David Bowie and drugs

2000s – part two

It was produced by Tony Visconti, who had reunited with Bowie for the previous year’s Heathen. Visconti noted the positive difference Bowie’s decision to quit smoking had had on his vocal technique.

Recording David’s voice is very easy. He’s got great chops. He just goes in front of the mic without warming up at all. He’s gifted and he’s also intuitive – he knows how to sing…

Also, he recently gave up smoking, so he’s recaptured some of his high range. He’d lost at least five semitones, and he’s now gained most of them back. I mean, in the old days he used to sing ‘Life On Mars?’ in the key of C. Now he has to sing it in the key of G.

In an interview with British newspaper The Sun, Bowie discussed ageing, mortality, and his previous struggles with drug use.

I made a real decision not to disappear or die. I was very ill but I made a decision to pull myself out of that abyss.

Drugs are a major part of the rock experience. I’m glad I did all that but I wouldn’t recommend it. Most of my good albums were made when I was straight.

I’m never tempted now. There’s a certain state of mind it puts you in that I don’t want to go back to. I think it might have affected my memory but I don’t think it’s had an awful effect on me.

It’s like taking a spaceship – there are great dangers. Be aware that if you get on it, you may just blow up. I went up on the spaceship and got back to earth again. It was exciting but lots of people I know blew up.

In another interview with London’s Evening Standard newspaper, Bowie spoke about his struggles with giving up nicotine – and also his dedication to keeping fit and healthy, sparring in a New York gym, and taking a personal trainer on tour.

It’s hard. And it’s still going to be hard in 10 years…

I’m a fairly disciplined man. I don’t cut corners. And I can see that it really pays dividends to have put in a fair amount of training before going on tour. I mean, at 56 it’s not as easy as when you’re twenty-something.

Reality contained a cover version of George Harrison’s ‘Try Some, Buy Some’. The song, written in 1970, revealed Harrison’s disillusionment with drug taking, and his salvation in finding God.

George’s song, ‘Try Some, Buy Some’, means a lot to me now. When I first heard that song it had a very different narrative to it. Now my connection to the song is about leaving a way of life behind me and finding something new. It’s overstated about most rock artists leaving drugs, it’s such a bore to read about it. But when I first heard the song in ’74 I was yet to go through my heavy drug period. And now it’s about the consolation of having kicked all that and turning your life around.

A Reality Tour kicked off in Denmark in October 2003, and ended prematurely in Hamburg, Germany, in June 2004.

During the penultimate show, in Prague on 23 June, Bowie left the stage after nine songs after suffering excruciating chest pains. His band played some songs without him, before he returned for just two more before the show was brought to an early close. “We didn’t know he was having a heart attack until four or five days later,” his bassist Gail Ann Dorsey later said.

The show in Hamburg was a festival, so it was a shorter set. I remember walking down the stairs behind him after we finished. When he got to the bottom, he actually collapsed. He was so tired and so sick. They rushed him to the hospital and we sat and waited in Hamburg for a few days, and that was the end. The last show.

He was a trouper. Before we went on he told me he was on these pills or muscle relaxers or whatever they were. He said, “I hate it.” He didn’t like doing drugs because he was sober. Those things are addictive and they bring back memories of being stoned. He was ready for the show, but he was feeling weird.

Bowie was diagnosed with an acutely blocked artery, and underwent an emergency angioplasty procedure.

David’s arterial heart disease was almost certainly lifestyle related. Long use of cocaine, for example, is known to stiffen artery walls, but since he stopped using cocaine perhaps twenty years earlier, I’d rule it out as a principle cause. The big factor is likely to have been David’s history of smoking.

A long period of recuperation followed, during which Bowie kept a low profile. During the next decade he made only a handful of public appearances, including a Fashion Rocks event at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on 8 September 2005. During the show he performed alongside Arcade Fire, and afterwards spoke to The Sun’s Victoria Newton.

It’s great to be back. I loved every minute of being back on stage – I didn’t want to come off, I could have stayed up there all night. I feel fantastic at the moment.

After I had the heart attack I decided to take a year off and do nothing. I didn’t do any work and just made sure I looked after myself. I go to the gym, I don’t drink and I’m feeling really good today.

I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack – so that was worth it, wasn’t it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn’t smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside. It’s bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit.

As far as I’m concerned I lead a healthy lifestyle now so it did come as a bit of a shock to have a heart attack, but I feel on top of the world after tonight.