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Bowie had heart attack
By DEREK BROWN
ROCK king David Bowie suffered a heart attack during a concert, it emerged last night.
The star, 57, fell ill as he performed in Germany and doubled up in agony backstage.
He was rushed to hospital where surgeons performed an emergency operation on an acutely-blocked artery.
It was originally claimed the South London-born star had suffered a trapped nerve during the show in Scheesel last month.
But an insider on his aborted European tour said: "That's codswallop.
"He actually suffered a heart attack backstage and had to be rushed to a specialist. The heart surgery wasn't routine. It was a lot more serious than anyone is letting on."
Bowie has since been recovering at his New York home with his supermodel wife Iman, 48, and daughter Alexandria, three.
Did golden years catch
up with Ziggy Stardust?
DAVID Bowie is finally paying the price for nearly 20 years of drug and booze-fuelled excess, doctors believe.
Throughout the '70s Bowie seemed to have the magic touch and as hit followed hit he was hailed as the saviour of pop music.
From the glam rock of Ziggy Stardust, through the supercharged soul of Golden Years, to synthesizer anthems like Heroes - he could do no wrong.
But Bowie wasn't just riding high in the charts.
Behind the scenes he was becoming increasingly dependent on heroin, cocaine and alcohol.
In a recent TV interview he admitted: "By the mid-70s I was so out of my gourd that it was nigh on impossible for me to function in any rational way."
Bowie told how addiction had left his memory "like a Swiss cheese," adding: "I have unbelievable holes in my memory."
He revealed how he cannot remember the words to his hits and in concert has lyrics perched on a music stand.
Bowie, who also smoked heavily, finally weaned himself off drugs and booze in the mid-80s.
In a recent documentary the London-born star said he was thankful he escaped from his drug years relatively unscathed.
He added: "It's a dangerous thing to say, but it's true in my case. I crawled out of it all and got away with it."
But doctors now believe his heart attack may be a direct result of the hammering his body took during those years.
Sun doctor Carol Cooper said: "Drugs cause heart muscle to deteriorate and can bring on coronary disease at a younger age.
"Sadly there is nothing David Bowie can do now to reverse the effects of the drugs he took."
Bowie has told how he first dabbled with drugs during the '60s as he struggled to make a name for himself as a musician.
But he started to become hooked on cocaine after he found stardom with the albums Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.
His American wife Angie, who he had wed in 1970, also spiralled into addiction.
Bowie, dubbed rock's chameleon for the way he changed both musical and fashion styles, had soon moved on to heroin.
By 1976 his addiction had taking its toll on his looks - and his skeletal appearance earned him the nickname the Thin White Duke.
Around this time he told an interviewer: "I suppose I've been knocking on heaven's door for about 11 years now."
By the mid-1980s he was starting to clean-up.
He quit drugs and booze, although he chainsmoked for a further 20 years.
In 1992 he married Somalian model Iman. The couple have a three-year-old daughter.
In recent years Bowie has tried in vain to reignite the songwriting spark that once allowed him to dominate the charts.
But fans have still flocked to see the master live. Now doctors say he may never tour again.
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