David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti has revealed that the singer, who died at the age of 69 from cancer, thought he had few more months and wanted to bring out another album, a follow-up to ‘Blackstar’. Visconti, who produced ‘Blackstar'(released just two days before Bowie’s death), said the singer had called him and told him he wanted to make one more album, reported the Rolling Stone magazine. Bowie wrote and gave a demo of five fresh songs and wanted to return to the studio one last time. He apparently knew since November that his cancer was terminal but Visconti believes he did not think he had so little time left. “At that late stage, he was planning the follow-up to Blackstar. And I was thrilled and I thought, and he thought, that he’d have a few months, at least.
“Obviously, if he’s excited about doing his next album, he must’ve thought he had a few more months. So the end must’ve been very rapid. I’m not privy to it. I don’t know exactly, but he must’ve taken ill very quickly after that phone call,” Visconti told the magazine, which interviewed him for a Bowie memorial edition. Visconti has worked with Bowie on and off since 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’. He has produced albums like ‘The Man Who Sold the World’, ‘Low’, ‘Scary Monsters and 2013’s surprise comeback The Next Day.The producer said he came to know about Bowie’s illness a year ago during Blackstar recording sessions in New York as the singer had come fresh from a chemotherapy session. There was a brief period of hope when Bowie’s health improved but in November, it just suddenly came back. “In November, (the cancer) had spread all over his body, so there’s no recovering from that,” the producer said. (PTI)
Bowie had already finished Blackstar by November. But even before then, Visconti said he noticed the tone of some of the lyrics and told him, “You canny bastard. You’re writing a farewell album.” The singer had simply laughed. “He was so brave and courageous. And his energy was still incredible for a man who had cancer. He never showed any fear. He was just all business about making the album,” Visconti said. (PTI)
