Things That Came Out About David Bowie After He Died

There was never a rock star quite like David Bowie. Seemingly inspiring every off-kilter pop star and actor since he rose to fame in the late 1960s, he perpetually kept himself and his act fresh, adopting new personas or entire genres of music so as to better express his thoughts and exercise his restless artistic impulses. Whether he was publicly and tirelessly in character as the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, or Ziggy Stardust, Bowie always made things interesting. He also made highly regarded music — some of the biggest and most popular rock and pop songs of all time are Bowie songs, written and recorded over an impossibly long career. From "Space Oddity" in 1969 to "Rebel Rebel" in 1974 to the "Blackstar" album in 2016, Bowie gave everything he had to his work.

But because Bowie poured himself into his art, he remained a private person off-stage and off-screen. Until his death in 2016, much of his inner life and personal world was out of bounds. As such, there was a lot to be learned about David Bowie after he died.

David Bowie and Mick Jagger are icons, but they collaborated on a recording together only once. In 1985, Bowie and Jagger covered Martha and the Vandellas' 1964 hit "Dancing in the Street." It reached the Top 10 in the U.S., and it was a No. 1 smash in the musicians' home country of the U.K. The two were pals before the team-up, and according to Bowie's former wife, Angela, the two rock stars were briefly romantic in the '70s.

What could have been a high-profile and heavily documented bromance or public BFF situation remained a private relationship for the two. Following Bowie's death in 2016, Jagger revealed that he and his erstwhile duet partner had remained close. They were confidantes in matters of concern to only rock stars, discussing songwriting and band mechanics as well as fashion and more relatable subjects. "There was always an exchange of information within our friendship. And I suppose there was always an element of competition between us, but it never felt overwhelming," Jagger told Rolling Stone. "He'd always look at my clothes labels. When he would see me, he'd give me a hug, and I could feel him going up behind the collar of my shirt to see what I was wearing. He used to copy me sometimes, but he'd be very honest about it."

One of David Bowie's most notable romantic relationships in the 1970s partnered him with Claudia Lennear, a former backing vocalist who released one album, 1973's "Phew!" Bowie wrote the song "Lady Grinning Soul" about Lennear, who, after the commercial failure of her album, left the music industry altogether in the 1970s.

Lennear broke off the relationship, and the two spoke for the first time in decades in 2014 after Bowie saw his ex featured in the documentary about support singers, "20 Feet From Stardom." The retired singer then lay the groundwork for a comeback by writing some new tunes for a potential record. Lennear told the world about it in January 2016, weeks after Bowie's death, as he'd been the one to encourage and initiate the project, and the two were reportedly collaborating on songs for the album. "We had this very strange writing relationship. He was writing music and I was writing lyrics," Lennear told The Daily Mail. Bowie remained highly interested in Lennear's album. One of the last texts he sent to anyone was to her, writing: "Send me some lyrics. Don't forget."

It felt like a good match when one of the most future-forward artists of one generation proposed a team-up with an equally experimental musician of another. In 1995, David Bowie invited Nine Inch Nails, the band in which Trent Reznor was the only permanent member, to join him on his tour in support of the album "Outside." Bowie and Reznor also made music together, the 1997 electro-rock single "I'm Afraid of Americans."

It's a big part of the tragic real-life story of Nine Inch Nails that Reznor coped with substance abuse during this time. "My way of dealing with life was to numb myself with drugs and alcohol," Reznor wrote in Rolling Stone after Bowie's death. When he tired of what he called a "reckless, self-destructive path," he sought help from Bowie, whom he knew had been through the ringers of fame and drug addiction. Bowie imparted the guidance Reznor needed to get clean, offering "pieces of wisdom that stuck with me: 'You know, there is a better way here, and it doesn't have to end in despair or in death, in the bottom."

A few years after Reznor attained sobriety, he attempted to thank Bowie for all that he'd done. "I don't even think I finished the sentence; I got a big hug. And he said, 'I knew. I knew you'd do that. I knew you'd come out of that.'"

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

The sometimes tragic real-life story of David Bowie came to an end in 2016 in a sad and, to most of the world, a sudden and unexpected manner. "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," read a statement on the performer's Facebook page posted on January 10, 2016. "While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief." Bowie had marked his 69th birthday two days prior, and with the release of the album "Blackstar." No one except Bowie's family and a few close associates knew that he'd been diagnosed with cancer.

