The world of music has led well-known artists to get together and become friends. A relationship that can be broken precisely because of the success enjoyed by both stars – as was the case with Mick Jagger and David Bowie, who were initially great friends.
Two pals who camped it up for their 1985 cover of Martha & the Vandellas’ Dancing In The Street – Motown’s ode to unity and the power of music. A song that recounted their lives, until that friendship began to fade away. Something that will always haunt Jagger, who still regrets what happened, even more so after Bowie’s death in 2016.
Jagger and Bowie drift apart
The Rolling Stones frontman himself later commented that he didn’t know much about David Bowie’s life since they lost contact: “I had no idea Bowie was fighting cancer the way he was. I know David stopped touring in 2004 after having some health problems,” he previously said.
Jagger confesses that he still regrets not being aware of Bowie’s health issues and the suffering he was going through. Had he known, he would have liked to have been there for him: “After that, he kind of disappeared, both from my life and from the stage, so to speak, until he came back with an album that was a very interesting piece. It’s very sad when someone leaves and you haven’t spoken to them for a long time. You would like to have done this, you would like to have done that. But that’s what happens. Strange things happen in life.”
“There was always an exchange of information within our friendship,” Jagger told Rolling Stone following Bowie’s death. “And I suppose there was always an element of competition between us, but it never felt overwhelming. When he’d come over, we’d talk about our work — a new guitarist, a new way of writing, style and photographers… We had a lot in common in wanting to do big things onstage — using interesting designs, narratives, personalities”.
In fact, Jagger also confessed that with Bowie’s last album, Blackstar, he had been getting closer to him, but the latter ended up dying before that long-awaited reunion could take place.
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