When David Bowie almost worked with Prince…

David Bowie in the new Uncut

David Bowie is on the cover of the October 2025 issue of Uncut. The issue comes wrapped with a giant Map Of Bowie’s America and a stunning Collectors’ Cover.

For the cover story, meanwhile, Bowie’s long-serving producer Tony Visconti reveals all about the making of Heathen – Bowie’s first album of the 21st century and one critical in establishing working practices that continued for the rest of his career.

Among the many stories and insights, Visconti reveals that Prince was approached to play on Heathen. Here’s what happened…

“There was talk of getting Prince on the record…”

“Pete Townshend came to the studio to record his part for ‘Slow Burn’ at Philip Glass’s studio in New York,” Visconti tells us.

“In fact, Philip played a little bit on the album as well, he added a bit of piano but not a lot; he’s not a Rachmaninoff sort of guy. Pete added some windmill chords. We had the track ‘5.15 The Angels Have Gone’. I don’t know if that was a homage to The Who, but I played guitar on that and also doubled my bass part.

“I know there was talk of getting Prince on the record, but negotiations broke down.

“You had to call Paisley Park and hope somebody answered because Prince had banned outgoing international calls to save money. Nobody ever answered.

“David did have a meeting with Prince once. They were in a studio or maybe at an awards ceremony.

“David was told, ‘Prince would like to meet you.’ David said OK and was taken to another room. It was a very dark room, that was more like a hallway and at top of the steps was this huge bodyguard, about seven feet tall and all muscle.

“David apologised, thinking he was in the wrong place, then behind this man a little head popped out and said, ‘Hello, David!’ It was Prince!”

Heathen is released as part of the box set I Can’t Give Everything Away, 2002–2016 is released on September 12 by Parlophone.

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As well as the making of Heathen, our cover story also previews the upcoming David Bowie Centre at the V&A East Storehouse, which opens on September 13.