Bowie released his last album Blackstar on January 8, his 69th birthday, and just a couple of days before his death. Van Hove says Bowie told him about his illness during the early stages of working on the show, in November 2014, and asked him to keep the information secret. “It was then that I knew that it may be the last time I would see him”.
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“The cast didn’t know all that time, and I suspect that the musicians with whom he recorded “Blackstar” didn’t know either”.
He said, “When I heard the news, I was nevertheless in shock”. “I though that I wrote songs and wrote music and that was sort of what I though I was best at doing”. The album was released just two days before Bowie’s death.
“If I don’t leave I look callous”. It ends with the poignant.
He told The Times newspaper: “He was feeling unwell but he wasn’t making a fuss about it. He was about to start a new treatment that was quite experimental and that had had some success in other people”.
Much has been made of the lyrics and videos for both Lazarus and Blackstar, in which Bowie variously appears on his deathbed and surrounded by images of mortality, such as skulls.
Speaking to the Mirror, a source added: “In many respects you don’t need a memorial or service to remember David by…you have his music instead”.
The March 31 concert will feature performances by The Roots, Cyndi Lauper, Jakob Dylan and longtime Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti.
Price/face to face/MediaPunch/Price/face to face/MediaPunch David Bowie attends the December 7 premiere of his musical, “Lazarus”, at the Theatre Workshop in NY, in what would turn out to be his last public appearance.
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“In my experience he was also an incredibly nice person, he was fun, he was always amusing”, O’Brien said before launching a series of clips from his interviews with the Thin White Duke over the years.
