SXSW Co-Founder Roland Swenson Admits to Placing David Bowie Street Sign in Austin

Music legend David Bowie died Jan. 10 of liver cancer. In the week since, there has been an outpouring of emotions from fans and those in the music industry, including a curious street sign in Austin. Now, SXSW co-founder Roland Swenson has admitted to being responsible for pasting a sticker reading with the "Lazarus" singer's name over a street sign on Bowie St. in downtown Austin.

According to Billboard, various Austin publications were sent a .GIF in an email that showed two men switching the sign, but no one immediately admitted responsibility. The second culprit was Jason Carter, owner of Austin's Wicked Signs, who designed the sticker.

"After Bowie passed away this week, I thought to myself, 'We'll never have Bowie at SXSW, but we can still have David Bowie Street,'" Swenson said in a statement.

Through their attorneys, the two told KEYE TV CBS in Austin they were "paying tribute to a great musician" and there was "never any intent to vandalize anything or waste any of the city's resources."

Despite it technically being vandalism, the city has agreed to leave the sign up until Jan. 19 in honor of Bowie. Swenson also has plans to file a petition to rename the street permanently; one recently posted now has more than 3,000 signatures.

Bowie's album Blackstar was released Jan. 8, the star's 69th birthday -- just two days before his death --made its chart debut at No. 1 on Billboard's 200. It was not the only album he planned to release before his death -- Bowie's longtime friend and producer Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone the artist planned to release another album before his death.

"At that late stage, he was planning the follow-up to Blackstar," Visconti said. "And I was thrilled and I thought, and he thought, that he'd have a few months at least. Obviously, if he's excited about doing his next album, he must've thought he had a few more months. So the end must've been very rapid. I'm not privy to it. I don't know exactly, but he must've taken ill very quickly after that phone call."

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David Bowie, SXSW