David Bowie producer Tony Visconti details amazing insight into his final days

According to Visconti, Bowie had called him up ("via FaceTime") earlier this month and talked about creating one more album.

Bowie had reportedly written and demoed "five" new songs, and wanted to take them to the studio, despite knowing "since November" that his cancer was terminal.

Bowie's 25th and final studio record Blackstar was released on 8 January, his 69th birthday. He passed away days later.

Although Bowie was aware of the severity of his condition, Visconti says it seemed as if the legend believed he had more time left.

"At that late stage, he was planning the follow-up to Blackstar," says Visconti to Rolling Stone. "I was thrilled, and I thought, and he thought, that he'd have a few months, at least. Obviously, if he's excited about doing his next album, he must've thought he had a few more months. So the end must've been very rapid. I'm not privy to it. I don't know exactly, but he must've taken ill very quickly after that phone call."

Visconti has worked with Bowie on numerous projects, including seminal record such as Low, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Space Oddity, and recent releases The Next Day and Blackstar.

As well as the new music, he spoke about his relationship with Bowie during the icon's 18-month battle with cancer.

"He just came fresh from a chemo session," says Visconti, who found out about Bowie's condition during recording sessions for Blackstar. "He had no eyebrows, and he had no hair on his head. and there was no way he could keep it a secret from the band. But he told me privately, and I really got choked up when we sat face to face talking about it... in November, [the cancer] had spread all over his body, so there's no recovering from that."

Visconti also revealed that Bowie went into remission last year.

"He was optimistic because he was doing the chemo and it was working," adds Visconti. "and at one point in the middle of last year, he was in remission. I was thrilled. And he was a bit apprehensive. He said, 'Well, don't celebrate too quickly. For now I'm in remission, and we'll see how it goes.' And he continued the chemotherapy. So I thought he was going to make it. And in November, it just suddenly came back. It had spread all over his body, so there's no recovering from that... his energy was still incredible for a man who had cancer. He never showed any fear. He was just all business about making the album."

In the days following the news of Bowie's passing, there has been talk of recurring health problems from various sources. Visconti doesn't buy it - between Bowie's well-documented 2004 heart attack and 2013 album The Next Day, he even took up boxing.

"When I met up with him in 2008 or 2009 he actually had some weight on him," Visconti says. "He was robust. His cheeks were rosy red. He wasn't sick. He was on medicine for his heart. But it was normal, like a lot of people in their 50s or 60s are on heart medication, and live very long lives. So he was coping with it very, very well."

Although many of us hadn't seen or heard Bowie's clandestine messages in "Blackstar" and "Lazarus", Visconti had rumbled Bowie's secret.

"You canny bastard. You're writing a farewell album," Visconti reportedly said. Bowie's response was laughter.

[via Rolling Stone]