WEBVTT - Epilogue: Lazarus (2013-2016) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.360 Off the Record is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:13.520 Late in the evening of January seven, two thirteen, David 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:19.479 Bowie received an email from his producer Tony Visconti. Two 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.120 hours and thirty minutes to go, it read. David grinned 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.079 at the screen and fired off a quick response, Now 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.880 it's two hours and twenty six minutes. The old friends 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.320 were counting down the minutes to the release of David's 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.640 latest single, where Are We Now, his first new music 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.000 in a decade since his heart attack on stage at 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.680 a German festival in two thousand four, he'd effectively abandoned 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.440 his role as a public figure. That was the word 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.000 on the street at least, and David was happy to 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.720 keep it that way. His silence stoked rumors that his 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.120 days as a rock star were permanently behind him. There 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.840 were no tours, no albums, no songs, no major in 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.800 views for the latter half of the two thousands. David 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.520 Bowie was retired. Instead, he reverted back to David Jones, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.640 a father, husband, and anonymous New Yorker. In just a 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.520 few hours, that would all change. Bowie was about to 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.399 make his comeback, though only a few people on the 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:24.720 planet knew it. He'd recorded a new album entirely in secret, 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.120 going to heroic lengths to keep it under wraps. It 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.200 was like something out of a spy movie. Code names 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.880 were employed, nondisclosure agreements ensure that David's skeleton crew kept 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.440 their mouths shut. Everything was on a need to know basis, 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:43.280 and consequently, very few people knew a thing. Not even 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.200 the head of David's label, Sony, was aware of David's 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.240 plans until just a few weeks before his big announcement. Naturally, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.240 the exact was thrilled. A new Bowie album was always 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.600 cause for celebration. But what about the PR campaign, he asked. 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.680 Publicity pushes require months of prep work and strategizing. There 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.120 is no PR campaign. David replied, We're just going to 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:11.640 drop it on the eighth of January. That's it. The 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:24.799 countdown had commenced five four three two one. Where Are 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.320 We Now? Was quietly uploaded to iTunes. Just after midnight 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.000 in New York, a video for the melancholic Piano ballad 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.680 was added to YouTube with no fanfare. The only notice 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.640 was a small message on David's mostly dormant website. It 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.920 announced both the song and an upcoming album called The 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.959 Next Day, due out two months later in March. David 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.400 and Tony had their eyes glued to their computers for 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:55.919 a few minutes, nothing happened. Then the avalanche began. Message 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:01.079 boards melted down, Twitter went into overdrive, blogs blew up. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.359 TV news programs treated the event like a musical second coming. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.760 The shock was universal. There had been nothing from David 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.480 Bowie for years, and then boom, like the bolt of 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.400 lightning that had once graced his face, he was back. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.280 Not only was he back, he had an entire album, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.080 the announcement, the song, the art, the video, all without 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.720 a single leak, not even a hint to the world 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.160 at large. Remember this was almost a full year before 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.320 Beyonce's surprise album dropped. No one had seen anything like this. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.160 It was like magic, as if he'd conjured everything out 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.720 of thin air instantaneously. There's no other way to say it. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.040 David went viral. On one hand, it was a personal first. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:49.920 On the other, he had been perfecting the art of 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.840 herality for nearly fifty years. Just look at his album covers, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:59.920 TV appearances, videos, magazine interviews and fashion statements. Now, by 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.480 harnessing the infrastructure of the Internet that had been so 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.240 quick the champion David had crafted the perfect moment for 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.560 the era. The fame David had sung about in nine 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.000 had drastically altered by two thousand thirteen, mutated and magnified 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.839 exponentially through camera phones, social media, and the seven digital 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.640 news cycle. Celebrities were scrutinized like never before and stripped 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.320 of every ounce of privacy. The easiest defense was to 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.800 embrace it and share every detail of daily minutia. The 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.200 thought of hiding something huge like an album drop from fans, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:43.960 not to mention getting away with it was unfathomable. In 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.039 David's early days, he'd been told to act like a star, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.520 even though at the time he was just a nobody. Now, 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.720 actual stars were going out of their way to broadcast 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.520 their own normality, making themselves relatable and accessible, allowing people 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.760 to see themselves in Where's the Fun In that The 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.720 illusion was gone. It was antithetical the David's whole m O. