By Massimo Usai

Eight years after that day, I was awakened by the terrible news of the White Duke’s departure.

It was a surprise, for me as well as for the whole world.

No one knew anything about his illness and his album just released two days earlier, it was too fresh to read between the lines what he was announcing to us.

In the middle of the day, on January 10th, Eight years ago, I felt slightly stupid to be surprised to listen carefully to his Blackstar.

Because I finally realize that his death had been announced two days earlier and I didn’t get it.

I had spent the previous 48 hours listening to his last record so in ecstasy (as I’ve always done for every record he did), that I didn’t pay proper attention to what he wants to say in his songs.

I cried like a kid eight years ago.

I’m not ashamed of that, because Bowie was an integral part of my growth and maturation as a person.

He is among one of the artists, to whom I turned in moments of despondency to find inspiration, and in moments of joy to find the energy for my adrenaline.

I wanted to write a long post today about Bowie.

That was my intention, but in the end, Peter wrote an excellent article few years ago for Sky News, so I will leave you to read his article.

Peter is my dear friend, and together for 20 years, we have been in hundreds of rock concert.

We have been together in so many concerts, in London and around Europe and soon will be again on tour in Europe, follow The Smile.

I shared a fantastic experience at Glastonbury a few years ago with him.

Peter wrote the article on Bowie very well, impossible to me to do better.

It does it without grammatical drills and exercises in literary style, but it does so with the heart and soul.

For Peter, Bowie is the leading inspirational poet. His word and impressions of his analyses are a thousand times better than mine.

This is the link for Peter’s article on Sky News.