Woody Woodmansey reveals David Bowie was meant to perform in New York two days before he died
In an exclusive interview with Far Out, former Spiders from Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey has revealed that David Bowie was supposed to perform in New York in a surprise appearance on his 69th birthday, two days before he died.
Woodmansey is set to commence a UK tour with supergroup Holy Holy, performing a number of Bowie’s greatest hits, alongside Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory.
However, in a new interview with Far Out, the drummer revealed that he last spoke to the singer two days before he died in January 2016, when the band were performing their first night of a North American tour.
He exclusively shared: “We were touring when he passed away. We spoke to him about a day and a half before, because we were told he was gonna come down and sing with us when we played New York. We played New York on his birthday, and he didn’t come, so that was just a rumour.”
Despite this, he added: “During the concert Tony [Visconti] said: ‘Well, he didn’t turn up, shall we give him a ring, wish him happy birthday?’, so we stopped the concert and just gave him a call and he answered.”
Admitting that Bowie had an “emotional chat” with the band, Woodmansey then recalled receiving the news that the singer had died merely days later. “[I thought] ‘That’s bullshit, because we were speaking to him’,” the drummer said. “But then what goes through your head is, ‘It’s David Bowie, he can’t die’. It can’t be real, you know?”
Even despite the tragedy, Holy Holy were determined not to pull the tour as this would not have been in Bowie’s nature. For Woodmansey, however, “it was horrible,” he confessed. “It was nice to do that for [the audiences], but playing those songs, they had so many memories connected with them from live work, studio work, going out on nights out… it was all sitting on top of me while I was playing and I only just got through it.”
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