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.280 I always had a repulsive need to be something more 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.560 than human. He once said, I felt very puny as 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.520 a human. I thought, the hell with that. I want 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.000 to be superhuman. The surprise release of Where Are We 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.480 Now was both an act of rebellion and the declaration 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:27.600 that he was still superhuman. Stars were meant to project 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.520 an aura of otherness that transcended the every day. In 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:37.640 spite of this intrusive new world, David's mystique remained intact. Plus, 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.800 it was fun. How often does a global headline make 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.960 you smile? To top it off, it was David's birthday. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.760 He was sixty six years old. Three years later, he'd 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:55.040 release more music on his birthday. This time he would 0:05:55.040 --> 0:06:04.400 be his last. Hello and welcome to Off the Record, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.240 the show that goes beyond the songs and into the 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.760 hearts and minds of rock's greatest legends. I'm your host, 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.560 Jordan Runtug. We've come to the end of our season 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:19.440 on the life, or rather lives of David Bowie. Today's 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.320 episode starts and ends with a birthday, a former pagan 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.039 ritual that has evolved over millennia into an annual celebration 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.400 of life. This seemed like an appropriate finale. We begin 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.880 in when David re entered public life after a lengthy 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.000 absence with Where Are We Now, his first new song 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.680 in a decade, and we'll end with Black Star, his 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.040 final album, released on his sixty ninth birthday in January 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.840 of It's a record that many believed was his parting 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.560 gift as he faced down the illness that would claim 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.839 his body two days later. Intentional or not, it's a 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.920 fitting goodbye, one that high lights his creative daring and 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:10.760 his fearless spirit. Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, Major Tom, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:15.680 the Cracked Actor, a ladin Sane. David Bowie had many 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.120 guys is over the years, but for much of the 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.120 late two thousands in early he was mostly known as 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.880 a ghost. He was a fleeting apparition on the sidewalks 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.200 of Manhattan, his home for the majority of his adult life. 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.400 Bowie spottings usually took a moment to register because he 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:38.000 looked so aggressively normal, though common sense would suggest otherwise. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.200 On some level, people expected him to stroll the Soho 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:46.200 streets dressed in a silver suit, orange hair and glad glitter. Instead, 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:48.920 he was a middle aged man in a taddy gray hoodie, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.680 skinny jeans, and work boots. More often than not, he 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.400 was doing mundane things like grocery shopping at the corner store, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.000 or struggling to hail a cab, or sweating it out 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.200 out at a local gym. He was so successful at 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.160 being low key that he mostly managed to evade the 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:10.280 dreaded paparazzi. On the rare occasions when he was snapped, 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.000 he had a tendency to slip the photographer the finger. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:19.640 A true New Yorker, he'd stopped speaking to the press 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.480 and for a time stopped contacting his friends, including Tony Visconti, 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.640 prior to his heart attack on two thousand four is 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.320 Reality Tour. They planned to record not one, but three 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.400 new albums, including an electronic a side project sort of 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.319 a techno tin machine, but then the subject was dropped. 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:42.600 He gave up his share of the studio they rented. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:47.360 He just wasn't interested in writing music anymore. He told 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.320 one friend that he didn't have anything to say. I 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.480 just need some downtime, he insisted. He was fed up 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.720 with the music industry and no longer wished to participate. