David Bowie‘s former manager Tony Defries has said that the late icon planned to bring back Ziggy Stardust for a comeback tour.
Bowie famously retired his alter ego at a concert at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1973.
Speaking about his reasons for killing off Ziggy at the time, the late icon told NME: “That’s it. Period. I don’t want to do any more gigs and the American dates have been cancelled. From now on I’ll be concentrating on various activities that have very little to do with rock and pop.”
Now, Defries has said the reason he retired his persona was because of its success.
“Basically, I think success wasn’t the ideal situation for David,” Defries told MOJO. “When [1973 album] ‘Aladdin Sane’ was selling enormous quantities and crowds were shutting down railway stations, just to get a glance of him, I think that’s when it all began to sink in, that he was no longer an ordinary person. The Ziggy effect was taking hold and he couldn’t cope with it, really,” he said.
He also said Bowie’s reasoning was influenced by Frank Sinatra, who quit the music industry in 1971 before returning two years later. He explained: “David was a big Sinatra fan. Making the comeback is the key thing.”
Most surprisingly though he said they planned on doing a comeback tour.
He added: “We tried and failed to get promoters in America to book [a Bowie / Ziggy Stardust comeback tour] into large arenas as a headliner. So, that was a real reason for retiring Ziggy, to be honest with you… nothing to do with music or style or anything else.”
Bowie also wanted to relaunch Ziggy Stardust in space, video games designer Phil Campbell previously said.
Meanwhile, Bowie’s estate yesterday (April 2) paid tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto after he recently passed away. Sakamoto not only scored Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, but also starred in the war film alongside the late icon.