Bad Wolves donate $250,000 to family of Cranberries vocalist Dolores O’Riordan

Bad Wolves band

In January this year, Bad Wolves released their cover of The Cranberries’ classic track Zombie in honour of Dolores O’Riordan.

O’Riordan was due to lend her vocals to the song she originally recorded with The Cranberries in 1994, but died before she could attend a studio session in London.

Bad Wolves decided to go ahead and release their take on the track and announced that they would donate the profits to O’Riordan’s three children.

And at their show at New York’s Gramercy Theatre last night, Tommy Vext and co invited O’Riordan’s family onstage and presented them with a cheque for $250,000. Watch video footage below.

Upon launching the single, frontman Vext said: “It was the greatest honour to know she liked our version and wanted to sing on it. We’re deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Dolores and by the fact that she’s leaving behind three children, so we are donating the proceeds from the song to her kids.”

He added: “It’s such a powerful song and the themes are still so relevant, we wanted to release it in her memory.”

Meanwhile, O’Riordan’s life and music will be celebrated in her home county of Limerick, Ireland, on July 5, at an event titled I Heart The Cranberries.

The Limerick Leader report that more than 20 artists will take part at the event during Limerick Pride, with proceeds going towards mental health services and women’s domestic abuse charity Adapt House.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.