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.040 When a plaque was erected at London to honor the 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.440 site where the Ziggy Stardust covered was shot, David was 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.160 nowhere to be found. He turned down repeated request to 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.000 represent Queen and Country at the Olympics in London, where 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.520 he was asked to perform heroes. Even the blog on 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.880 his personal website went without update for years. While living 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.880 in Berlin. Decades earlier, David had told a friend, I 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.240 became a rock star. It's what I do, but it's 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.640 not my whole life. Clearly he retained the sentiment. In 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.320 the New millennium. Many would cite his heart attack as 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.600 the reason for his public retreat. Rumors circulated that David 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.800 was dreadfully ill, and news outlets had their ow bits 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.240 ready to roll. The Flaming Lips even released a song 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:50.440 inn called is David Bowie Dying? David's friends denied it, 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.280 claiming that he was planning a step back even before 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.920 his health scare. In the midst of the reality tour, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.960 David told pianist Mike Garson at to this, I'm going 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.000 to just be a father and live a normal life. 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.880 Now that David was happily married to wife Aman and 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.199 raising young daughter Lexi, the cons of fame finally outweighed 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.680 the pros the scale and steadily tipping for years. In 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.960 the beginning, fame was a means to an end, away 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.600 to get the resources to create as he saw fit. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:27.320 Simply put, fame was freedom these days, it was oppressive. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.559 Aside from scoring prime concert tickets or a good table 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.320 at a restaurant, fame was, to use David's words, a 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:39.800 pain in the ass, so he opted out. In a sense. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.800 His heart attack, relatively minor as far as courtiac matters go, 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.640 was like Bob Dylan's mythical motorcycle crash in nineteen sixty six, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.319 after which he was barely seen in public for a 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:55.319 year and a half. The severity of the accident is debatable, 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.199 but it had given the sixties poet laureate an excuse 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.360 to stop rest and reassess and raised his family and 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.720 the serenity of the Catskill Mountains. David followed Dylan's lead, 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.480 purchasing a sixty two acre estate near the Upstate town 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.200 of Woodstock. He'd been captivated by what he called the 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.240 spirituality of the region while recording Heathen in two thousand one. 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.560 I love mountains, he once said. I'm a capricorn. I 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.719 was born to be gallivanting on a peak somewhere. When 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.480 I got up there, I flipped at how beautiful it is. 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.160 There's a barrenness and a sturdiness and the rugged terrain 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:39.200 that draws me Most of his time was spent in 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.520 his New York apartment building, a former chocolate factory on 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:47.839 Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan. His fifty square foot home 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.360 was packed with books, most purchased down the street from 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.000 McNally Jackson his favorite bookshop. It was history stuff, mainly 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:00.200 the favorite of middle aged men everywhere. David deva hour 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.080 and everything he could find on the topic, often finishing 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.160 a book a day. When he wasn't reading, he was 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.440 painting or making charcoal sketches, drawing inspiration from the mini 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.720 museum of modern art that filled his living room. He 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.120 wasn't precious about it. He'd fallen out of love with 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.760 one piece, a large metal sculpture, and he indulged his 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.360 daughter's childlike whims to beat it with a hammer. He 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.640 doated on his daughter, taking her for walks and proudly 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:32.240 attending her school functions. But he also liked his own company. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.080 I've never actually been bored, he once said. Looking out 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.600 a window and watching people is quite enough to keep 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:43.040 me occupied for half an hour. His quiet existence left 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.720 him fulfilled in a way that rock stardom never had. 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.280 David's more of a home body than I am Imman 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.040 admitted at the time, at least I go to parties 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.960 once in a while. David's long nights were clearly over. