“Like most red-blooded rock musicians, David Bowie provided an indelible addition to the soundtrack of my life from an early age. His first live album, ‘David Live’, was on regular rotation in my living room when I was a kid, and his classic track, ‘Suffragette City’, was quite a hit at the backyard parties I played with my nerdy high school band in the early ’80s (I sang the “Hey Man!” background vocals with the best pre-pubescent shriek I could possibly squeeze out of my skinny little neck).”
Grohl and Bowie first met at a festival in Europe; and they’d both play at Bowie’s 50th birthday concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1997.
“I remember glancing over mid-performance to see his iconic eyes as the crowd roared…and they were looking right into mine. “Gives me chills, still, to this day.”
Grohl also offered Bowie a chance to collaborate on a song for a major motion picture film soundtrack. Bowie contacted Grohl by email to decline the offer. Grohl thanked him for considering it, and left the door open for a future collaboration.
“Well, that’s settled,” replied Bowie. “Now f–k off.”
“Frozen in my living room chair, my stomach dropped like a lead weight as I stared down at my laptop screen in horror,” recalls Grohl. “Fingers trembling above the cold keyboard, I read and re-read those two sentences over and over again, praying that perhaps it was just some sort of typo, some kind of cruel autocorrect disaster. But…it was no mistake.
“David Bowie had just told me to f–k off.”
“See you in another 17 years!” Grohl quipped back.
“Not if I see you first,” Bowie shot back.
“What, no more birthday parties at Madison Square Garden?” Grohl said, still unsure about Bowie’s demeanor.
“No more birthdays. I’ve run out of them,” Bowie concluded.
“Well, you’re more than welcome to come to my 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden. It’ll be at the hot dog stand out front!” Dave wrote.
Bowie shot back, “Wait, you’re not even 50! Nobody’s 50 anymore…50 is the new dead! That was a good night though, wasn’t it?”
Bowie shortly thereafter released Blackstar and died.. “I looked back on my memories of him with a great sense of fondness and also deep sadness,” Grohl remembered. “Especially our last exchange. It broke my heart to re-read the line “No more birthdays, I’ve run out of them,” thinking that maybe, just maybe he knew something that we didn’t. And, being the gentleman that he always was, didn’t want us to suffer his pain.”
