Planes Mistaken For Stars Frontman Gared O’Donnell Dead At 44
Planes Mistaken For Stars frontman Gared O’Donnell has died at 44 following a battle with esophageal cancer.
“It is impossible to express the depth of sorrow in which we must announce that Gared O’Donnell, our brother, our leader, our captain, who has done more to cultivate love and light in this world than any of us can understand, has moved on from his physical form here with us and crossed the rainbow bridge into the eternal ether,” the band wrote in an Instagram post. “In his final days/hours, he was surrounded by the love of his family, his friends, his bandmates, and many others from afar.”
O’Donnell started the post-hardcore band in Peoria, Illinois in 1997, and they released their self-titled EP soon after before moving to Denver. The band released three albums — 2001’s Fuck With Fire, 2004’s Up In Them Guts, and 2006’s Mercy — before announcing a break-up in 2007. They started to play shows once in a while again a few years later, and in 2016 they released their first new album in a decade, Prey.
“Gared spent the last year of his life doing exactly what he loved, writing and recording music,” the band continued in their statement. “We are currently working hard to bring these multiple final projects to completion. It is heartbreaking to do this without him, but we know that he would want for us to complete what we had started together. We will do our absolute best to honor his legacy and spread word of the legend that he embodied.”
