David Bowie Shot Down a Coldplay Collaboration: "It's Not a Very Good Song, Is It?"

The members of Coldplay fancy themselves big David Bowie fans, but in a recent interview, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion talk about how Bowie may not have been their biggest fan, once saying "It's not a very good song, is it?"

NME is awarding Coldplay its Godlike Genius Award at the 2016 NME awards to be hosted Feb. 17 at O2 Academy, Brixton, London, and for the lead-up to the show, spoke with the band.

Bucklan and Champion revealed that they, along with frontman Chris Martin, once had an idea to collaborate with Bowie on a song Coldplay wrote, featuring a character they though perfect for Bowie to play.

So Martin wrote the pop icon a letter, hoping he'd be willing to join up as one of the characters on the three-part song. But, smiling about it now, Champion said Bowie came back and remarked, "It's not a very good song, is it?"

There don't seem to be any hard feelings over the mater; Champion saw it more as an example of how particular Bowie was with his image and how to present his art.

"He was very discerning - he wouldn't just put his name to anything," Champion said. "I'll give him credit for that."

The Coldplay drummer had some nice words to say about the legacy Bowie leaves behind as well.

"When you have any involvement in music he was one of the points of reference for absolutely everything, for genres and for how to be a rockstar or a popstar or whatever it was. Completely defining that," Champion said. "So for musicians it's quite disorienting."

Coldplay is currently on tour in support of its critically lambasted but commercially acclaimed album A Head Full Of Dreams, which will bring the band to the Super Bowl 50 stage on Feb. 7 with a special appearance from Beyoncé.

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Coldplay, David Bowie