Pete Doherty shares heartfelt tribute to Babyshambles bandmate Patrick Walden
The Libertines frontman Pete Doherty has shared a touching tribute to Patrick Walden, his former bandmate in the side project group Babyshambles, who tragically died last week.
Doherty took to Instagram on June 24th, where he said: “[Walden] used to call me Petey! huh!? Jesus that’s a shot in the heart – you brought joy to so many fucking people mate.”
The rock frontman then went on to share how he recently got a tattoo inspired by Walden before learning of his death, explaining: “I was in Mexico lately, and a kid in the street had a tattoo of you and a shambles French dog on his chest, so I got the French dog tattooed the next day, meant to call you and tell you… telling you now Pat mate.”
Doherty and Walden were bandmates in Babyshambles, an indie rock outfit that the Libertines frontman founded in the mid-2000s amid a hiatus from his original group. Their debut album, Down in Albion, was released in 2005 and reached the top ten in the UK charts.
Walden’s death at the age of 46 was announced via Facebook on June 20th. The remaining members of Babyshambles said they were “very fortunate to have known, loved, and worked with him.”
To that end, Doherty also added in his own post: “To know you were loved and will be missed. To all your friends and family. Be at rest in peace, Pat. Love from your pal Petey x.”
At this time, no cause of death for Walden has been made public.
The musician previously spoke of Doherty’s impact on his career, saying: “Pete was the one that made it all so exciting for so many people. It’s definitely affected me in some way but at the same time it gave me the opportunity to become sort of well-known for my guitar playing.”
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