Bowie Didn't Know He Was Dying When He Recorded 'Blackstar'

After David Bowie passed away on January 10th, 2016, fans assumed that Blackstar, his final album which came out two days earlier, was his parting gift to the world, but that actually wasn't the case.

In a new BBC documentary, Johan Renck, who directed the video for Bowie's Blackstar single "Lazarus," revealed that David learned his cancer was terminal as they were working on the clip. 

Coincidentally, the visual shows Bowie blindfolded, weak and in a hospital bed, but Renck thought of the concept, not David, and it was because it had a "biblical aspect" to it, not because the singer was ill. However, in the middle of shooting the clip, months after the song was recorded, Bowie told him that he was ending treatments. 

Meanwhile, Francis Whately, who directed the documentary, doesn't like the idea that Blackstar was a parting gift. He told The Guardian, "I think it's simplistic to think that. There is more ambiguity there than people want to acknowledge. I don't think he knew he was going to die." 

The documentary is called David Bowie: The Last Five Years and airs overseas on BBC2 this weekend. Learn more about it here.