Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan was “surrounded by thousands of angels” when he died, his wife says.
Victoria Mary Clarke also revealed she did not think the 65-year-old singer would die after suffering viral encephalitis.
She said: “We always assumed that Shane would live to be at least 80 and neither of us believed that he would not recover after he was hospitalised in Dublin for viral encephalitis earlier this year.
READ MORE: Shane MacGowan’s widow claims he has been helping her from beyond the grave
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“I don’t know if it’s better to be prepared for death but it’s probably different for everyone and it came as an enormous shock to me when he died, at 3.30am on November 30.
“Mercifully, he looked very peaceful and there was an immediate atmosphere of grace in the hospital room. He was surrounded by thousands of angels in the moment of his passing and they filled us all with love and peace.
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“He actually died during the last rites which was hugely comforting because he was devoted to his faith and he prayed constantly and took Holy Communion every day.
“I honestly don’t remember what Shane’s last words were but I think he said, ‘thank you’. He said thank you a lot. In fact the nurses commented on how often he expressed his gratitude to them.”
At one point Victoria said he once was doing so many hallucinogens he ate a Beach Boys record to “prove the inferiority of the US” and she found him in an attic talking to Freddie Kruger.
She said: “He wrote some of his most beautiful songs around this time but it was frightening for me.
“He was supposed to go on tour with Bob Dylan but, instead, he was at home eating a Beach Boys record to prove the inferiority of the U.S. — with blood dripping out of his mouth — raving about a summit meeting he was having with the heads of state of the world powers.
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“Once I found him in the attic ‘talking to Freddy Krueger’ and another time he was locked in the toilet all day talking to the dead poet James Clarence Mangan and writing a song that the poet was dictating.”
Victoria also praised actor Johnny Depp – who read a prayer at Shane’s funeral and helped to carry the coffin – for coming to their rescue after Shane was fired from The Pogues in 1991 for taking drugs.
She said: “Shane got thrown out of The Pogues in 1991 because his drinking and drug-taking were so hard to deal with. He had a huge sense of relief even though he was incapacitated with hepatitis at the time.
“Johnny Depp came to our rescue in 1993 when he invited Shane to open his Viper Room club in LA and they worked together on Shane’s new album ‘The Snake’ and the video for ‘That Woman’s Got Me Drinking’.
“Shane was feeling more of a sense of freedom and we were having a lot more fun, even though life was still chaotic. We loved to meditate together and we would spend days just listening to music and writing together.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
