He was 45.
A native of Lincoln Park, Paul made his mark on the local music scene over the last 20-plus years as a multi-instrumentalist, performing in bands such as the Salt Miners, Golden Torso, and Blue Collar Addiction. But perhaps his most memorable stage persona came inside the salty sea-shanty shenanigans of Captains of the Head.
Known for his bawdy onstage banter, Paul entertained fans in the guise of his alter ego, Captain Don River, fearless leader of “the greatest band to ever sail the ocean blue.”
In 2019, Paul formed the Red Flags to perform his most personal songs.
Paul came from a musical family with roots in the American South and picked up the guitar at an early age. Over the years, he also learned to play bass, banjo, and mandolin.
Paul was also known as a fun-loving baseball fan. Following the Detroit Tigers’ World Series season of 2006, he co-founded the local sandlot baseball league Grown-Ass Baseball, a ragtag cast of amateur ballplayers who adopted the slogan “Two Teams, Nine Innings, No Hard Feelings … Just Baseball.”
Quick-witted and hilarious, like so many of his Lincoln Park musical brethren, Paul often "worked blue" wherever he was and prided himself on getting the party started and keeping the laughter going.
"Nobody did it better than Mark," says lifelong friend Scott Cheney, who'll deliver the eulogy Sunday afternoon. "I've been on many journeys with him — we did the backpacking thing in Europe, and wherever we went — it was just a different country but the same funny shit."
After Paul discovered he had esophageal cancer in 2022, he informed his friends of his diagnosis by hiring the horror metal band Gwar to deliver the news via Cameo.
“The good news is Mark’s got fucking cancer,” the band said in its video message. “The bad news is he’s gonna be OK.”
“Only Mark would think to do that,” says longtime friend and drummer Steve Kay. “I remember I was in Massachusetts when I got that text — I watched it and it was, like, the strangest feeling … the hair stood up on the back of my neck, but I was laughing at the same time.”
Paul was also known for his creative Halloween costumes, dressing up over the years as Peter Griffin, Glenn Danzig, and Ken Bone.
“If he was around for his own funeral,” says former bandmate Matt Flaim, “he’d be making jokes at his own expense.”
After surgery to remove part of his esophagus in 2022, Paul was hospitalized for three weeks. Despite the arduous recovery process, Paul’s room in the ICU was known as the party room where all the nurses wanted to hang out.
“It’s all absurd,” Paul told the nonprofit organization Cancer Can Rock in one of his final interviews. “You don’t have control over it. Things are going to happen to you … If you can laugh through it, you’ll feel a whole lot better.”
Reflecting on his heartfelt swan song, "The Fortune and the Pain," recorded with the Red Flags at Rust Belt Studios in 2023, Paul described it as a song of trial and tribulation. "The person you are isn’t made by the good things that happen in your life," he said. "The person you are is made by how you handle the bad things.
"There are just things in life that are out of your control," he added. "Everything is temporary. If you don’t laugh, I don’t know how you get through.”
Salute the Captain: A visitation for Mark Paul will be held on Sunday Jan. 12, starting at 2 p.m. Funeral service begins at 5:30 p.m. Spaulding & Curtin funeral home is located at 500 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale.
