David Bowie’s pianist Mike Garson on their last conversation and talking him out of touring
nme.comDavid Bowie, has shared that he fears he’s to blame for the late singer quitting touring.While speaking to Music Week, Garson shared that a conversation with the ‘Starman’ icon may have impacted his decision to stop touring after 2004.“So he called me in 2006 and he said, ‘Well, Mike, do you think we should go out again?’ Now, I think the band and my wife want to kill me because I said something absurd, but actually deep and correct and honest,” Garson said.He continued: “I said, ‘David, only if you’re feeling it’, because he wasn’t feeling it.
I knew it but he wanted to give work to the band – our tour was cut short in 2004, so he was feeling guilty.”Garson toured as part of Bowie’s band for three decades.
He was also there for the final show 19 years ago which was cut short due to health issues. The pianist also played on the LP’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ and ‘Outside’.He added: “Of course, my first thought was, ‘Yeah, let’s go’.
But my second thought was, ‘I don’t want to be on the road with someone who is miserable and doesn’t want to be there.'”The two stayed in touch up until Bowie’s death in 2016.
Read more on nme.com