David Bowie’s final email to Brian Eno was as beautiful as it was haunting

Tributes to the late pop star David Bowie has been pouring in from celebrities on social media since his passing on Sunday. In that time, some of the later rocker and icon’s friends, collaborators, and acquaintances have come forward to share their personal memories of Bowie. These include people as diverse as longtime producer Tony Visconti, comedian Ricky Gervais, and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire.

This list now includes Brian Eno, who crafted the critically and commercially successful Berlin Trilogy with Bowie in the late 70’s. Eno opened up about his final interaction with his long time friend, sharing an email he received a week before his death.

In a statement to BBC news, Eno said that he and Bowie had been emailing back and forth about possibly revisiting their 1995 album Outside on a new project together.

However, according to Eno, Bowie’s final sentence in the email had the feeling of a farewell address, and he now realizes that this was David Bowie’s way of giving their four-decade friendship an appropriate send off.

Take a look at Eno’s full statement below:

David’s death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.

We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud. Over the last few years — with him living in New York and me in London — our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were mr showbiz, milton keynes, rhoda borrocks and the duke of ear.

About a year ago we started talking about Outside — the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.

I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: ‘Thank you for our good times, brian. they will never rot’. And it was signed ‘Dawn’.

I realise now he was saying goodbye.”

Isadora Teich

Isadora Teich is a freelance writer and digital nomad who has worked in web marketing, digital branding, entertainment, and news. When not writing or traveling she is probably doing yoga, learning Spanish, or experimenting in the kitchen.

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