Screaming Trees' Gary Lee Conner calls Mark Lanegan's memoir "vicious"

Screaming Trees’ Gary Lee Conner has denounced Mark Lanegan’s memoir Sing Backwards and Weep “vicious and petty” in an explosive statement.

Lanegan published his memoir last month, in which he reignites a 24-year-old feud with former Oasis star Liam Gallagher and takes aim at his old bandmates.

In the book, Lanegan also recalled choking Ministry’s Al Jourgensen over a drug dispute. Now, Conner has shared a statement addressing Lanegan’s book on Facebook.

He wrote: “Mark Lanegan was in the Screaming Trees and it was a combination of us all that made it great. We did not ever get along like friends and sometimes it felt like we were enemies but we did work together.

“We all had mental and personal problems but somehow we managed to get around them to create a musical legacy that I am very proud of and that still seems to have many fans. Mark took the songs Van and I wrote and helped elevate them lyrically and vocally to a higher level.

He added: “The sum total of us was a gestalt called Screaming Trees. Since the FaceBook group and page are band sites I will always post stuff about him as well as the other members.

Conner admitted to only reading “a few pages of the book” as there wasn’t a way he could take any more.

In this post, he also said: “While many of the facts may be accurate, it is delivered with a venom that is perplexing. I moved far, far past all my problems and confrontations with Mark many years ago and airing all this now, after half a lifetime, in a very public forum, seems vicious and petty.

Conner said that that the pair had “one conversation on the phone in the last 18 years” and that it was “very cordial.”

He concluded: “Any history between the two of us ended when the band did, in the year 2000. I am not one to rest on my laurels and will continue making new music as I have been. However, I still love the of the music that the Screaming Trees made from the beginning to the end of our career.

“I am also humbled by the amount of support and enthusiasm from fans of the band and my solo music, thanks to you all. I will continue to celebrate our music with you for the rest of my life…”

This comes after Gallagher hit back at Lanegan when he suggested the former Oasis singer bailed on a physical fight when they were both back in Miami during the tour.