Eric Wagner (TROUBLE / THE SKULL / LID)

[Ravenpride]

Laut seinen Sohn ist er im KH verstorben. Eric wurde nur 62 Jahre alt. Ich war grad beim Erstdurchlauf des letzten THE SKULL Albums, als ich die Meldung gesehen hab.


R.I.P Eric

[Ravenpride]

Hey all this is Luke Wagner his oldest son. Eric Wagner has passed away.

[Ravenpride]

R.I.P. , Mr. Wagner.
We will miss u as a great musician and part of our family. #trouble #theskull #legend #doom

[Ravenpride]

Real/full name:
Eric Wagner
Age:
62 (born Apr 24th, 1959)
R.I.P.:
Aug 22nd, 2021
Died of:
COVID-19

[Ravenpride]

Der Doom-Metal-Sänger Eric Wagner ist nach einer schweren Infektion mit dem Coronavirus verstorben. Er wurde 62 Jahre alt.



Sein ältester Sohn Luke gab den Tod seines Vaters in einem Kommentar auf der Facebook-Seite von dessen Band The Skull bekannt. Die Band hatte eine Woche davor vermeldet, dass Wagner nach einer Verschlechterung seines Krankheitsverlaufs mit einer Lungenentzündung in ein Krankenhaus musste.
Corona-Infektion nach Tournee

The Skull waren zuvor mit der Band The Obsessed auf einer dreiwöchigen US-Tour. Während die übrigen Mitglieder von The Skull negativ getestet wurden, gab The-Obsessed-Bassist Brian White an, ebenfalls infiziert aber symptomlos zu sein. Er habe sich zuvor gegen das Virus impfen lassen. The-Obsessed-Sänger Wino sagte zuletzt einen Auftritt auf einem Festival in Las Vegas ab, da er die dortigen Masken-Auflagen ablehnte.

Eric Wagner war von 1981 bis 1997 sowie von 2000 bis 2008 Frontmann von Trouble, einer der wichtigsten Bands im Doom-Metal-Genre. Nach der erneuten Trennung von Trouble gründete er 2012 mit Ex-Trouble-Bassist Ron Holzner die Band The Skull. Zudem sang er bei der Psychedelic-Band Blackfinger. 2004 war er auf einem Song von Dave Grohls Allstar-Projekt Probot vertreten und trat mit ihm danach auch live auf.

[Ravenpride]

Another legend gone. One of the greatest Heavy Metal singers has left the stage for good.
R.I.P. Eric Wagner (Trouble/The Skull).

[Ravenpride]

We are totally gutted to hear about the passing of one of the greatest heavy metal singers of all time. R.I.P. Eric Wagner (born Apr 24th, 1959). As far as we know he died of Covid related complications. His recordings with TROUBLE, THE SKULL etc will forever remind us of his greatness....

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[Ravenpride]

We all are devastated and in shock.
We lost a band mate, friend, and brother.
We will make a statement once we get more info and come to terms with this.

[Ravenpride]

Rest in Peace Eric Wagner of Trouble and The Skull, 1959-2021



Former Trouble and current The Skull vocalist Eric Wagner has died of pneumonia brought about by Covid-19. His son, Luke Wagner, confirmed on social media. It is impossible to estimate the devastation that Wagner’s loss means to the international underground community at large, but it nearly goes without saying that he was a legend in his own time with a career spanning more than 40 years behind him, as well as someone continuing to do pivotal work in doom metal today.

As part of Trouble, Wagner was essential in defining the trajectory of American doom. Early albums through Metal Blade Records like 1984’s Trouble/Psalm 9, 1985’s The Skull and 1987’s Run to the Light set forth a blueprint that many still follow today, and even as Trouble shifted into more heavy rock and classic rock-minded fare on their 1990 self-titled, their efforts remained no less crucial, with Wagner’s Beatles influence becoming all the more defining on 1992’s Manic Frustration and 1995’s Plastic Green Head, which would be his final album with the band until 2007’s Simple Mind Condition.

Always creative and a songwriter in his own right, Wagner would work across multiple outfits at a time, whether it was the collaboration Lid with Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema or his 2004 participation in Dave Grohl’s Probot project, which helped introduce his voice and style to a broader audience prior to his return to Trouble for what would be his last full-length with the band. In the years following his departure from Trouble, Wagner went on in 2012 to found The Skull alongside guitarist Lothar Keller and fellow Trouble veterans Ron Holzner (bass) and Jeff Olson (drums), first as an homage project and later one with original material.

The Skull’s two full-lengths, For Those Which Are Asleep and The Endless Road Turns Dark, would see release in 2014 and 2016, respectively, through Tee Pee Records. Blackfinger, which would become something of a side-project as The Skull took priority, also released two albums, in 2014’s self-titled and 2017’s When Colors Fade Away, with the acoustic solo collection, Highdeas Vol. 1, arriving in 2015.

It was reported late last week that Wagner, who contracted Covid-19 while on a co-headlining tour with The Skull and fellow landmark outfit The Obsessed, had entered the hospital with Covid pneumonia and that remaining live dates including a slated appearance at Psycho Las Vegas were canceled. He was, again reportedly, unvaccinated.

He was someone whose work was immediately identifiable, and his influence is spread across generations of music from all over the world. It is impossible to hear his voice and not know who’s performing, and on stage, he brought a sense of character and even at times humor to his presence that was inimitable and spoke to his Chicago roots. He may be best remembered as Trouble’s singer, but the arc of his career would find him inspiring others multiple times over, and his passion for what he did was no less inimitable than the voice that was so much his own. If it is impossible to rank the scale of his influence, that is because it continues to spread.

