Report: Bowie Cremated in NY

Producer says he was still working on new songs
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2016 4:38 AM CST
Report: Bowie Cremated in NY
Tributes lie beside a mural of British singer David Bowie by artist Jimmy C in Brixton, south London, on Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky. David Bowie has already been cremated in New York City, and the only public services or memorials for the beloved singer will be those that fans organize for themselves, sources tell the Mirror. A source in New York tells the paper that Bowie wanted to "go without any fuss" and intended his music to be his farewell to the world. The Guardian reports that a long-planned March 31 concert at Carnegie Hall will now be a memorial concert instead of a tribute, with many big stars expected to join previously announced headliners the Roots and Cyndi Lauper.

Bowie, who died after an 18-month struggle with cancer, kept his illness very quiet, and producer Tony Visconti says he was making plans for a new album just a week before his death. Visconti tells Rolling Stone that he knew of Bowie's illness a year ago, when he started work on Blackstar. He says Bowie knew in November that the disease was terminal, but he was still writing new songs and hoped to get into the studio for a follow-up. After a phone call last week, "I was thrilled, and I thought, and he thought, that he'd have a few months, at least," the producer says. (The "coolest mugshot of all time" resurfaced after Bowie's death.)

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