AUGUST 2002

he was coming up on the end of a prolific decade-long run during which he’d put out seven wildly diverse and ambitious studio albums, culminating with 2003’s Reality. It would be 10 more years before he would release another one, as he proceeded to step back from recording and touring to spend time with his wife, Iman, and their young daughter, Lexi, and immerse himself in work away from the cultural industrial complex. “You can drag out your youth for a long time, but at some point you have to relinquish your hold on all that,” Bowie, then 55, said. “Music hasn’t been the soundtrack to my life. My life hasn’t been like that. My life has been made up of smells and essences and places and people.”