Did David Bowie Fake His Death?

It’s down-the-rabbit-hole time again! 

On January 10, 2016, the world was shocked to learn that singer-actor David Bowie had died from liver cancer in his New York City apartment, just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his album Blackstar. 

Bowie left a wife — his second — former supermodel Iman, and two children. His daughter with Iman will be 16 this August.

We are told Bowie had been diagnosed 18 months earlier, but kept his illness a secret. Nor did he look like he was dying in his last public appearance on Dec. 7, 2015, about a month before his death, at the opening night of his off-Broadway musical, Lazarus.

A day after he died, on January 11, 2016, as reported by Carl Greenwood for the Daily Mirror, “Fans of David Bowie were left confused after a ‘lookalike’ appeared on television to pay tribute.”

The doppelgänger is Jack Steven, a music industry executive of Fortress Music, who appeared on Sky News in a panel discussion on Bowie’s legacy.

A viewer, Ned Simons, tweeted: “This guy on Sky News talking about David Bowie looks a lot like David Bowie.” Another tweeted: “Haha, Jack’s a lovely chap, but yes looks exactly like the man!”

Here are side-by-side pics of David Bowie (left) and Jack Steven (right):

Here’s Jack Steven on Sky TV:

Oddly, neither woman on the panel made note of Steven’s uncanny resemblance to Bowie.

Let’s compare the two men’s voices. Here’s David Bowie in his last interview:

The disposition of Bowie’s body is also interesting.

Tom Bryant reports for the Daily Mirror, Jan. 14, 2016, that since Bowie’s death, “music lovers have been speculating about what plans the legendary showman had for his funeral. But unbeknown to his millions of fans around the world, his body was quietly cremated shortly after he died . . . without any of his family or friends present.” A source in New York told the Mirror that “There is no public or private service or a public memorial. There is nothing.”

Ostensibly, the reason for the secret cremation is that Bowie had told his family he wanted to “go without any fuss” and not have a funeral service or public memorial.

According to Daily Mirror, Bowie might have had a “direct cremation,” which is described on the New York State’s health department website as “the disposition of human remains by cremation without a formal viewing, visitation, or ceremony”. It is the cheapest way to dispose of a body, costing between $700 to $900. The deceased is generally collected from the place of death and transferred to the crematory. Once the required paperwork is done, they are then cremated. The remains are then generally returned to the family unless otherwise specified.

Ivo van Hove, the director of Bowie’s musical Lazarus, believes that the late singer’s album contains clues about his death.

Bowie died on a Sunday. In one song on the album, The Girl Loves Me, Bowie sings “where the f*** did Monday go?” Hove says: “I’m not sure if he planned his death, but it seems a bit too coincidental. I’ve got no evidence but I think he did. He certainly planned for Blackstar to be released when it did – his birthday.”

On his LinkedIn page, Jack Steven describes himself as the co-founder and CEO of the 3-year-old Fortress Music, with “more than 40 years experience in the music industry”. Before he co-founded Fortress Music, Steven was (and still is) the CEO of Kuba Entertainment since 1956. (That would make Steven 80 years old, assuming that he became CEO of Kuba when he was 20 years old.)

Oddly, for someone who has been a music industry executive for 60 years (CEO of Kuba since 1956), not only does Steven not look elderly, he has only two recommendations on his LinkedIn page, and both were made quite recently, in 2013.

To conclude, here are the clues that David Bowie may have faked his death:

1. Bowie has a reputation of being a chameleon — in music (“Chameleon of rock“), physical appearance, sexual orientation, and spiritual-religious beliefs.
2. He “timed” the release of his Blackstar album two days before he died.
3. His musical is called Lazarus, the name of the man whom Jesus raised from the dead.
4. His body was quickly cremated, without any family or friends present.
5. A man named Jack Steven, who is a Brit and in the music industry like Bowie, looks and sounds like Bowie, appears to be middle-aged like Bowie but has an employment history that would make him 80 years old.

What do you think?

~Eowyn