1985. The band moved from their native Ellensburg, Washington to Seattle in the late 1980s to join that city’s burgeoning alternative rock scene. Conner played on seven studio albums with the Screaming Trees until the band broke up in 2000.
R.I.P Van Conner (March 17, 1967 – January 18, 2023)
