Glen Hansard: Meeting heroes and the tape that changed his life

The passing of Oscar-winning Dublin songwriter Glen Hansard, who died in a motorbike accident in Dublin on Wednesday, has sent shockwaves of grief across the globe. The 56-year-old, who gained widespread recognition after being cast in the 1991 musical comedy film *The Commitments*, was also the long-standing frontman of the rock band The Frames.

Tributes have poured in from around the world for the father-of-one, with figures from Bono to Bruce Springsteen sharing stories of his life and profound impact. Hansard, originally from the working-class Ballymun area of Dublin, left school at the age of 13. Here's a look at some of the remarkable facets of his life in music and film.

**A Guitar, a Tape, and a Life Transformed**

It all began with a guitar and a cassette. In an interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Hansard revealed that an instrument left in his home by an uncle who had gone to prison, combined with a Bob Dylan cassette, fundamentally altered the course of his life.

In the 1980s, Ballymun was one of Dublin's most economically disadvantaged areas, grappling with high unemployment, crime, and drug addiction. Hansard recounted, "I was on a kind of a trajectory of getting into the drugs - only gently - getting heavy into drinking, very young, beginning to kind of break into things, just getting into that slightly dodgy spot."

He received a Bob Dylan cassette from his girlfriend's brother. "I listened to Bob Dylan and everything, like my whole world just went into the opposite - flipped," he explained. "I stayed in the bedroom, I played Bob Dylan songs every day, I learned my craft, I decided music was all I cared about. So that was a real turnaround for me, it was a life changer and I suddenly had my path."

Hansard also credited his school headmaster for encouraging his musical pursuits, recalling the headmaster's words: "I can't guarantee you'll be famous, but if you start now, then you'll always be able to live from your guitar."

He formed The Frames and secured his first record deal in 1990, the same year he joined the cast of *The Commitments*.

**Accidental Stardom: From *The Commitments* to *Once***

It might seem unusual for a dedicated musician, but Hansard, whether by chance or destiny, found himself starring in two of Ireland's most significant films.

Alan Parker's 1991 film, *The Commitments*, chronicles the journey of a soul band composed of young working-class Dubliners. Hansard played the role of guitarist Outspan Foster, despite not initially auditioning for the part.

"I just showed up with my friend, we had been up all night," he told the XS Noise podcast earlier this year. "He went for the audition and I sat outside waiting for him." Hansard recalled that as they were about to leave, he was asked if he wanted to read for a role.

"They said you've got red hair, you play guitar, you fit the bill for this character that we're casting. So I went in and I read a few lines and I'd no problem with the accent because I'm from the north side of Dublin - so I'm a northsider, I play guitar and I've got red hair, I kind of fit the bill. So they gave me a callback and much to my surprise I got the part."

The film became an unexpected success, achieving cult status. Hansard described the experience as "incredible, it was a beautiful experience." He added, "It's sad for me that people have said to me 'I've heard you didn't enjoy the experience with The Commitments' - I loved it, I had an absolute ball. I just sort of felt it didn't define me and that was my little bit of resistance."

Remarkably, the reluctant actor went on to star in another seminal Irish film. Hansard won an Oscar for the song "Falling Slowly" from the 2007 film *Once*, in which he also starred alongside Markéta Irglova.

Again, this was a role he wasn't originally slated to play. Director John Carney had initially considered Irish actor Cillian Murphy for the part. "He's quite a good singer. I thought I'd do the usual thing where you get a good actor who can half sing and train that voice, but then it became clear to everybody on the film that we should do it the other way around," Carney explained. "We should get somebody who could really sing and half act and I'll trust that I would be able to do something magical with that." He then turned to his friend Hansard, who had co-written the film's music.

**Jamming with Heroes: Van Morrison and Beyond**

Beyond Bob Dylan, whom he would meet multiple times, another of Hansard's musical heroes was Belfast's Van Morrison. Hansard recounted his first, somewhat awkward, meeting with Morrison when he was 19 or 20 at the star's birthday party at a member of the Guinness family's home.

