Warren Ellis has shared a personal story about a guitar gift from his late friend Glen Hansard, saying on Instagram that “everyone Glen crossed in life was richer for the experience,” according to NME.
Ellis said Hansard contacted him about ten years ago after coming across a Gibson tenor guitar, which he believed was meant for Ellis. When Ellis tried to turn it down, Hansard insisted and had the instrument sent with a note that read, “If there’s a song in it you’ll find it.”
Hansard, best known as the Oscar-winning star of Once and frontman of The Frames, died in a motorcycle crash in Dublin on Wednesday, July 29. He was 56.
In the days since, Ellis has posted several tributes reflecting on their friendship, including memories of Hansard making the trip to see Dirty Three perform in Boston and of their first meeting in County Cork in the mid-1990s.
Hansard’s family has announced a public wake and funeral in Dublin next week, with the wake at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Monday, August 3, followed by a public funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral the next day.
