Bono and Bruce Springsteen are among the artists paying tribute to Oscar-winning Irish singer Glen Hansard, who died Wednesday in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. He was 56.
Bono would often take part in Hansard’s Christmas Eve Busk in Dublin, which raised money for the homeless community. He shared his thoughts on Instagram Wednesday, alongside a video of him performing “Invisible” with Hansard.
“Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed,” Bono wrote. “Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence… A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty of graces.”
Bono ended his lengthy post with, “[A]nd I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case. May you rest in the peace you gave to so many.”
“Here on E Street, we are heartbroken over the death of Glen Hansard,” Springsteen wrote in his tribute on Instagram. “We met in Ireland many years ago and he was always nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man. Always positive, smiling and ready to sing. God bless him and his loved ones.”
The day before his death, Hansard’s social media posted a video of him performing “Drive All Night” with Springsteen in Ireland.
“This week in 2013 Glen had the honor of joining Bruce @springsteen & the E Street Band on stage in Kilkenny for ‘Drive All Night’, which Glen released his own version of later that year,” the post read. “Were you there?”
Hansard’s version, which featured backing vocals by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and saxophone from The E Street Band’s Jake Clemons, appeared on Hansard’s 2013 EP, also titled Drive All Night.
Others paying tribute to Hansard include Ed Sheeran, Finneas, Lin-Manuel Miranda, actress Rachel Zegler, and The War and Treaty.
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