Red Hook Studios and others have confirmed that Wayne June — for many ‘the voice of Lovecraft’ — has recently passed away. June’s signature weighty voice is heard on many of the finest audiobook readings of Lovecraft’s tales. In these, he has left us a great legacy.

June also billed himself as “audio producer, drummer, singer”. Born in 1954, he began performing with a rock band when aged 15, and he continued to play with a wide variety of 1970s and 80s live and studio bands on a paying basis. He later spent seven years touring every U.S. state, and also internationally, with his guitar hero Johnny Winter. June was the drummer on Winter’s acclaimed album I’m a Bluesman (2004).

Establishing himself as a professional voice artist circa 1998, he was able to draw on his extensive studio experience. But he also trained his voice to audiobook perfection with lessons at Edge Studios in New York, by volunteering for many and varied recordings at Recording for the Blind (RFB&D), and by taking acting classes. His voiceover and audiobook business appears to have been based in Shelton, Connecticut (near New Haven and a little north-east of New York City).

Having grown up reading horror, science-fiction and Lovecraft paperbacks, it was natural that he would want to professionally record such material in readings. His breakthrough narrations were of Lovecraft (the extensive Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft series), three volumes of Poe and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (for his own AudioBookCase venture), and many others (for AudioRealms and others). In recent years he was best known as the narrator (‘The Ancestor’) of the popular Darkest Dungeon videogames (2016-, Red Hook Studios), an extensive performance and a core part of the game’s experience.

A relatively recent horror fandom podcast interview with him is still online, Final Guys #70 – Wayne June Interview (2018).

Doubtless someone with the required skills will be compiling a comprehensive Wayne June discography in due course. Possibly some ‘lost’ recordings will also be uncovered. For instance, he talked of recording Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, but (if recorded) this is apparently unreleased.