Reuters - July 12, 2004

Bowie Has Heart Surgery, Back Home Recovering

(LA)


British rock legend David Bowie underwent emergency heart surgery for a blocked artery last month but is now recovering and hopes to return to work in August, his publicist said on Thursday.

Bowie, 57, sought treatment in a German hospital on June 25 after complaining of a pinched nerve during a European concert tour, publicist Mitch Schneider said in a statement.

He underwent an angioplasty operation for an acutely blocked artery and was able to leave the clinic earlier this week. He is now convalescing at home with his family and hopes to start work next month.

"I'm so pissed off because the last 10 months of this tour have been so... fantastic. Can't wait to be fully recovered and get back to work again. I tell you what, though, I won't be writing a song about this one," Bowie said in the statement.

Only two days before the surgery, Bowie had been forced to cut short a concert in Prague after playing for an hour and telling fans he had nerve problems in is shoulder.

London-born Bowie has been one of Britain's most enduring and fascinating rock stars since his break-out hit "Space Oddity" in the early 1970s.

He reinvented himself as many times as Madonna, changing from the glam-rock androgynous "Ziggy Stardust" persona in 1972 to "Aladdin Sane" in 1973 and on to the elegant Thin White Duke in the late 1970s. Songs like "Golden Years," "Changes" and "Let's Dance" made him a hit in both Britain and the United States. In 1992 he married Somalian supermodel Iman and the couple has a young child.



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