For a man who had been almost completely silent between 2004 and 2013, David Bowie sure fit a lot into the last year and half of his life. Bowie supposedly found out about his cancer around 18 months before his passing. He came back from his semi-retirement in early 2013 with The Next Day as a healthy 66-year-old man. No cancer, no death looming over him. He released a handful of music videos, in which he looked superb. Fit, healthy, and full of energy. Jump forward three years and we had a new album and a couple of new music videos, with a slightly thinner and greyer Bowie. Yet nobody thought anything of it, until a couple of days after the release of the album. Bowie had been diagnosed with liver cancer in mid-2014. He kept news of his illness quiet (he told a handful of people close to him), and despite knowing he was dying, he pushed on creatively and continued to move in new directions.

Rather than hide away and live out the last year and half of his life in peace and quiet, as would be completely understandable, he continued to work on a number of projects. Aware he was dying; this is what Bowie worked on in the last 18 months of his life:

Wrote and demoed the entire Blackstar album solo

Recorded “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” with the Maria Schneider Orchestra

Recorded the Blackstar album with a brand new band

Co-wrote and produced Lazarus, his first play

Performed in two music videos

Let’s break down what a huge undertaking all of this was for a man battling cancer.

Wrote and demoed the entire Blackstar album solo.

Starting sometime in 2014, Bowie began writing and demoing songs for Blackstar. In his home studio he wrote the eight songs included on the album, and potentially other songs that weren’t included on the final track listing. He then recorded demos for each of these songs, playing most of the instruments himself. Now this isn’t out of the ordinary for an artist to do, but it’s just one part of what he managed to accomplish while battling cancer.

Recorded “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” with the Maria Schneider Orchestra

The single artwork for “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)”

One of the demos Bowie put together in his home studio was recorded with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and released as a single. “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” was released as a 10" single in November 2014 with the demo version of “’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” on side B. This version of the song, an orchestra-led jazz piece, differs greatly from the album version. The Blackstar version of the song is, like the rest of the album, a crazy industrial piece of jazz and rock fusion.

Recorded the Blackstar album with a brand new band

Since about the mid-late 90’s till The Next Day in 2013 (minus his time off between 2004 and his return in 2013), Bowie had been working with the same musicians, both on tour and in the studio. Personnel like Mike Garson, Gail Ann Dorsey, Reeves Gabrels, Earl Slick, and Gerry Leonard had contributed to Bowie’s return to form in the 90s with albums like Outside, Earthling, Hours, Heathen, Reality, and then one last time in 2013 on The Next Day. For Blackstar however, Bowie decided to start fresh with a new band. He scouted out his new band at 55 Bar, a small jazz bar in the West Village of Manhattan. The band was The Donny McCaslin Quartet. A band of young jazz performers that gave Blackstar it’s experimental, industrial jazz ferocity. Bowie and his new band recorded Blackstar in New York City between January and March 2015.

Co-wrote and produced Lazarus, his first play

Michael C. Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso in Lazarus

There wasn’t much left that he hadn’t done in the world of art, but a play was untrodden territory for Bowie. Lazarus was co-written by Bowie and Enda Walsh, and produced by Bowie. The musical is a sequel to the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, which starred Bowie in the leading role.

Bowie’s last public appearance was at the opening night of Lazarus on 7th December 2015. He looked relatively well for a man that was only about a month away from death. He was thin with grey thinning hair, but was said to be in good spirits throughout the evening.

That evening, Bowie made an appearance on stage with the cast and crew of the production after the performance. The director of the production, Ivo Van Hove, says that after leaving the stage, Bowie collapsed due to exhaustion. He says he then realised it may be the last time he would see him.

Performed in two music videos

Bowie’s music videos have always been a huge part of his art. And with The Next Day in 2013, he released a number of music videos in which he looked as cool as ever. After near silence for almost 10 years, seeing him looking youthful and healthy in a handful of music videos was pretty incredible.

The music video for “Lazarus”

With Blackstar we were lucky enough to get two music videos, both filmed in late 2015 in Brooklyn, and both telling works of art in their own ways. The lead single “Blackstar” was the first to be released, and is an adventurous 10-minute epic in which Bowie is full of life playing multiple parts, including the now famous “Button Eyes”. Looking at the video for “Blackstar”, you wouldn’t even begin to think that he was only a few months away from death.

The second music video from Blackstar was for the song “Lazarus”. This video again sees Bowie in his “Button Eyes” character, but this time he’s lying in a hospital bed quite literally singing about his impending death. You’d think this video would have been a clear enough indication of what was to come, but still, nobody had any idea.

Near death but desperate to keep working in the video for “Lazarus”

In the video for “Lazarus”, not only can Bowie be seen in a hospital bed, but later in the video he can also be seen in the same room, sitting at a desk, scribbling down ideas frantically. This is a man who had so many more ideas that he needed to let out. A man who, only months from death, wasn’t finished creating his art.