Glen Hansard’s music moved people. The beloved Irish troubadour who died in an early morning motorcycle crash on Wednesday (July 29) in Dublin inspired fans and fellow musicians with his passion, warmth and an open-hearted nature that unleashed an outpouring of emotion, fond memories and the kind of poetic memorials that would have been right at home in the lyrics to one of Hansard’s songs.
The tributes continue to pour in for the singer who led the beloved Irish band The Frames, none more packed with intensity and poetry than a note from fellow Irish bard Bono of U2. “Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…. 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,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer wrote on X.
Bono shouted out former busker Hansard’s lifelong work advocating for the homeless in his country, calling him the “shining star” of the annual Christmas Eve busk Hansard would lead outside Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre to raise funds for homeless advocacy group Dublin Simon Community. “Sometimes the only one reminding the rest of us that Christmas began with a refugee born in a manger, which is hardly a step from living on the street,” Bono said.
“To be utterly yourself by being more interested in others – a clue for any of us trying out different personas,” he added. “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.”
After Hansard won the Oscar for best original song for the emotional ballad “Falling Slowly” from the 2007 hit micro-budget musical drama Once — in which he also co-starred with Swell Season bandmate Markéta Irglová — Bono said the crowds got so large that the busk had to be moved indoors, a venal sin for a performer who got his start playing on the street. “He would say ‘we’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was – a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognize. Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.”
Calling him the “voice of the streets” and a “choir of angels in one man,” Bono tried to reconcile his grief by telling himself, “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.”
Bruce Springsteen, who was joined by Hansard at the E Street Band’s July 27, 2013 show in Kilkenny, Ireland, shared a fond memory of that time in an Instagram post. ““Here on E Street, we are heartbroken over the death of Glen Hansard,” the Boss wrote. “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.”
“Heartbroken to hear the news about Glen,” Ed Sheeran wrote in his Instagram Story. “He was such an incredible human. An incredible force. I am grateful for the times we spent together. Sending so much love to his family.”
Hansard was a north star for his older peers as well as for his younger ones, including both Billie Eilish and brother Finneas, with the latter sharing a picture of him arm-in-arm with Hansard on Instagram. “Glen Hansard. North Star songwriter, most wonderful person. The first song I ever got on a stage to perform was ‘Falling Slowly’ when I was 11,” Finneas said. “His songs made me want to write songs and they also made me cry. 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.”
In her Insta story, Eilish posted a pic of her leaning into a hug with Hansard, her right hand on her face in disbelief, with the message: “Devastated … wouldn’t be who I am today without glen.”
The siblings’ mother, Maggie Baird, posted a snap of the whole family backstage with Hansard, as well as a few of Eilish looking star-struck next to the singer whose humble, loving demeanor left a deep impression on so many.
“Sometimes you get to meet your heroes and they are even more amazing than your dreams,” shared Baird. “We are Broken hearted today. Glen Hansard was a force in all of our family’s lives and when we got to first meet him at electric picnic in 2019 It was such a gift. Our happy faces in these photos tear me up today. devastated for his family and for all of us who were so changed by him. When we first saw the movie Once it affected us also profoundly. I know Finneas and Billie would not be who they are without his music.”
She recalled Finneas making his live performance debut playing the heart-wrenching “Falling Slowly” and daughter Billie singing “all the song” from Once. “We went to see him talk and perform at The Grammy Museum in 2013 and were blown away,” she added. “I got to see him at the Greek last fall and it was such a joy and I know he had so many shows planned and a three year old! He was a thrilling human to be in the presence of I hope you have a little inkling of what he meant to people. I know it’s a very hard thing to feel and taken I doubt that he really knew, but he was such a gift I’m so so sad. I’m so grateful for what he brought to the world.”
Venues across the U.S. and the world expressed their love, grief and eternal joy at having spent time with Hansard, with Chicago’s famed Metro club turning over its marquee to read: “Glen Hansard: Sing Your Melody.” And, in a testament to the deep and wide impact he had on musicians of all stripes, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, wrote on Instagram, “Grateful for the music we got. Greedy for more. Heartbroken for his son and family and loved ones. Once in a lifetime songwriter. RIP Glen,” a sentiment shared by everyone from Cat Power to Sharon Van Etten and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, who said, simply, “Man, just jammed with this guy last year, he was so sweet and deep. Glen Hansard, rest easy brother.”
Producer Andrew Watt (Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne) reminisced about his time with Hansard, saying, “You will never be forgotten. How lucky was I to spend as much time both on and off the stage with you?…studios, dressing rooms, bathroom floors, long car rides, guitar stores…your ability to move people with that bellowing Irish tenor of yours is unparalleled.”
Another fellow Irishman, Hozier, talked about the profound impact Hansard had on him and all his Emerald Island peers. “Glen’s legacy reaches far beyond that of an Irish or Dublin musician who’s work became beloved globally; he was a uniquely central feature and vehicle of Irish story telling on both stage, screen and street for as long as many of us can remember,” he wrote on X. “His beautiful work was an inspirational component of my own and so many other’s upbringing and adult life, as was his consistent kindness, support and advocacy. This was a man who gave a remarkable amount of himself to song itself, to his shows, to the city he loved and to a community of musicians who loved and admired him dearly.”
Hansard’s former bandmates in the Frames summed up the singer’s impact in a touching Facebook post that read: “Our dear brother Glen has been promoted. We first met as buskers on Grafton street 40 years ago.. since then we have shared countless musical adventures in halls and on stages across the world. Glen was a force of nature, a troubadour from a different time. He had that unique ability – to bring people together – that was his medicine, his great gift. Ba fear flaithiúil é – he was princely man, a warm and generous human who was always inclined to bring the stranger in from the street and share the stage with them. His, was always a hand up and not a hand out. He was a doer, a man of action, an inspiring teacher.”