The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan is having a career renaissance with a new London exhibition of his artwork which garnered buzz and celebrity guests like Kate Moss and Bob Geldof.
MacGowan also released a book of his essays and other creative work, "The Eternal Buzz and The Crock of Gold", and none other than his friend for decades, Johnny Depp, wrote the foreword.
"The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold", which will be limited to 1,000 copies, provides a visual backdrop to MacGowan's eccentric music career.
Depp and MacGowan have stuck by each other through thick and thin, most recently during Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard when MacGowan offered lots of public support.
Shane MacGowan in 2009. (Getty Images)
Depp has returned the favor with his words of praise in MacGowan's new book, "The Eternal Buzz and The Crock of Gold".
“As you also may have guessed from picking up this book, noting the title of said book and possibly a few teasing images for that which is soon to follow, there is another side to my great friend, Shane. Another side that doesn’t get quite as much acknowledgment as it should,” Depp wrote in part.
“And so, revealed here, in the pages to follow, is Shane’s propensity for the wild, for the absurd, for the political, for the beautiful, all funneled and threaded through the needle of his pen. But, this time, in this book, not via the tool of language. Instead, Shane’s visual acuity will take the lead. His visions will speak for themselves.
“Sometimes they will invoke wonder, sometimes they might appear decidedly threatening, but, regardless of medium, his work will always be full of poetry — a bit like the great man, and my great friend, himself; the great artist, Shane MacGowan.”
*This column first appeared in the November 9 edition of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper, sister publication to IrishCentral.
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