Goran Bare, frontman of Majke, has died: a rocker who never hid his struggle

Goran Bare, singer and songwriter of the Croatian rock band Majke, has died at the age of 61. His bandmates found him dead in his flat in the Zagreb neighbourhood of Sopot. After an examination, police established that there were no signs of violent death on the body - Bare died during the night, in his sleep.

The end did not come without warning. At the end of September he fell ill during a show in Makarska and the concert was stopped during the very first song. The band announced a two-month break so he could rest and recover. Majke members Mario Rašić and Alen Tibljaš said they had spent the last five years trying to persuade him to get treatment for his health problems - without success.

From Vinkovci to the top of rock

He was born on 16 August 1965 in Vinkovci. At the end of 1984 he founded Majke, a band that blended garage rock, blues and punk, with his unmistakable voice at its centre. The first album, "Razum i bezumlje", came out in 1990, followed by "Razdor" and "Milost". The big breakthrough came in 1996 with "Vrijeme je da se krene" - an album whose songs such as "Mene ne zanima" and "A ti još plačeš" became classics.

After Majke broke up, Bare went solo with the backing band Plaćenici, and one of his best-known songs, "Put ka sreći", dates from that period. Majke got back together in 2007, and the 2012 album "Teške boje" won six Porin awards, Croatia's top music prize. The last studio album, "Nuspojave", came out in 2018. Even after that, despite his health problems, he kept performing across Croatia and the region.

A life he did not hide

His life was marked by losses few could bear. In 1989 three of his friends were killed in a car crash, among them Majke's guitarist, Marin Pokrovac. His wife Mirjana died of an overdose in December 1995, at just 27, when their son Miran was little more than a year old. For years Bare fought heroin and alcohol addiction and spoke about it openly, without excuses, in interviews and in his songs.

In one of his last interviews, at the start of September, he said: "I wouldn't want anyone to go through what I went through, but that is life too. It is sadness and crying, laughter and hunger. All of it is life, and there is nothing to be ashamed of." About the band he said: "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here either. They are my best friends and the only people who understand me."

Guitarist Davor Rodik said goodbye with a single sentence: "I will remember him for being unique, and for being Goran Bare."

The generations who grew up on the rock of the once-shared Yugoslav scene know this pattern all too well: talents the audience celebrates, while their battle with addiction is fought in front of everyone, for years. The band tried for five years. How many of them ever get the help they need - in time?