As somebody fortunate enough to interview Wagner on several occasions and to see him live on many more, I offer sincere condolences on behalf of myself and this site for whatever that’s worth to Wagner’s friends, family, bandmates, and any other associates. In my experience, he was a sweet, humble man who understood his place and at least some of what his work meant to others. Of his feelings on Trouble after leaving the band, he told me in 2011, “Those four guys are the only ones who know what it was like to do what we did… I can talk to them and they know exactly what I mean and what it felt like and what we went through.” It was a moment of rare perspective that still resonates a decade later.

He will be dearly missed. It is a tragic loss.

[Ravenpride]

Former TROUBLE Singer ERIC WAGNER Dies After Battle With COVID Pneumonia


Eric Wagner, the original singer of doom metal legends TROUBLE, has died after a battle with COVID pneumonia. He was 62 years old.

The news of Wagner's passing was confirmed late last night by his son Luke Wagner. Luke wrote on social media: "Hey all this is Luke Wagner his oldest son. Eric Wagner has passed away."

Also mourning Wagner's death is his former THE SKULL bandmate Chuck Robinson. He wrote on Facebook: "This morning I awoke to the worst news... We are all truely devastated.. My dear friend, band mate and brother Eric Wagner has passed. Goodnight Tempter.. We love you.."

It was less than a week ago that Wagner's bandmates went public with the fact that he was infected by the novel coronavirus. At the time, THE SKULL wrote: "We will not be able to play Psycho Vegas this Thursday. While 3 out of 4 of us who tested positive for Covid are recovering nicely... Eric Wagner's bout with Covid has gotten worse and he was admitted to the hospital yesterday with COVID pneumonia. Positive thoughts and words will be helpful."

Just a few days earlier, THE SKULL dropped off its tour with THE OBSESSED, citing "the ongoing and growing COVID situation sweeping the nation again, particularly in the South." The band said that it would "reschedule as much as we can and tour again properly when things calm down."

Unvaccinated people, like Wagner reportedly was, are more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than people who are fully vaccinated.

Infectious disease experts have said that large-scale outbreaks among unvaccinated people are being fueled by the highly contagious delta variant.

Dr. Rodrigo Hasbun, a professor of medicine in infectious diseases at UTHealth, told ABC13 about COVID pneumonia: "When you have a viral infection and it first sets in, in a sub group of patients, about 10% to 15% of the patients, you'll develop a very large immune reaction to the virus, and that is what develops and causes the pneumonia."

As for how severe it is, Hasbun said: "COVID pneumonia is really the start. They develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and then they get intubated and ventilated and those are the patients who usually die from COVID. With the new medications, we are seeing less of a mortality when we didn't have all these medications."

Asked what the outlook for someone who gets it is, Hasbun told ABC13: "Last year, we didn't have all those medications, so we were just basically seeing them progress and not doing anything to prevent the progression at the beginning of the pandemic. We saw how they progressed overnight and they got intubated. Once they are intubated, it is very difficult. Some make it out. Some end up having a lung transplant, because their lungs are damaged with pulmonary fibrosis and some die."

TROUBLE formed in 1979 and released several classic albums like "Trouble", "Manic Frustration" and "Plastic Green Head".

Wagner left TROUBLE in April 2008, citing his disdain for the touring life as the main reason for his departure.

In a 2016 interview with Oldschool Metal Maniac, Eric stated about his split with TROUBLE: "I was tired of everything. Tired of touring, playing same songs every night. I wanted to do more things, and I didn't see us doing anything new. I had a bunch of new songs, that I've been working on, which appeared on BLACKFINGER records and THE SKULL records."

Eric was one of the guest singers on Dave Grohl's (NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS) heavy metal side project PROBOT, whose 2004 album featured heavy metal vocalists from the '80s and '90s.

Last year, TROUBLE partnered with Hammerheart Records to re-release the legendary doom legends' entire musical catalog, in addition to their upcoming album. This partnership that will see the distribution of the band's entire library of music that spans over three decades.

[Ravenpride]

This morning I awoke to the worst news... We are all truely devastated.. My dear friend, band mate and brother Eric Wagner has passed.
Goodnight Tempter.. We love you..

[Ravenpride]

THE SKULL 1.8.2021

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[Ravenpride]

I had heard that Eric Wagner was ill in hospital but doing well and receiving good care. The news that he has died is nothing less than a tragic shock. There’s no denying that Trouble were a massive influence on me since first hearing them in the mid 80s and they changed the very notion of what true heaviness was to me. Their first two albums in particular are stunning examples of how soulful and punishingly heavy the art of Doom Metal can actually be. They completely reinvented the genre and transcended the basic formula into something truly unique. Their influence on early Cathedral was unquestionable, even more-so than Sabbath, particularly with regard to the the twin guitar aspect. To me, The Skull is the heaviest Doom Metal album ever recorded. I still remember the day it came in to Revolver record shop in Coventry and asking the guy behind the counter to play it. It literally felt like the building was about to collapse when Pray For the Dead kicked in. The first time Trouble came to the UK in 1990, I went to every show bar Scottish dates. We (Cathedral) toured with them on several occasions and some crazy, crazy times were had. My condolences go to Eric’s friends, family and former bandmates. RIP Eric.

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[Ravenpride]

[Ravenpride]