David Bowie 1999
 In 1998, David Bowie had reunited with Tony Visconti to record a song for The Rugrats Movie called (Safe In This) Sky Life. Although the track was edited out of the final cut, and did not feature on the film's soundtrack album, the reunion led to the pair pursuing a new collaborative effort. (Safe In This) Sky Life was later re-recorded and released as a single b-side in 2002 where it was retitled Safe. Amongst their earliest work together in this period, was a reworking of Placebo's track Without You I'm Nothing from the album of the same name - Visconti overseeing the additional production required when Bowie's harmonised vocal was added to the original version for a strictly limited edition single release.
1999 found Bowie composing the soundtrack for a computer game called Omikron: The Nomad Soul. David Bowie and his wife, Iman, made appearances as characters in the game. That same year, re-recorded tracks from the game and new music was released in the album 'hours...' featured What's Really Happening, the lyrics for which were written by Alex Grant, the winner of Bowie's Cyber Song Contest Internet competition. This album presented Bowie's exit from heavy electronica, with an emphasis on more live instruments, and, through songs like Thursday's Child and Survive, a thematic move into Bowie's sense of his own aging and sentimentalism. After this album, Bowie's guitarist, Reeves Gabrels, quit working with Bowie, feeling that the music was becoming too soft.
Plans surfaced after the release of 'hours...' for an album titled Toy, which would feature new versions of some of Bowie's earliest pieces as well as three new songs. Sessions for the album commenced in 2000, but the album was never released, leaving a number of tracks, some as yet unheard, on the editing floor.
In October 2001 Bowie opened The Concert for New York City with a cover of Paul Simon's America performed on omnichord and then launched into a rocking version of Heroes dedicated to his local ladder. Also in 2001 he made two guest appearances on the Rustic Overtones album Viva Nueva!.
Bowie and Visconti continued collaboration with the production of a new album of completely original songs instead.The result of the sessions was the 2002 album Heathen, notable for its dark and atmospheric sound and Bowie's largest chart success in recent years. Heathen was nominated for the 2002 Mercury Prize and included a cover of the Pixies song Cactus, which was another offshoot of Bowie's consistent interest in the band. Singles for Slow Burn (which featured guitar by Bowie's old friend, Pete Townshend), I've Been Waiting for You, and Everyone Says 'Hi' were released along with numerous B-sides featuring pieces from the Toy sessions and Safe, a reworking of Sky Life. The songs Afraid and Uncle Floyd (retitled Slip Away) from Toy were also released as album tracks as songs reminiscent of an earlier style.
In 2003, a report in the Sunday Express named Bowie as the second-richest entertainer in the UK (behind Sir Paul McCartney), with an estimated fortune of ?510 million. However, the 2005 Sunday Times Rich List credited him with a little over ?100 million.
In September 2003, Bowie released a new album, Reality, and announced a world tour. 'A Reality Tour' was the best-selling tour of the following year. However, it was cut short after Bowie suffered chest pain while performing on stage in the northwestern German town of Schee?el on June 25, 2004. Originally thought to be a pinched nerve in his shoulder, the pain was later diagnosed as an acutely blocked artery; an emergency angioplasty was performed at St. Georg Hospital in Hamburg by Dr Karl Heinz Kuck.
He was discharged in early July 2004 and continued to spend time recovering. Bowie later admitted he had suffered a minor heart attack, resulting from years of heavy smoking and touring. The tour was cancelled for the time being, with hopes that he would go back on tour by August, though this did not materialise. He recuperated back in New York City.
In October 2004, Bowie released a live DVD of the tour, entitled A Reality Tour of his performances in Dublin, Ireland on 22 November and 23 November 2003, which included songs spanning the full length of Bowie's career, although mostly focusing on his more recent albums.
During the tour, Bowie was hit in the eye with a lollipop stick while performing in Oslo, Norway. Bowie was reported to have stopped the concert and to have yelled You fucking wanker! You little fucker! at the lollipop thrower. He later resumed the concert and apologised to the crowd for his response.
Still recuperating from his operation, Bowie worked off-stage and relaxed from studio work for the first time in several years. In 2004, a duet of his classic song Changes with Butterfly Boucher appeared in Shrek 2. The soundtrack for the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou featured David Bowie songs performed in Portuguese by cast member Seu Jorge (who adapted the lyrics to make them relevant to the film's story). Most of the David Bowie songs featured in the film were originally from David Bowie (Deram), Space Oddity, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Diamond Dogs. Bowie commented, Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs acoustically in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with.
Despite hopes for a comeback, in 2005 David Bowie announced that he had made no plans for any performances during the year. After a relatively quiet year, Bowie recorded the vocals for the song (She Can) Do That, co-written by Brian Transeau, for the movie Stealth. Rumours flew about the possibility of a new album, but no announcements were made. In April 2005, film writer and director Darren Aronofsky revealed Bowie was working on a rock opera adaptation of the comic book Watchmen.
David Bowie finally returned to the stage on September 8, 2005, alongside Arcade Fire, for the nationally televised event Fashion Rocks, his first gig since the heart attack. Bowie has shown interest in the Montreal band since he was seen at one of their shows in New York City nearly a year earlier. Bowie had requested the band to perform at the show, and together they performed the Arcade Fire's song Wake Up from their album Funeral, as well as Bowie's own Five Years. He joined them again on September 15, 2005, singing Queen Bitch and Wake Up from Central Park's Summerstage as part of the CMJ Music Marathon.
Bowie contributed back-up vocals for TV on the Radio's song Province from their album Return to Cookie Mountain. He made other occasional appearances, as in his commercial with Snoop Dogg for XM Satellite Radio. He appeared on Danish alt-rockers Kashmir's 2005 release, No Balance Palace, which was produced by Tony Visconti. The album also featured a spoken word performance by Lou Reed, making it the second project involving both Bowie and Reed in two years, since Reed's 2003 The Raven.
On February 8, 2006, David Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In November, Bowie performed at the Black Ball in New York for the Keep a Child Alive Foundation alongside his wife, Iman, and Alicia Keys. He duetted with Keys on Changes, and also performed Wild is the Wind and Fantastic Voyage.
For 2006, Bowie once again announced a break from performance, but he made a surprise guest appearance at David Gilmour's May 29, 2006 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He sang Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb, closing the concert. The former performance was released, on December 26, as a single.
It was announced that in May 2007 Bowie would curate the High Line Festival in the abandoned railway park in New York called the High Line where he would select various musicians and artists to perform.
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