The Last On-Stage Performance Of David Bowie

Reknowned actor and comedian Ricky Gervais recalls about the time he was onstage with the legendary David Bowie, which was unfortunately the last live performance of the musician.

Bowie was set to perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2007, and Gervais was tasked to introduce him to the crowd. David Bowie decided to sing “Little Fat Man”, which was a writing collaboration between him and Gervais for the BBC comedy Extras.

On the Radio X show of Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, Gervais was asked about that moment. Wilson said, “I was talking to my PR who PR’d David Bowie and he said last night, ‘you know, no-one talks about it, but the last time he ever sang on stage was introducing you at Madison Square Garden'”.

Gervais responded with, “Yeah he sang Little Fat Man. I think I co-wrote a song with Bowie, that’s mental isn’t it?” He continued, saying, “And Extras was his last TV appearance as well so it was great. And he brought me out on Madison Square Gardens and it was unbelievable. He just went out there with a harmonica and goes ‘oooh, chubby little loser. No-one’s bloody laughing’”.

He also shared a bit of the creative process behind their collaboration, “When I sent him the lyrics to that, because he did the music to that, I sent him the lyrics and I called him up and said, ‘have you got the lyrics?’, he went ‘yeah’, and I said ‘erm, give me some like retro like erm, Life On Mars’”.

Bowie responded with a quick, “Oh yeah. I’ll knock up a quick fucking Life On Mars for you shall I?”‘