Coldplay have revealed that the late David Bowie once turned down the chance to collaborate with them because he felt the track the band had sent him for consideration was "not a very good song."
The band told NME that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin wrote Bowie a letter asking if he would consider singing on a song, which they say featured a "David Bowie-type character".
Drummer Will Champion said that Bowie replied, "It's not a very good song, is it?" Champion said the band tried not to be too fazed by the rejection. "He was very discerning - he wouldn't just put his name to anything. I'll give him credit for that!"
Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland said: "I felt incredibly sad when I heard David Bowie had died. We've all loved his music for as long as we've known about music."
Champion added: "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. So for musicians, it's quite disorienting."
Coldplay, who released their "farewell album" A Head Full of Dreams last year, recently picked up NME's Godlike Genius Award.