As Morrison jammed in the kitchen, Hansard's request for one of his songs was met with a gruff response. Later, at a friend's urging, Morrison handed his guitar to Hansard to play, then promptly left the room. "I'm thinking 'the only guy I want to actually sing to is gone'," Hansard recalled.

Morrison returned during Hansard's second song and then asked the Dubliner to play the song he had requested earlier, before joining in to sing it. The two then went upstairs and took turns playing their songs for each other. "I'm getting to sit and observe a master at work up close," Hansard said. "We passed the guitar back and forth and I ran out of songs after an hour and a half and Van kept going and going." As Morrison departed at the end of their jam session, he remarked, "Nice voice, nice songs, blah, blah, blah."

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster in 2023, Hansard discussed meeting other legendary musical figures. "Up in the high sweet air of that universe, it's very small and there's very few people and they're all making contact with each other," he observed. "For example, I was at some of [former Pearl Jam singer] Eddie [Vedder's] sessions that were happening in Los Angeles and Ringo [Starr] came in and played drums, Stevie Wonder came in and played drums. Morrissey dropped in at one point and Iggy Pop dropped in. There's just this kind of place where there's never a question of how can I get that guy's phone number - everybody up at that level seems to have each other's contacts."

**A Brush with The Beatles and a Legacy of Giving**

In the same interview, Hansard shared that his mother, a devoted Beatles fan, came remarkably close to meeting her heroes in 1964. "My mother climbed into the back of the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin - her and two of her mates - to see the Beatles," he recounted. "They managed to get into the Beatles dressing room, they didn't know they were getting into the dressing room. And apparently they got up the corridor and [John] Lennon said: 'Hey mate, there's three more over here' and the girls all got kicked out. She always dined out on this story and she always called Paul McCartney Paul McCarty. But she adored The Beatles."

For the past 15 years, Hansard had organized an annual Christmas Eve busking event to raise funds for homelessness charities. He successfully persuaded numerous Irish stars, including Sinead O'Connor and members of U2, to join him in busking for donations in central Dublin.

Pat Green of the Simon Community noted that the busk became "a tradition on the calendar" in the city. He explained that Hansard's motivation stemmed from a "sense of guilt and shame" during a Christmas shopping trip in the city center in 2009.

"He was walking down Grafton Street himself with bags of presents and he passed a group of carol singers singing for the homeless and the Simon Community and they asked him to join in," Green explained. "And he was busy, he was distracted and he said: 'No, I can't.' And he got home and it was then he realised there was no material value to the Christmas presents that he bought - that the greater value was out on the street, bringing joy and happiness to people over Christmas. So, he went back out and started to busk with literally the cap on the ground."

Green stated that Hansard and other stars, with Hansard as the leader, "have raised collectively – well over €2m (£1.7m) for homeless services that we provide here in Dublin's Simon."

**Musical Director for Shane MacGowan's Farewell**

Hansard was a long-time friend of Shane MacGowan, the late lead singer of The Pogues. Following MacGowan's death in 2023, MacGowan's widow, Victoria Mary Clarke, entrusted Hansard with the role of "musical director" for her husband's funeral.

Speaking to the Irish radio station Today FM, Clarke recalled how their friend stepped in to help. "I said: 'Glen, would you be able to do something at the funeral?" she recounted. "And he said: 'Look, if you don't mind, I'll do everything. I'll organise, I'll get all the music together, you don't have to worry.'"

MacGowan's send-off featured performances from Australian singer Nick Cave, as well as a "who's who" of the Irish music scene, including singer-songwriters Imelda May, Declan O'Rourke, and Mundy, Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí, and Hansard's own band, The Frames. Readings were also delivered by U2 singer Bono, Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, and Irish actor Aidan Gillen.

"As people who watched it will testify, he did an incredible job, absolutely incredible, and in a short space – 24 hours – he pulled that together," Clarke said.