Huge Bowie fan laments losing one of his 'heroes'

Jeff Burke got hooked on David Bowie the first time he saw him in the early 1970s.

He would go on to see the British rocker in concert about 30 times, and is surely among his biggest fans.

Bowie died Sunday at 69, just two days after releasing his latest album, “Blackstar.”

For Burke, who has owned and operated the Record Connection store in Niles for 35 years, today was a sad day.

“I am out of sorts,” he said in a phone interview as he worked in his Pine Tree Plaza shop. “It’s like losing a good friend. ... He was one of my heroes.”

Burke recalled the first time he saw Bowie.

“It was in 1972 or ’73, at Music Hall [in Cleveland] for the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ tour,” he said. “I got hooked and then started buying his albums. The next show I saw was at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. I had red hair at the time, and I puffed it up and combed it back just like him for that show. We had seats in the second row, dead center."

For the complete story, read Tuesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com