John Kelly recalls interviewing David Bowie in 1999

If you want to know what art is, if you want to know what an artist is, look at David Bowie. If you want to know what art can achieve, there it is. Even in death.

There is almost no hint of how it would end on Bowie's latest album. Lyrically, yes, there is mortality there and on his previous album. But Blackstar sounds like a man musically in his prime, and the singing is incredible. The album is a marvel.

What was planned here, I think, was a parting gift, a parting statement. Bowie was always in total control. He understood art to the degree that he would have surely been aware of the impact of this final album. It’s a nice thought to think that while he was slipping away, all of his fans were sitting there with their headphones on, thinking, Ah, you’ve done it again! All those great thoughts about David Bowie were there in the atmosphere. And yet none of us fans knew.

I won’t speak about David Bowie as if we were friends, but I was very fortunate to meet him a few times. The first time, I ended up sitting beside him in someone’s garden at a party with some high-powered people at the table. I knew my place and kept my mouth shut, but I did manage, shyly and somewhat awestruck, to have a conversation with the person to my left, who happened to be Bowie.

Afterwards, when people asked me what was he like, I said, “Well, he looked exactly like David Bowie.” We were just two people having a really interesting conversation about music, about film, about what he was into at the time . . . and every so often I had to look up and do a double-take and remind myself that, yes, he has the crooked tooth, the different eyes that are David Bowie.

When I interviewed him for The Irish Times, he was absolutely charming and very polite, with a beaming smile – and he was a great mimic: he did my accent superbly.

He was inspirational, whether you were in the arts or not. It was all part of the time and effort he put in. He had such an active, artistic, creative mind: he studied, he learned how to do things. He was so plugged in with everything, and he was a magpie. Very often the music on his album would sound like what the new musical trend was going to be. He was a leader and smart enough to pick up on the atmosphere and the energies that were about.

If you saw Bowie live, from small shows that were remarkable one-off freak events to giant concerts, you realised what a singer he was: he had a big, big voice, and he was a great performer. I remember the show at the Factory in Dublin in 1997: to see him in that environment was amazing. He was playing Heroes, and it was like a school disco, except it was him up there. People were chatting and handing him up cigarettes. Maybe down to earth is not the phrase to use, but he was such pleasant company. In that position, he wasn't a rock star, with the distance that that creates.

What a life; what an achievement. To leave all that behind – that’s got to be the reward. If you want to know what art is about and what the point of it all is, there it is. Don’t let anyone tell you that art doesn’t matter, when you have grown men and women in tears with this news.