I talk about David in the present... his spirit is with us
Irish rocker’s tribute as online gigs mark death five years on
DIEHARD David Bowie fans will no doubt shed an emotional tear or two today as the fifth anniversary of their fallen Hero is marked with a series of online gigs.
And Dubliner Gerry Leonard, who co-wrote songs on Bowie’s The Next Day album, admitted the loss of the musical genius still hasn’t sunk in for him.
Bowie was cruelly taken on 10 January, 2016, which was coincidentally the icon’s 69th birthday.
He died after an 18-month battle with liver cancer and – in yet another coincidence – released his swansong album Blackstar on the eve of his death.
Gerry told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It’s still hard to believe. I still talk about him in the present tense, people pick me up on that all the time. “I feel like his spirit is still with us.” Gerry believes Bowie “did the right thing” by not publicly discussing his illness. He explained: “You don’t want to give those things so much energy that they just become everything.
“He was on a mission to finish up his work. He didn’t want to be bothered by having to speak about it.”
Gerry added: “We didn’t talk about his illness and it was a shock. It all happened pretty quick.
“He had the heart thing when we were touring but he didn’t really speak about that either. He’s a very private person.”
New York-based Gerry was actually in Dublin when word reached him about Bowie’s passing in Manhattan.
He recalled: “It was really sad and incomprehensible. He was such a largerthan-life figure and had such an impact on all of us – those who knew him and those who knew him through his music.
“And it seemed like he would always be there. He was there right from the start when I started watching Top of the Pops. And now he wasn’t there anymore.
“It was very sad. It was almost behind tears – that kind of sadness.”
Gerry said: “What amazed me really was the way that everybody embraced him after he passed, in a way that maybe they didn’t embrace him when he was alive.
“I think when he was alive there was that point, ‘I like ‘ this’ era of Bowie’ and, ‘ I ‘ don’t like’ this era of Bowie’. And everybody had an opinion.
“But after he passed, there was just this amazing outpouring of love for him.
“And everybody put aside those little badges of differences like, ‘I’m the coolest, I like this bit’.
“And just kind of [all together] said, ‘ This was an incredible man with an incredible legacy’.” Gerry said the Bowie he “knew and loved” would want his fans to celebrate rather than mourn him on what would’ve been his 74th birthday today.
He added: “It will be an emotional day, but knowing the man he wouldn’t want us to wallow. He wasn’t one for nostalgia and wallowing or self-pitying.
“He’d much prefer for us to be moving forward and finding amazing new art.
“So I think if there’s any way we can honour him it’s to do that.”
Gerry, originally from Clontarf in
Dublin, had first moved to New York to lick his wounds after his band was dropped by record label Island whose other artists included U2 and Bob Marley.
A determined Gerry quickly built up a reputation as a highly-regarded session player and musical director.
He soon found himself collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Laurie Anderson, Suzanne Vega, Avril Lavigne, Sophie B Hawkins and Rufus Wainwright.
And things took a surreal turn when one of Ziggy Stardust’s entrusted lieutenants Mark Plati “out of the blue” asked if Gerry would like to play on Bowie’s
He’d want us to move forward and find new art GERRY LEONARD ON HOW TO HONOUR BOWIE
Heathen album in 2002. Gerry explained: “Bowie liked my guitar playing and he said to Mark, ‘Can Gerry rock?’” Gerry then ended up doing a doubletake when he spotted Bowie checking him out at a small cafe gig. He recalled: “Bowie ended up heckling me and stayed there for the show. So we played our a***s off. “Afterwards he said, ‘Do you want to join the band?’ It was amazing.” It got to the point where Bowie valued the Irishman’s contribution so much that he would make the long trek out to Gerry’s family home in upstate New York to work together. Gerry revealed: “We ended up writing songs together, two of which ended up on The Next Day record. I’m very proud that he liked the songs enough to go on the record.
“I feel very honoured to have worked with him. We became friends. He likes to feel he’s around people that know him and that he can trust. I think we developed that together over the years.”
When the Reality Tour hit Dublin’s Point Depot, Bowie had Gerry call over his brother-in-law who was good at Irish in order to teach him Tiocfaidh ar la.
He said: “I told him, ‘Look David, this is a controversial thing to say’. But he loved that. He opens the whole show with Tiocfaidh ar la.
“He loved Dublin. He even picked
Dublin as the place to shoot the Reality Tour for the two nights [ for the DVD].”
Gerry told the Irish Sunday Mirror he is now working on an upcoming Bowie tribute show with the RTE Orchestra.
He revealed: “We’re hoping to do this in February or March. I will record my stuff in New York and I’ll send it to Dublin and they’ll put the orchestra on there.
“We’re hopefully going to have some nice new arrangements and pick a bunch of Irish singers to come in.
“I’ve been doing my new arrangements of songs like Loving The Alien and Sound and Vision and I’m hoping we can work some of those things in just to be able to bring my kind of aesthetic style to it as well.
“Then we’ll probably do songs like Life on Mars and Heroes and Starman, and things that everybody knows and loves.”
Gerry concluded: “It’s hard to pick one thing from all my time with Bowie.
“Having him come to my house and write some songs – that was pretty special. But being on stage with that man was pretty special.”
I feel very honoured to have worked with him
GERRY LEONARD ON PLAYING WITH BOWIE