Doing all these David Bowie songs for my tribute for him, got me thinking about this. What would it have been like if Bowie didn’t pass away and he didn’t have that health decline. What if he was able to perform again? If he got to perform live again, I’m sure he would have still got it. I’m sure he would have killed it on stage like usual.

If I remember correctly, Bowie stopped performing on stage in 2004 for a few reasons. 1) He had too many heart attacks due to his heavy smoking, heavy drinking and his past drug use. Those were also the reasons why he couldn’t sing high anymore as he got older but he still could sing, though. 2) He also had a daughter with his wife Iman so he looked at as retiring from touring as an opportunity to spend more time with his family.

Even though he hasn’t performed a full show before he passed, he did a few special guest appearances with David Gilmour and Alicia Keys, that’s about it. After those two performances, you never saw him on stage again.

About 10 years after the release after “Reality”, he came out with a new album “The Next Day” and the follow up album after that, “Blackstar”. Why did Bowie release two new studio albums after years of no touring and no releasing new music? Well since he couldn’t perform, he could still sing and make music so he thought he would quickly make a few new albums before something was coming for him ’cause he knew death was coming. He just knew it and predicted it earlier so he released new music ’cause he knew his fans were wanting something new musically from him. Since he couldn’t perform live and couldn’t tour anymore, he thought he would give them something, ya know? I think David just really appreciated the fans support and he loved his fans so much so he gave back to them by giving them new music.

If he got to perform live and tour again, IF HE DID, I’m sure he would have killed it like usual. I’m sure he would have been performing his greatest hits and his new material.

Bowie never got to perform his new songs from “The Next Day” and “Blackstar” albums but I guess the closest you’ll get to see him perform his new stuff was that Michael C. Hall performed “Lazarus” on TV in honor of him. Michael’s performance of that song was dead-on, though, it was amazing and he killed it… Bowie would have been proud of that performance I’m sure. Go youtube it if you haven’t seen it before. Just think if Bowie himself got to perform “Blackstar” and “Lazarus” live if he had the opportunity, I’m sure he would have floored a lot of people. Bowie never got to perform on TV again so I guess they had Michael C. Hall do it instead.

I’ve been a die-hard Bowie fan for years ever since I was young. He’s definitely an inspiration/influence for my own singing, songwriting and guitar playing for sure. It was pretty much him that made me want to start writing my own music really and a lot of my own originals were Bowie inspired.

I got two more Bowie songs for my online tribute and I’ll get them online at some point this weekend. Just rehearsing them to death and I’ll get them online when I can.

Kev