David Bowie has offered to write original songs for Claudia Lennear according to the backing singer, who is one of the classic vocalists featured in the Oscar winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom. Four decades after she is rumoured to have inspired his song Lady Grinning Soul, Lennear claims that her and Bowie will work together on a new project.

"I got a call from David Bowie out of the blue two days ago," Lennear told the New York Post earlier this week. "I couldn't believe it when I first heard his voice. We haven't seen each other in 20 years ... He told me he wanted to write my next project."

Lennear, who is now in her 60s, was at one time a sought-after back-up singer, performing with stars like George Harrison, Ike and Tina Turner, and Joe Cocker. She was romantically linked with Bowie as well as Mick Jagger, and is said to have inspired the Rolling Stones song Brown Sugar. But although Lennear released one solo album, 1973's Phew!, she never became famous in her own right, and eventually quit the music industry.

Now however, Lennear's star is on the rise. 20 Feet From Stardom won this year's Oscar for best documentary feature and Jagger reportedly wants to turn the film into both a Broadway musical and a scripted TV series. "This is bringing so many gifts back from my past," Lennear told the Post. While she said she has yet to decide how to move forward with her "next project", "I will definitely hold David [Bowie] to his promise."

No further comment has been given by Bowie at this stage. The Next Day, David Bowie's first studio album since 2003, was released last year.