David Bowie died from cancer on January 10, 2016, leaving behind one of the most eclectic
catalogs in music history.
Let's take a look at what the last 12 months of Bowie's life were like.
According to a statement on David Bowie's official Facebook page announcing his death,
the musician had been quietly battling cancer for 18 months.
This means his health struggle began somewhere in mid-2014, though almost no one outside
his close group of friends and collaborators even knew he was sick.
Then again, much about Bowie's life was secret by that point.
He'd largely stepped out of the public eye after the 2003 Reality tour, which was cut
short after a blocked artery forced him into emergency heart surgery.
Keyboardist Mike Garson told Rolling Stone:
"Three-quarters through the Reality tour, he said, 'You know, Mike, after this tour,
I'm just going to be a father and live a normal life [...] '"
Bowie stuck true to his word, never embarking on another tour or sitting down for a major
interview.
It took him a full decade to record another album, 2013's The Next Day.
After The Next Day, the floodgates opened.
As Rolling Stone notes, he had dreamed of writing a musical as a teenager, and he was
able to fulfill that goal with Lazarus, a theatrical production based on The Man Who
Fell to Earth, a 1963 science-fiction novel by Walter Tevis.
If that sounds familiar, it's probably because Bowie had previously starred in Nicolas Roeg's
1976 film adaptation of the novel as Thomas Newton, an alcoholic millionaire alien sequestered
in his apartment and eager to return home.
The production, which ran Off-Broadway from December 2015 through January 2016, was crafted
around music from Bowie's discography, including classics like "Heroes," "Life on Mars?", "Changes,"
and "The Man Who Sold the World."
It also featured a quartet of new songs: the title track, "No Plan," "Killing a Little
Time" and "When I Met You."
In this same period, "David Bowie Is," a touring museum exhibition featuring artifacts from
his life, ran from March 2013 to July 2018.
Co-curator Geoffrey Marsh told The New York Times,
"The deal was that we could borrow anything from the archive, but that he would have nothing
to do with the exhibition."
Though David Bowie was mostly focused on creating new music during his final year, he also kept
the catalog machine churning.
His chart-topping 1983 hit "Let's Dance" was reissued on limited-edition yellow vinyl in
July 2015 to coincide with the Australian leg of the "David Bowie Is" exhibition.
And, in September of that year, he released Five Years (1969-1973), a box set compiling
early albums David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, among others.
Additionally, he offered up his obscure 1995 track "No Control" to be adapted for the 2016
Broadway musical adaptation of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants.
David Bowie had re-entered the recording studio by January 2015 to start work on another studio
album, but fans wouldn't hear the results for another year.
However, he did unveil one new song, "Blackstar," in a rather unconventional way, allowing it
to be used as the intro tune for The Last Panthers, a British crime drama.
An eerie wash of electronic art-jazz, "Blackstar" signaled yet another path forward in the career
of an artist who rarely recycled ideas.
The smoldering saxophone lines, jagged drum patterns and quivering vocal vibrato sounded
unlike anything else he'd recorded, and the full version released months later only added
to the track's grandeur.
David Bowie shared his cancer battle with only those closest to him.
Producer Tony Visconti told Mojo how Bowie revealed his diagnosis before they started
Blackstar:
"David said, 'I have something to show you,' and he pulled his woolly hat off and he was
completely bald [...] And he said, 'I have cancer' - and my life hasn't been the same
since that moment."
Bowie's illness briefly entered a period of remission in mid-2015.
But despite the positive signs, the cancer continued to spread and became terminal.
According to the documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years, he learned that his treatment
was going to stop while filming his final music video, for the song "Lazarus."
The film also squashed the widely floated interpretation that the video — which features
Bowie singing the lyric "look up here, I'm in heaven" from a hospital bed — is a cryptic
nod to his eventual fate.
The clip's director, Johan Renck, noted that he conceptualized the visuals before Bowie
learned his diagnosis.
He beamed a charming smile as he exited a limousine and entered the New York Theatre
Workshop in early December 2015.
David Bowie was on-hand for the premiere of Lazarus - and based on the footage and photos
from that evening, you'd hardly be aware of his cancer battle.
But the show's director, Ivo van Hove seemed to imply to the British tabloid the Mirror
that he was putting on a brave face for the public.
Van Hove stated:
"It was written that he looked so well, so healthy [...] But behind the podium he collapsed
from exhaustion.
It was then that I [realized] that it may be the last time I would see him."
It's mind-boggling to think that David Bowie, living out his final days with the knowledge
of his fate, already sitting on a full new album and a recently premiered musical, wasn't
finished.
According to Rolling Stone, in the final weeks before his death, Bowie somehow mustered up
the strength to record five new demos — with ultimate plans of tracking an entire new LP.
He reportedly rang up Visconti via FaceTime and detailed his plan, which "thrilled" the
producer.
Visconti told the publication:
"I thought, and he must have thought, that he'd have a few months, at least [...] So
the end must've been very rapid […] he must've taken ill very quickly after that phone call."
Bowie was also reportedly making other musical plans.
Guitarist-producer Reeves Gabrels told Guitar Player:
"According to everyone involved in the Bowie estate trust, when David knew that he was
dying, he left a five-year plan behind of what he wanted done with his music."
Several years on, it's still unclear how much of that plan came to fruition.
In one of the most staggering creative moves in music history, David Bowie weaved his own
death into the fabric of his art.
Blackstar, his 25th album, was released on January 8, 2016 — and the press piled on
with glowing reviews, completely unaware of his condition.
Two days later, he passed away, and suddenly the record's themes — and its very existence
— took on an unexpected depth.
References to death sprinkled throughout the songs couldn't help but feel prophetic in
this new light.
He sings on the title track:
"Something happened on the day he died / Spirit rose a metre then stepped aside / Somebody
else took his place and bravely cried."
We can't know exactly what was in Bowie's head during the Blackstar sessions, but mortality
seems to have loomed large.
And it's hard not to imagine Bowie thinking of the record as a parting gift to those who
cherished his work.
In a poignant Facebook tribute, Visconti wrote:
"He never left us in spirit [...] We are fortunate to have lived in the same time as him.
We've seen him, we've heard him sing and speak, we've hugged him, we've worshipped him and
we are constantly reminded of him daily [...] He will be a legend until the end of time."
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