David Bowie 75th Birthday Celebration Set For Next Month

A live-streaming 75th birthday celebration is set for January 8th saluting the late-David Bowie. A Bowie Celebration, will take place via RollingLiveStudios.com will and feature performance and appearances by Def Leppard, Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Living Colour, Gary Oldman, Rob Thomas, Walk The Moon, Jake Wesley Rogers, Ricky Gervais, and Evan Rachel Wood.

Rolling Stone reported the event, which will be dedicated to photographer Mick Rock, will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bowie's 1986 film Labyrinth and feature an appearance by Brian Henson, son of the legendary Jim Henson.

The house band for the event will feature legendary Bowie sidemen and bandmates, including Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Charlie Sexton, Alan Childs, Steve Elson, Mark Guiliana, Omar Hakim, Stan Harrison, Tim Lefebvre, Gerry Leonard, and Carmine Rojas.

Backing vocalists will include Gail Ann Dorsey, Bernard Fowler, Judith Hill, Gaby Moreno, Gretchen Parlato, and Sting's son, Joe Sumner.

Long-time fan, and Def Leppard frontman, Joe Elliott, who'll perform in the tribute show, told us David Bowie's 1980 Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) album inspired most of the music that came out of Britain throughout the remainder of the decade: “When you take the Scary Monsters period, which was probably Bowie's' last big artistic statement, because with Let's Dance, I think it just became a commercial — I wouldn't say 'sell out' — but it was a commercial success he never achieved in the past. But it was more based on 'normal'; all of a sudden, Bowie's wearing a tie and a suit and bleachin' his hair blonde and having it short. But Scary Monsters, with things like 'Ashes To Ashes' — you can see where Duran Duran got a lot of their stuff from, and even Spandau Ballet, who would come later on.”

David Bowie, who died in 2006 at the age of 69, never shied away from allowing influences from any era and genre to creep into his work — although later in life he admitted he was a bit more subtle at wearing them on his sleeve: “People like Sonic Youth and Frank Black were major influences on me in the '80s, when I was singing and working on stuff that, really, I was indifferent to. What I was actually doing was going home and listening to the Pixies and Sonic Youth, but that's how life is. But I got wise — I wised up — and now I just do what I want to do.”