After being placed in an induced coma for two weeks following his positive diagnosis for COVID-19, Matthew Seligman suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke on April 17.
- Apr 20, 2020
AceShowbiz - David Bowie's former bassist Matthew Seligman has died at the age of 64, after losing his battle with the coronavirus.
The musician had been in an induced coma for two weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, and suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke on Friday (April 17) which ultimately claimed his life.
News of his death was announced on Facebook by his longtime friend and fellow musician Thomas Dolby, who shared a picture of Seligman alongside lyrics from his song "I Love You Goodbye", which read, "Some words are sad to sing. Some leave me tongue-tied. But the hardest words I know are I love you goodbye."
Seligman was most famous for his work with Bowie, playing bass during the late musician's 1985 "Live Aid" performance, as well as on the soundtrack for his 1986 movie "Labyrinth". He was also a member of rock band the Soft Boys, with the group's frontman Robyn Hitchcock remembering Seligman in an emotional Facebook post.
"Everybody goes, but none of us were expecting Matthew to leave us so abruptly, forever. It is strange and very sad to be talking of him in the past tense," he wrote. "I first met Matthew in 1976 in Cambridge, just before the beginning of the Soft Boys. He had nice dark hair and was very charming, with a slight break in his voice. A joyous and funky bass player, he made Underwater Moonlight an exuberant LP to record and listen to. His manic bass run at the end of Insanely Jealous and his stately propeller dive into the last chorus of the title track, as well as the insistent groove he brought to Kingdom of Love are some of the finest bass playing I have ever witnessed."
Following the end of his music career, Seligman retrained to become a lawyer, working on personal injury and litigation cases before moving onto human rights.
He is survived by son Deji, daughter Lily, and his partner Mami Kanai.
