Local Musicians Remember Late Artist David Bowie

It’s a sad day in the music world.

David Bowie dies of cancer at the age of 69.

A statement from the family says Bowie was battling cancer for 18 months before his passing Sunday night.

Local musicians were shocked to hear about the iconic singer’s death.

This is a big loss for the music industry and for the world.

David Bowie was a music icon that influenced many, even right here in the Red River Valley.

“Another great legend is gone. You know, you never see it coming,” says local musician Alex Johnson.

Johnson who works at Junk Giant, like many others found out about David Bowie’s passing through social media.

Johnson explains,”At first I woke up this morning and got a text from my brother, he was just like ‘Dude did you hear about David Bowie?’ I was like ‘Yeah, I did. It’s too bad.’ I then got on Facebook and all my friends, every single one of them were posting tribute songs, all their favorite songs, just acknowledge how much influence he had on all of us, one way or another.”

For Johnson, this gave him a new appreciation for Bowie’s music.

But for his boss who is a lifelong Bowie fan, this rocked his world.

“My partner she came to bed and said that David Bowie passed away. I got really emotional for a minute. It’s kind of a strange experience for me,” says record store, Junk Giant owner,Aaron Swinkels.

Swinkels, is remembering the late artist by playing his music all day.

“Life’s a journey and David Bowie definitely made a journey out of his music as well. So you know, you’re never the same person as you started out being and people could really see that really well in his music,” says Swinkels.

People everywhere are talking about Bowie.

For customers of this record shop, he’s in high demand.

Swinkels says, “We work really hard to find Bowie albums that are in playable conditions. So many people are interested. So many people can relate to it. Bowie’s probably our number one or number two asked for artist.”

As heartbreaking as the news may come, for this die hard fan, to him, Bowie’s music will be timeless.

Swinkels adds,”Just because someone moves on from this world, that’s the neat thing about it is that the music lives on forever.”

Bowie released his last album “Blackstar” on January 8th, sharing music with his fans one last time.