David Bowie was true to his song Heroes – when he saved rocker Peter Frampton from a smoke-filled plane cabin just before take-off.
The Thin White Duke jumped into action after raising the alarm during his 1987 Glass Spider world tour.
Frampton, 69, said: “On that tour we had private planes, and on one flight smoke started coming out of the vents.
“Dave stands up and goes, ‘Smoke! Smoke!’ So the pilot stops and the flight attendant pulls the back stairway down.
"I’m in my seat and Dave literally lifts me out of my seat and carries me down the chute. I’ll never forget that.
“He coulda run out, but he wanted to make sure I was OK. That was the kind of guy he was with me, and in general. He was a lovely man.”
The pair first met as teens at school in Bromley, South East London, where Peter’s dad was a teacher. And Bowie never forgot his old mate.
The guitarist tells in his memoir, due in October, how Bowie had already saved him once simply by picking him for the tour as he was broke.
He’d hit rock bottom despite his 1976 hit album Frampton Comes Alive! selling eight million.
Peter adds: “David saw I’d become this fallen pop idol. So what could he do for me? Take me around the world and reintroduce me as a musician.”
The star, who is battling a muscle disease called inclusion body myositis, has worked with other big stars including Bill Wyman, Ringo Starr and Steve Marriott.
Bowie – who released hit song The Man Who Sold
The World in 1970 – died aged 69 in 2016 after fighting liver cancer.
