Beloved YouTube Singer-Songwriter Mark Gormley Dead at 67

Mark Gormley, the Florida-based singer and songwriter whose songs went viral on YouTube and even inspired a “Weird Al” Yankovic impression, has died. Gormley passed away at a hospital in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida on Friday, May 24, according to an online obituary. He was 67. A cause of death was not disclosed.

“Mark was a gentle soul. Relaxed and easy going he was liked, respected, and loved by all who got to know him.His great passion in life was playing guitar and songwriting,” the obituary read. “He was a genuine artist whose music flowed from a deep emotional and spiritual connection. Mark will be profoundly missed. But his memory will provide inspiration, and happiness to his family, friends, and many fans around the world.”

Born in Key West, Florida on May 7, 1957, Gormley began writing songs while in Scotland while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps, per the Pensacola News Journal, which reported that he also played in a band with his brother. Gormley went on to perform for a larger audience when, in 2006, Pensacola musician, disc jockey, creator, and video producer Phil Thomas Katt began making videos for Gormley’s music and posting them on his long-running YouTube program “The Uncharted Zone.” The videos showed Gormely, often wearing a polo shirt and jeans, singing inspiring and heartfelt songs amid green-screen special effects.

The singer scored his breakout hit in 2008 when a video of him signing his song “Without You” was uploaded. That video has since logged 4.8 million views and 52,000 likes. Ina review of the song for Video Gum, Lindsay Robertson called the music video “incredible,” adding, “a High School Science teacher (my guess) singing his original soft metal masterpiece, “Without You,” about loneliness, featuring beaches, bogs, clouds, and some sort of local model who probably doesn’t know this is on the internet. This is a drop everything and watch now kind of.”

Amid his soaring online popularity, Gormley received the first ever The Uncharted Zone Youzie Award, recognizing him as the first artist in The Uncharted Zone’s history to have a music video surpass one million views on YouTube. Gormley’s music was featured on the G4TV television program Attack of the Show!, and later G4TV’s Web Soup, where “Weird Al” Yankovic performed an impression of the singer.

Following news of his passing, fans have paid tribute to Gormley on the Mark Gormley Appreciation Society Facebook page, with one person writing, “I only recently discovered Mark’s music, I am shocked to learn of his recent passing as well. What a treasure he was! May he rest in peace.”