Six months before he began piecing "Blackstar" together in January 2015, Bowie received a liver cancer diagnosis. From the summer of 2014 onward, then, he'd been in cancer treatment. Bowie kept up the regimen during recording, submitting to chemotherapy treatments in the mornings before attending recording sessions, which he generally kept to about five hours. The chemotherapy caused Bowie to lose his hair and eyebrows, making producer Tony Visconti and the musicians hired for "Blackstar" aware of the musician's health.

David Bowie prepared his last will and testament in 2004. Its contents weren't publicly revealed until late January 2016, about three weeks after his death, when the document was opened and executed. The financial disclosures showed that Bowie had grown quite wealthy, with an estate worth approximately $100 million, bolstered by a 1990s enterprise called "Bowie Bonds," in which individuals could buy shares of the singer's intellectual property. The prime beneficiary was Bowie's wife, model Iman, set to receive half of her late husband's estate in quarterly installments, along with the deed to the couple's luxury apartment in Manhattan. The remainder was bequeathed mostly evenly to filmmaker Duncan Jones, Bowie's adult son from an earlier marriage, and to Alexandria Zahra Jones, Bowie and Iman's then-teenage daughter. Zahra Jones also received the title to Bowie's country home in New York state, while his longtime personal assistant Corinne Schwab received a $2 million payment. Jones' childhood nanny, Marion Skene, was given $1 million.

Bowie also outlined his funeral requests. He wished for his body to be cremated and the remains to be distributed on Bali, an island in Indonesia. If possible, the musician asked, he wanted the spreading of his ashes to be performed according to Buddhist ceremonial practices.

On January 8, 2016, David Bowie released what would be the final studio album in his lifetime, "Blackstar." He recorded it secretly with a New York jazz quartet and frequent producer Tony Visconti. Initially, "Blackstar" earned heaps of praise, with critics emphatically approving of its unflinching experimentation and weirdness. Rolling Stone called it "Bowie's best anti-pop masterpiece since the Seventies," the Independent cited it as "the most extreme album" of the musician's life, and The New York Times found it "at once emotive and cryptic, structured and spontaneous and, above all, willful, refusing to cater to the expectation of radio stations or fans." Then, two days after the release of "Blackstar," David Bowie died from cancer, which the general public did not know he had.

The tragedy suddenly cast "Blackstar" in a new light. Lyrics once deemed baffling and mysterious revealed their meaning, and the album's true purpose emerged. It was "a farewell gift," as Visconti told The Guardian. Bowie knew he was dying over the course of the long recording process, and that informed his art. "This was a man who was facing his own mortality," cover designer Jonathan Barnbrook told Dezeen. The album's actual title was a graphic representation of a black star, not the word "Blackstar," and that was a clue. "The 'Blackstar' symbol, rather than writing 'Blackstar,' has a sort of finality, a darkness, a simplicity, which is a representation of the music," Barnbrook said. 

His artistry not confined to music, David Bowie was also an actor. From the late 1960s until the 2010s, he occasionally took on roles in movies and television shows, with notable performances in "The Man Who Fell to Earth," "The Hunger," "The Last Temptation of Christ," "Labyrinth," "The Prestige," and the "Twin Peaks" franchise. Bowie was choosy about which films he'd agree to appear in, and among the things we learned about actors after they died was the revelation that the performer was up for a role in Peter Jackson's epic blockbuster adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilog in the early 2000s.

Shortly after Bowie died in January 2016, Dominic Monaghan, who portrayed hobbit Merry in the films, shared the story of his encounter with the rock star at a casting office after his audition for "The Lord of the Rings." "As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed [the casting director's] little list and went in. And I'm assuming he read for Gandalf. I can't think of anything else he would've read for," Monaghan told HuffPost. According to Vanity Fair, director Peter Jackson did want Bowie to play the Middle Earth wizard, but the singer was too busy. Ultimately, the role went to Sir Ian McKellen.

Between 1977 and 1979, David Bowie released three progressive, introspective albums influenced by electronic music and experimental German rock: "Low," "'Heroes,'" and "Lodger," collectively known as the Berlin Trilogy after the city where they were conceived and produced with Brian Eno. Bowie and Eno also worked together on the 1995 album "Outside," but through all those decades, the musicians maintained a very tight friendship and a rapport that Eno likened to that of an old comedy duo, in spite of the physical distance that separated them. "With him living in New York and me in London — our connection was by email," Eno wrote in a statement, via the BBC, after Bowie's death. "We signed off with invented names: some of his were mr showbiz, milton keynes, rhoda borrocks, and the duke of ear."

