David Bowie wasn’t ready to go “Ashes to Ashes” when he died suddenly from liver cancer in 2016 at 69.
In fact, the rock legend was looking forward to the future in his final conversation with longtime producer Tony Visconti just before he died.
Visconti — who first worked with Bowie in 1968 until producing his final album, 2016’s Grammy-winning “Blackstar” — shares that the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer still had big hopes, dreams and plans.
“He said, ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’ And he was whispering to me on the phone,” Visconti, 80, exclusively told The Post. “I said, ‘I can’t hear you. Speak up!’
“He goes into another room, and he says, ‘I’m going to be a grandfather.’”
Indeed, Bowie was blissfully anticipating the birth of his first grandchild from Duncan Jones, his son with first wife Angie Bowie.
Sadly, Bowie — who died on Jan. 10, 2016, just two days after “Blackstar” was released — wouldn’t live to meet his grandson, Stenton David Jones, who was named after the artist born David Jones.
Nor did Bowie, speaking to Visconti in the days before his death, fulfill the musical mission of finishing one more album.
“He told me that he was going to make another album he started writing,” said Visconti. “And I said, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to hear,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, well, right after we get over the holidays, we’ll get together, and I’ll let you hear the music.’ But that was the last time I ever heard from him.”
It was a bittersweet ending to a longtime relationship that began between the Brooklyn-born Visconti and the British Bowie in the ‘60s.
“We met as friends, we were introduced to each other, and I liked him very much, and he loved American music,” said Visconti. “And to my knowledge, I was the first American he ever met because I was living in London then.”
Visconti would go on to produce Bowie’s 1969 self-titled album and 1970’s “The Man Who Sold the World” before returning for his 1975 soul-man makeover “Young Americans.”
“It’s the one that that people were not expecting. It’s the odd man out, I would say, of all the albums he’s ever made,” said Visconti of the classic LP that is being celebrated with two new reissues as it turns 50 this month.
“He didn’t want to repeat himself. And he sometimes changed at the expense of having a few flop records. So he wasn’t always right, but he did feel that he had to change.”
And “Young Americans” — featuring Bowie’s first No. 1 US hit “Fame” — is part of the reason that the rock god will live forever.
“I don’t like to think about him dying at all, because, you know, he’s so vibrant, and he’s still alive in spirit and his music,” said Visconti.
“Generations are going to grow up and rediscover him, his records will keep selling and selling, and young kids will discover and be inspired by him.”