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.880 Once he called the front desk of his apartment comp 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.640 X to complain that his neighbor was blasting music too loud. Granted, 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.600 the neighbor in question was Courtney Love, but it was 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.440 nine am and she was listening to Fleet with Max 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:15.520 Rumors and a volume she claims was quite respectful. Relations 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.360 with other neighbors were warmer. Most remembered, David is very 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.959 polite and a pure gentleman. One day he got stuck 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.480 in the building's elevator. A teenaged boy who lived down 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.760 the hall tried to raise his spirits by singing, here 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.320 am I sitting in a tin can far above the 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.560 world down the elevator shaft. David saw the humor and 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:43.000 perked up. When he did leave the house. It was 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.840 often at dawn. He cherished as early morning strolls, relishing 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.160 what he once called the city's magical transfer of power 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.960 from the architectural to the human. Sometimes he'd get a 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.439 hearty yo bowie from a local, but more often than 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.200 not he was left alone. He frequented the dusty record 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.200 shops in Greenwich Village in search of rare vinyl. Fans 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.400 thumbing through the Bowie section were sometimes stunned the spot 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.080 the man himself across the aisle, just another great diver. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.640 He was known to get presciutto di Parma sandwiches and 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.480 a bombologni at a neighborhood Italian grocery store. When he 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.800 wasn't feeling that, he got a chicken sandwich with watercrest 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.560 and tomatoes from Olives on Prince Street. The smell of 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.160 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies sent his sweet tooth into overdrive, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.240 and he usually grabbed one of those two. He was 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.760 a regular at Cafe Reggio, an ancient coffee bar where 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.120 he could be seen sipping a cappuccino outside and writing 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.400 in his ever present notebook. Just up the street was 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.480 Washington Square Park, David's favorite place in the city, a 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.840 haven for generations of self proclaimed freaks. At one time. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.760 You could have heard Woody Guthrie singing there, or Alan 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.800 Ginsberg read poetry. Just a few blocks away. It was 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.080 a Electric Ladies studios where he'd cut fame his first 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.480 American number one all those years before the song had 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.920 been a meditation on the shallowness of show business notoriety. 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.160 These days, he was happy to leave it all behind 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.400 his appreciation for art of all kinds and never wavered. 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.880 I love seeing new theater, he told one reporter who 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.600 managed to snag a brief quote. I love seeing new bands, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.400 art shows, everything I get everywhere, very quietly, he added, 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:36.120 and never above fourteen Street, New York's official demarcation point 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.840 between the bohemian and the establishment. He caught art house 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.400 films at the Angelica Theater, sometimes sneaking in the multiple 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.880 movies if he felt like it. It's so easy, he'd marvel. 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.200 His norm core attire and newly gray hair eliminated the 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.760 need for any type of the skies. But to be 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.920 extra cautious, he sometimes carried around a Greek language newspaper 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.600 to convince passers by that he was just a Greek 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.800 tourist who happened to look an awful lot like David Bowie. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.520 It worked like a charm. A friend of his, who 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.480 it should be noted, was not famous, once gushed at 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.880 length about an art exhibit he'd recently seen. The friend 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.640 urged David to go see it, before stopping himself Oh, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.200 you can never go there, there's too many people. David 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.880 gave a sly smile and said, oh, you'd be surprised 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:30.000 the places I'm able to go. He was never reclusive, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.000 a fact that spared him the sad fade of people 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.440 like Greta Garbow or J. D. Salinger, whose passion for 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.960 privacy had the unfortunate effect of drawing even more attention 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:45.320 to themselves. Instead, David hid in plain sight. He attended 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.680 charity gallas and fashion events with a man cutting a 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.720 dapper but silent figure as they walked the red carpet 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.280 arm in arm. In two thousand nine, he attended the 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:59.120 premiere for Moon, a feature film directed by his son Zoe, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:05.080 now going by the more conventional name Duncan Jones. David 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.560 also gave a handful of performances, all one offs where 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.840 he's sang just two or three numbers. The first on 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.840 stage endeavor following his heart attack was at the Fashion 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.960 Rocks event in September of two thousand five. For reasons 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.960 known only to himself, he came dressed in a bandaged 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:26.120 arm and a black eye. He seemed uncharacteristically nervous as 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:30.320 he's sang life on Mars with just piano accompaniment. Perhaps 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.720 he was gun shy after the dramatic end of his 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.199 last show where he wound up in the hospital. He 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.800 chilled out later in the evening when he performed two 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.000 songs with one of his favorite new bands, Arcade Fire. 