Dave Gutter’s Bowie Eulogy [VIDEO]

First thing after getting up on Monday morning, I did what I always do. I got the Keurig going and checked Facebook on my phone. There was a notification that Greg Martens had written on my wall. It read, "I can't think of David Bowie without thinking of you Brian James."  I figured he was reminiscing about an infamous BLM concert caravan we were on together 26 years ago with Bowie's birthday and new album being a hot topic over the weekend. Then I scrolled down in my feed and saw the post from wblm.com with the news that David Bowie had died.This was nearly incomprehensible. We just celebrated his birth on Friday, are getting familiar with his latest work Blackstar, and today we are mourning his loss. If you need to cry today, don't hold back. Bowie had such a tremendous positive impact in our lives and he is worth every teardrop.

Fans of Bowie from Maine are filling Facebook with tributes and memories today. The one that stands out the most one comes from Portland rock legend, Dave Gutter (he worked with David on two tracks for Rustic Overtones' Viva Nueva) who writes:

David Bowie is dead. F--k every arrogant prick rock star that ever lived.

Bowie is an enigma. He was so kind, down to earth, generous and jovial during the time I spent with him, it was mind blowing. He used to send me emails of nasty naked old women and joke that they were his family members that wanted to meet me. He also sent me the video of the elephant trainer who was engulfed in an elephants vagina when cleaning her cage at the zoo. I bummed cigarettes from him, farted into his headphones during our session and laughed our asses off. We also wrote and recorded music together, but that was almost a consolation compared to the impact Bowie had on me personally. He asked us if it would be ok for him to record another idea that he had on a second song for our album. He more than gave us his time, he was engrossed in the music, and he did it all without asking for a dime. I went through the million dollar invoice and surprisingly he wasn't there.
He introduced me to Joey Ramone at an interview for Rockline that we attended and spoke of his collaboration with us in the same breath as Lennon and Queen. He treated our band as his equals. A feeling I have never truly felt with any other "superstars" I had ever met. In the midst of the music industry trying to change our sound at every corner, he embraced our originality.
In his art, Bowie was like an alien from another planet that knew things about music that no one else knew. His persona was bigger than life, a god.
The sessions we did with Bowie taught me humility, humbleness, and confidence in the most profound way. Things I didn't expect.

Watch Lazarus the beautifully haunting new video where David sings of being free. It has a poignant new meaning now.