David Bowie in a hospital bed in a video for Lazarus which features the line ‘Look up here I’m in heaven’
David Bowie survived six heart attacks as he completed his haunting final album, it was claimed yesterday. Blackstar, released two days before he lost his 18-month cancer battle on Sunday, features him on a hospital bed with the lyrics: ‘Look up here, I’m in heaven.’
In his dying days, Bowie dispatched poignant thank-you notes to friends who remained unaware he was at death’s door until yesterday’s announcement. He died in New York two days after his 69th birthday, with his supermodel wife Iman, film director son Duncan Jones, 44, and 15-year-old daughter Alexandria at his bedside. As fans across the world mourned, it was confirmed that the flamboyant singer and actor had made Blackstar as his farewell message.
An eerie video with the track Lazarus shows Bowie bandaged on a hospital bed as he sings, ‘I’ve got scars that can’t be seen’ and ‘I’ve got nothing left to lose’ before retreating in to a dark closet. Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti said: ‘He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be.’
Few were aware how the reclusive singer’s hedonistic rock and roll lifestyle had caught up with him after years of chain-smoking and cocaine abuse.