Along with those intimate details about their friendship, Eno also disclosed that he and Bowie had considered working together again. "About a year ago we started talking about 'Outside' — the last album we worked on together," Eno wrote. "We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that." That reconsideration never took place.

David Bowie clearly enjoyed working with other top musicians, as evidenced by his collaborations with Bing Crosby, Queen, and Iggy Pop, among others. But Bowie frequently said no to team-ups, particularly those with contemporary rock bands. Perhaps feeling jilted or even embarrassed for asking Bowie in the first place, many of those stars only talked about Bowie's rejection after his death in 2016.

Dave Grohl performed with Bowie in 1998 and guested on the latter's 2002 LP "Heathen." However, Bowie declined Grohl's invitation to work with him on a movie soundtrack cut. "I thought, 'Maybe I'll have someone else sing, I'll do the music," Grohl told Playboy (via Ultimate Classic Rock). "The next day I get an email and it says, 'David, I watched the movie and I got to be honest, it's not my thing.'" The Red Hot Chili Peppers repeatedly asked Bowie to produce their records; he said no to every request.

And while so many people hate Coldplay, it would seem that Bowie didn't care for the alternative rock band either. The band once approached the rock legend to appear on a song that had a part tailor-made for what they told NME was a "David Bowie-type character." Coldplay singer Chris Martin personally sent a letter to Bowie explaining the idea, to which Bowie replied, "It's not a very good song, is it?" "He was very discerning. He wouldn't just put his name to anything," guitarist Will Champion added.

Very early on in his career as a recording artist in the late 1960s, David Bowie earned extra income through a deal with his music publisher, which gave him songwriting-for-hire jobs. In 1968, Bowie was tasked with writing an English version of the French pop song "Comme d'habitude." He knocked out the assignment, but he wasn't pleased with his work. "I wrote some really terrible lyrics — I think it was called 'Even a Fool Learns to Love,'" Bowie recalled in a 2002 interview (via Australia's ABC). Bowie figured nobody would ever hear such an obscurity, until he surprisingly recognized the melody of "Comme d'habitude" while listening to the radio in 1969. But it wasn't his version — Frank Sinatra was singing a different English translation. Pop singer-songwriter Paul Anka had bought the rights, written new lyrics, and given it to Sinatra. Bowie was so miffed that he endeavored to write a song as dramatic as "My Way," and that became the 1973 hit single "Life on Mars?"

"Even a Fool Learns to Love," Bowie's proto-"My Way," remained unheard for years, only emerging months after his death. The 2016 BBC Radio Four series "The People's History of Pop" served as the first place where the public ever heard Bowie's version of "Even a Fool Learns to Love."

In the days after David Bowie's death on January 10, 2016, numerous celebrities, artists, musicians, and heads of state offered up their condolences and memories, speaking to the musician's tremendous impact and legacy. Among those who shared their grief and appreciation for Bowie was alternative pop singer Lorde, who, unlike many of the famous well-wishers, actually met the singer. The encounter took place back in 2013, at the very beginning of her immediately successful career and at the young and vulnerable age of 16. Following her performance at an event honoring actor Tilda Swinton sponsored by Vogue, editor Anna Wintour introduced Lorde to Bowie.

It was a magical and transformative moment for the newly famous Lorde. "That night something changed in me — i felt a calmness grow, a sureness. I think in those brief moments, he heralded me into my next new life, an old rock and roll alien angel in a perfect grey suit," Lorde recalled in a Facebook post. "I realized everything I'd ever done, or would do from then on, would be done like maybe he was watching. I realized I was proud of my spiky strangeness because he had been proud of his."

David Bowie was worth quite a lot when he died, and in the months after, the value of his estate grew even higher. The musician and performer had evidently invested a fortune in artwork, building a collection of more than 400 pieces. Quietly amassing a private stash, Bowie owned pieces by several notable artists, including influential 20th century figures like Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Basquiat as well as British modernists including Harold Gilman and Peter Lanyon. His collection also included furniture in the postmodern Memphis style and a section of an altarpiece mural painted by Italian master Tintoretto in the 16th century.

Following a 10-day viewing period open to the public, Bowie's collection went up for sale via an auction conducted by Sotheby's in November 2016. The event generated more than $30 million in sales, with a large portion of that figure coming from Bowie's two Basquiats, which he'd bought in 1995 before he portrayed artist Andy Warhol in the biopic "Basquiat."