Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Finneas O’Connell are among the musicians remembering Glen Hansard.
The Irish singer-songwriter, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly” from Once, died in a motorcycle crash early Wednesday morning near his native Dublin. He was 56.
The death of the Frames frontman has sparked a number of tributes from across the entertainment industry.
Bono penned a lengthy essay about Hansard, beginning, “Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…”
He then recalled his kindness and busking past, writing in part, “He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place.”
In closing, Bono returned to his view of Hansard as an “angelic presence.”
“And I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist,” he wrote. “For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.”
Springsteen, meanwhile, recalled meeting Hansard in Ireland “many years ago.”
“He was always nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man,” he wrote on social media. “Always positive, smiling and ready to sing.”
Finneas O’Connell remembered how “Falling Slowly” was the first song he ever performed onstage, at the age of 11.
“His songs made me want to write songs and they also made me cry,” O’Connell wrote. “When our family met him in Dublin in 2019, he greeted us like old friends even though we were just his fans. Today I am a heartbroken fan. Hope he knew how much he meant to so many, this is how much he meant to me.”
Searchlight Pictures, which released John Carney’s Once, wrote on its social media that it was “devastated by the loss.”
“A singer and actor of singular talent, his melodies gave voice to first love, first heartbreak and many milestones in between for a generation of filmgoers,” the message continued. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends. He will be missed by us all.”
Chris O’Dowd, Josh Brolin and Josh Radnor also paid tribute to Hansard.
Read on to see what Hollywood is saying about the late singer-songwriter.
