The Singer-Songwriter Known as Sparklehorse is Dead

He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friends home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Mr. Linkous was pronounced dead at the scene. According to his family, Mr. Linkous owned the gun that he used.

On four Sparklehorse albums released between 1995 and 2006, and in numerous collaborations, Mr. Linkous developed a style that sent sunny, Beatles-esque melodies through a filter of crackling, damaged folk-rock, and his songs were filled with entropic imagery. Everything thats made is made to decay, he sang on Sparkehorses debut album, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (Capitol) in a whispery tenor that had echoes of coal-country folk.

Born and raised in Virginia, Mr. Linkous began his musical career in punk bands, and in the 1980s he lived in New York and Los Angeles in pursuit of mainstream rock success as part of the band the Dancing Hoods. Disillusioned with the music business, he returned to Virginia and reinvented his sound as Sparklehorse, a name that applied to himself as well as the band he led.

Although never a commercial success, Sparklehorses music found respect among critics and other musicians. Rolling Stone called its 1998 album Good Morning Spider a homemade tour de force of psychedelic Appalachian folk slop, and the third Sparklehorse album, Its a Wonderful Life, released in 2001, featured guest appearances by Tom Waits and PJ Harvey.