David Bowie ‘excited’ and ‘consented’ to Best Of tour before death, says friend

David Bowie expressed his gratitude to Glenn Gregory for his renditions of classic songs before his tragic death.

The iconic musician, who died in 2016, has had almost everybody cover his music but admitted that Glenn Gregory and the Best of Bowie Tour production sang his songs "the way they should be sung".

Bowie's former bassist and producer Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory, alongside the musicians of Holy Holy, will perform hits from David's back catalogue across the country for dedicated fans.

Despite the initial call being nerve-wracking, Glenn explained that David was happy with the decision before his death.

The Sheffield native told the Daily Star: "One of the nicest things, this happened before David's death and so we were doing it with David's consent.

"He was excited about the whole idea of it and I was in the studio one day and Tony Visconti phoned me up and said 'I just want to say something to you, I'm in my studio in Brooklyn with David and he's listening to The Width of a Circle, he's dancing around and he's so excited.

"'He's just said 'It's so nice to hear someone sing my songs the way they should be sung'. That was certainly one of the cherished moments of all time for David to give me the kind of nod to my version of things."

Recalling his reaction to taking on David's songs alongside Tony, Glenn explained: "It was very nerve-wracking to be honest, I was kind of struggling a little bit at first.

"I was learning the songs, you think you know the songs because you've grown up with them but when it comes to just you singing with them, you haven't got a clue at all.

"It's OK singing with David in your car, so I had to learn something like 27 songs and as I was doing it, my wife said 'You can't sing it like that.'

"Then I spoke to Woody [Woodmansey] and Tony and they said 'Look, this isn't a kind of Bowie tribute, this is us doing our versions of the songs, so make them your own.'"

Glenn added: "That kind of clicked and that worked, so that was it, I sing it as I want to sing it really, they are really great songs to be honest.

"It was nerve-wracking but we got there."

Tony Visctoni presents the Best of Bowie Tour featuring vocalist Glenn Gregory & all-star band Holy Holy on 2-13 March 2022. Buy tickets here.

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