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.320 He must have enjoyed himself, because a week later he 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.920 climbed on stage at their Central Park gig to help 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:52.240 do a twosong encore. Then and may have two thousand six, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.160 David paid tribute to Pink Floyd founder Sid Barrett by 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.639 joining the band's guitarist David Gilmore on stage in London 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.080 for two songs. In addition to being a formative musical influence, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.960 Sid's abandonment of fame in favor of an elusive suburban 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.040 existence surely must have resonated with David. Six months later, 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.119 on November nine, two thousand and six, he did a 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.920 three song set at to Keep a Child Alive benefit 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.679 at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. He played wild as the 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:26.200 Wind Fantastic Voyage and also changes as a duet with 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.240 Alicia Keys. There was brief talk of a proper comeback 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.639 show at a New York festival he was curating in 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:37.000 two thousand seven, but it ultimately came to nothing. I'm 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.439 not thinking of touring, he said in New York Times 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:45.320 profile of them on I'm comfortable he never would tour again. 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.439 David also kept busy with his acting, playing a series 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.000 of offbeat roles in the late two thousands. He took 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.680 the part of the iconoclastic inventor Nicola Tesla in two 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.760 thousand six Is the Prestige, but only after director Christopher 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.240 Nolan quite literally begged him to do it. He was 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.960 more willing to lend his services to a small budget 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.639 indie film called August. Like most everything else he did 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.679 these days, it was a passion project. He also voiced 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:20.240 a character for SpongeBob square Pants, Lexi's favorite cartoon, but 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.760 his most notorious role in this period was for Ricky Gervais. 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.760 David had become friends with the comedian after watching gervais 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.560 BBC sitcom The Office. He loved it so much that 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.360 he sent Ricky his version of a fan email. I watched, 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:40.320 I laughed, what do I do now? dB? Ricky was 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.920 a Bowie super fan and hadfortuitously just come home from 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.520 purchasing a fresh CD copy of a Laddin saying it 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.960 was kismut. As their relationship solidified, Ricky plucked up the 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.399 courage to ask David to be in his new series Extras. 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.320 Perverting his hero worship, he cast David as himself, but 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:05.160 an especially mean version. He meets Ricky's character, a hapless 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.399 dealist actor, and is inspired to write a song on 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.720 the spot called Stupid Little Fat Man. Ricky sent David 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.480 the suitably cruel lyrics he was to sing and asked 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.240 him to put his own tune to it. Something retro 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.639 cam Ricky's request, like a Life on Mars. Oh sure, 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.200 David replied, sarcastically, I'll just whip up a quick Life 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.720 on Mars for you. Huh. Ricky appreciated the absurdity of 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.840 the suggestion and they both burst in the laughter, but 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:38.200 David complied and the song is surprisingly catchy. The scene 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.560 is easily the funniest single moment in David's career, as 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.359 he leads a crowded pub through choruses of Little Fat 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.879 Man with a pug nosed face while Ricky's character looks 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:52.080 on mortified. He reprised the song on stage in May 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.640 of two thousand seven, when David introduced Ricky at Madison 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.720 Square Garden for his American stand up debut. This would 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:05.560 be technically David Bowie's last ever live performance. Many fans 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:10.160 conveniently forget this. Instead, they prefer to remember whose duet 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.360 with Alicia keys On changes David's unofficial theme tune as 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:20.080 his concert swan song. Dramatic, yes, profound, certainly, but there's 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.080 a certain degree of poetry. And David, clad in an 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:27.359 immaculate tux standing in the spotlight at somebody else's show 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:32.040 singing an acapella song about a chubby little loser, it's 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:38.640 a much more fun curtain call. Though he had abandoned 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.520 his own musical ventures, David provided the odd backing vocal 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.800 cameo for a number of artists. He passed on a 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.080 song by Coldplay, bluntly telling Chris Martin that he didn't 