Legendary British Singer David Bowie Dies
BOLDUAN: Everyone remembering, thinking back to their favorite Bowie songs. It's a shocking headline to wake up to. David Bowie dead at 69 after a battle with cancer. News of his illness came as a surprise to many. A post on his Facebook page said that he had passed away surrounded by his family.</s>BERMAN: Truly one of the all-time greats, a visionary writer, musician, performer. And with every success -- you saw it on the screen there -- came reinvention. Nearly 50 years in the business and he was still creating right up until the end. His final album released Friday. He collaborated in an off-Broadway musical as well. I want to talk about David Bowie and the contribution he made. Joining us now, film critic, writer, columnist, Kurt Loder, also a long-time editor at "Rolling Stone." You talked to David Bowie many times.</s>KURT LODER, FILM CRITIC, WRITER & COLUMNIST & FORMER EDITOR, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE: We interacted over the years many times. He's a very interesting guy, very intelligent and very, very consumed with music. He knew the history of music really well. And music was his life. His enthusiasm for it and his authenticity was really moving. A cheerful guy, loved art, loved movies.</s>BERMAN: We talk about all the changes he made. We talk about all the songs he made. Was he aware of his role, his sort of position in our culture?</s>LODER: I'm sure he was aware to it, right down to the ground. He was aware of media. He used media really well. We remember all the various guises he went through and how he changed things around as a culture. But I think the basic thing about him was he wrote great songs, made great records. Had 27 albums over the course of 50 years. The remarkable thing about them is how remarkable so many of them were. They are classics.</s>BOLDUAN: You talk about he was good at writing music, making music, but he also had -- a lot of people talk after folks pass about their impact on their industry and culture, but he really did. He changed things.</s>LODER: He really did. Starting with the glam rock thing, moving up through sort of taking the euro synthesizer thing, blending it with punk. The really interesting thing about him, I think, everybody misses someone whose music they grow up with, but David Bowie wasn't a relic of an earlier era. He released one of his most probing records three days ago. It is one of the most experimental albums he's ever done. The opening track "Blackstar" is just astonishing.</s>BERMAN: I have to admit I have not had a chance to listen to it, but so many people are talking about it. When you hear this new album that he wrote, you know, at 68 years old, because his birthday was Friday also, do you hear in the album the knowledge from David Bowie that he knew he was about to die?</s>LODER: You get the feeling, I think, from the second video he did. It starts out with him in a hospital bed. You sort of get -- for the past 12 years since he had a heart attack on stage at a festival in Germany, and he never performed again, you knew something was going on. He strictly did music. And I think for this album he just stopped into a jazz club in New York one night, saw some guys playing, some really known jazz guys, and said, let's make this record and brought them in. He's very open to experimentation and I assume he's always writing.</s>BERMAN: What do you miss most?</s>LODER: What do I miss most?</s>BERMAN: What will you miss most?</s>LODER: Fortunately, he left all the records behind. All the music is still here. He's gone. It's a shame that we won't see new things. He was still doing new things but all the great things are still here.</s>BERMAN: Kurt Loder, thanks for coming in.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: It's great to talk to someone who actually spent time with David Bowie and got to know him firsthand. Appreciate it.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you. Coming up, could Sean Penn face legal trouble? That's the key question for a secret meeting for one of the world's most-wanted fugitives. We have new video in of what el Chapo told the actor before that drug lord's capture. We'll be right back.