Jason Kelce pays tribute to Shane MacGowan after the Pogues singer died at 65 – and his last tweet was about the NFL star’s ‘Fairytale of New York’ cover with Travis Kelce: ‘His acknowledgment is beyond surreal’

Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce paid tribute to Shane MacGowan, the singer of the Irish band The Pogues who passed away on Thursday.

Both Jason and his brother Travis have long been fans of the singer and MacGowan praised Travis and Jason’s crack at the his ‘Fairytale of New York’ in the last tweet he sent out while he was alive.

Jason re-posted a statement that he gave to the New York Times on his Twitter account, saying, ‘Shane’s prowess as a singer, songwriter, and poet was truly a gift to this world.

‘He could make you feel what he was saying, attached his soul to his music. Fairytale of New York has long been one of my favorite songs (not just Christmas songs), as it gets to the roots of love, anger, resentment, sacrifice and ultimately companionship.

‘It lays out what relationships really are, that they are something bigger than yourself; with Christmas time as the background, the theme works all too well.

Eagles center Jason Kelce paid tribute to The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, dead at 65

Jason praised MacGowan’s ‘prowess as a singer, songwriter, and poet’ throughout his life

The Kelce brothers covered ‘Fairytale of New York’ and MacGowan’s last Tweet praised them

MacGowan was in and out of the hospital in 2023 and died after a bout of pneumonia

‘It was an honor for by brother and I to take a stab at such a beautiful song in a different angle, and his acknowledgement of it is beyond surreal.’ 

The Kelce brothers worked together on a cover of MacGowan’s Christmas hit – titled ‘Fairytale of Philadelphia’.

It quickly shot up the charts thanks in part to support from the fans of their podcast ‘New Heights’ and the fans of Travis’s girlfriend Taylor Swift.

‘I sent out one tweet when I got to [number] eight,’ Jason said in a thank you to ‘Swifties’. 

‘And I got like 85 tweets from Swifties across the world saying “oh you think eight’s good? We’re taking this to No. 1” and they did. It’s a powerful group.’ 

Travis said that he had never heard of the song prior to recording it with Jason – in spite of it being one of the older brother’s favorite songs.

MacGowan heard the song and tweeted out praise of it, saying, ‘Tell them I am knocked out’.

It was the last tweet he sent out before succumbing to a bout of pneumonia after spending time in the ICU earlier this year.