David Bowie believed the young New Zealand singer Lorde was “the future of music”, his longtime pianist Mike Garson has said.
“David really liked Lorde, and he felt like she was the future of music, and they had a few wonderful moments together,” Garson told fans during a Periscope Q&A.
Garson was explaining how Lorde came to be selected to perform the acclaimed tribute to Bowie at this year’s Brit awards. “She was the perfect choice,” he said. “Some of David’s family members and David’s management had some suggestions she’d be the right one. They wanted to bring the next generation in.”
The pair rehearsed in London and New York before the performance, in which Lorde performed Life on Mars with Bowie’s backing band. The performance met with the approval of Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, who tweeted afterwards that the tribute was “just … beautiful. Thank you.”
Garson said of Lorde’s performance: “It was an amazing, momentous experience, and she really did justice to him. She was so nervous. She actually said if she didn’t sing the song to David, she couldn’t have gotten through it.”
