For Shane MacGowan

“I’ve lived my life in chapters…and one of those, had a big headline ‘The Pogues’. They were all-consuming, overwhelming, perplexing, honorable, musically unstoppable, with words worthy of any astonishing writer from any time I have known.

And the front of all of this, the fount from which that music and those words came, was Shane MacGowan. He lived his life far away from the judgement of mere mortals. He lived his life the way he chose, unapologetically, without boundaries, and fearlessly.

Inspiration comes in many different ways, and Shane was one for me.

Whenever I hear those words and that voice…it stops me in my tracks. I had a very small role, in a very big life…and for that I will always be grateful.

Bless you Shane, wherever you may be…because I know for sure that nothing can stop you, you have no limits, not even death.”

— Frank Riley