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.479 think it was any good, But he sang on tracks 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.160 by the likes of Scarlett Johansson and the Danish alt 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:58.600 rock group Cashmere. He particularly admired the Brooklyn band TV 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.719 on the radio and saying harmonies on their two thousand 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:06.280 six song Province. In the studio, he dispensed precious words 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.560 of wisdom to the younger musicians stay strange, he advised, 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:16.399 and don't bend to his closest friends. David seemed content 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.720 to live in rock and roll exile. Then, in the 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:24.680 fall of producer Tony Visconti, got the call, how would 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.359 you like to make some demos? David asked. Tony did 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.200 his best to hide his shock. He made it sound 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:34.760 so casual, but David's revelation was in the same league 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.800 as the Beatles deciding to get back together. It was 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:42.200 no use trying to determine why or what had changed. Obviously, 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.160 David finally felt he had something to say. Like early 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:50.199 sessions for Low in nine six, David wasn't sure if 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:52.720 these new songs would ever see the light of day. 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.679 To keep the pressure off, he decided to keep the 0:22:55.680 --> 0:23:00.640 recording secret, allowing him creative freedom without speculation from fans 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:05.040 and the media, or from meddling record label executives. He 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:08.200 invited guitarist Jerry Leonard to the sessions with an email. 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.560 The subject line read stumb, an old Yiddish word meaning 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.880 stay quiet, keep it to yourself. David urged, don't tell 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:21.560 a soul. Though he undoubtedly trusted his friends, David sent 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:24.679 out non disclosure agreements just to be on the safe side. 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:30.840 Within days, David, Tony Jerry, and drummer Sterling Campbell were 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.480 in a tiny eight by eight dungeon of a rehearsal 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.040 room in New York's East Village. Quarters were cramped, and 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.040 the four men found themselves gasping for air as they 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:43.320 sketched out David's songs from a little four track recorder 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.480 he carried around. They met there every day for a week, 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:50.760 tweaking chord structures as David sang wordless melodies on top. 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:53.760 He prefaced each session by saying that it was all 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.800 experimental and might not go anywhere. Let's just get together 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.560 and make some music, he'd say. At the end of 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:03.679 the week, David took the tapes in his backpack and 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:10.119 disappeared for four months. Typical. By April, he was ready 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:14.160 to work again, though still under the cloak of top secrecy. 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:16.840 His commitment to privacy was tested before they had even 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:20.359 recorded a note. Owners of the studios he booked couldn't 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:22.600 keep their mouth shut for more than a day before 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:28.240 leaking the news to the press. David immediately canceled. Instead, 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:31.600 they switched the sessions to the Magic Shop, a studio 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:36.160 conveniently located just steps from David's Soho apartment behind unmarked 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:40.119 steel doors. The studio's presence on the busy city street 0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:43.520 was much like David's own. If you weren't looking, you 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:47.520 didn't know it was there. Visconti visited the Magic Shop 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:50.679 prior to the booking to stress the importance of secrecy 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:54.639 for his anonymous V I P. Client. Even the studio's 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:57.959 owner was unaware of who the sessions berefore until David 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:02.040 walked in on May two than to begin recording. The 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:05.119 studios interns were always sent home for the day whenever 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.840 David held a session, and the in house staff was 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:12.160 reduced to just two. Everyone involved was required to sign 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:15.400 an n d A from the musicians and engineers all 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:17.680 the way to the guy who brought David's double mocky 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:21.400 auto coffee order from Lack Colombe down the street. Though 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:24.120 strict about his privacy, they had a sense of humor 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.600 about it all. But we became known as the Secret, 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:31.480 as in has the Secret come in Today. At the 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.640 end of each session, David would snatch the sheet music 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:37.680 off of every music stand with a comedic flourish before 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:40.800 dramatically locking them away in his briefcase as if they 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:48.280 were government files or nuclear reactor codes. Sessions continued sporadically 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:52.280 for the next two years. For comparison, Low had come 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:56.119 together and around two months, never before one of his 0:25:56.160 --> 0:25:59.080