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Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse died this weekend, and initial reports gave his age only as being “in his forties.” Caryn Ganz, who broke the news late Saturday for Rolling Stone, told me that Linkous’ publicist/manager, Shelby Meade, told her his age “wasn’t released.”
Entertainment Weekly went with a very similar formulation to Ganz’s: “Linkous, who was in his forties but whose exact age is unknown,” Missy Schwartz wrote. The information replicated itself.
Linkous’ Wikipedia page says he was born in 1962. I’m not good enough at figuring out when that got added, but it also says he was born in Arlington and narrowly avoided a career in coal-mining, so maybe that’s not important. The New York Times reported he was 47; Ben Sisario, who wrote the item, says he “found his DOB on public records, and I also got it from the police.”I don’t know where Ben Sisario, who wrote the item, got that. I’ve e-mailed him, and I’ll update when he replies.
I went on Nexis this morning and found out Mark Linkous was born in Sept. 1962. When I e-mailed Meade to ask her why so many people reported such a vague age for her client, she wrote back: “Andrew he was 47.”