David Bowie Was Planning Another Album

Photo by Jimmy King

After David Bowie died, his friend and producer Tony Visconti shared this message: “He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be.” In a new interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed that a week before his death, Bowie contacted Visconti and said he wanted to make another album.

According to Visconti, Bowie wrote and demoed five songs in the final weeks of his life. “At that late stage, he was planning the follow-up to Blackstar,” he said.

“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.”

He also discussed Bowie’s condition during an initial Blackstar session in New York. “He just came fresh from a chemo session, and he had no eyebrows, and he had no hair on his head, and there was no way he could keep it a secret from the band. But he told me privately, and I really got choked up when we sat face to face talking about it.”

Bowie’s health improved in the middle of last year, but after further chemotherapy, the cancer came back and spread in November. When Visconti asked him if he was making “a farewell album,” Bowie just laughed.

Read the full interview. Read our “Afterword” tribute to Bowie.

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