Rolling Stone eulogy by Bono describes how David Bowie was the reason to have a colour TV

In a special eulogy to David Bowie, U2 frontman Bono recognised the late musician's immense talent and stage personality saying: "I've played at being a rock and roll star, but I'm really not one. David Bowie is my idea of a rock star." Bono who was writing in from Myanmar said he was cut off from the reaction to Bowie's passing, but "I can assure you the sky is a lot darker here without the Starman".

In the write-up, which features in Rolling Stone's Bowie special issue, Bono recollects his first glimpse of the Life On Mars? singer: "He was so vivid. So luminous. So fluorescent. We had one of the first colour TVs on our street, and David Bowie was the reason to have a colour TV."

Talking about his personal relationship with Ziggy Stardust, Bono said: "I'd like to consider myself David's friend, but I'm more of a fan.

"Over Christmas, my oldest daughter Jordan and I were listening to Blackstar a lot. David met her when she was two. He called her "Pixie," and she's been a lifelong Bowie fan."

Referring to Bowie's last album Blackstar as being more art than populism, the With Or Without You singer explained how for a performer or songwriter, thoughts and feelings are currency but few manage to create a truly original musical landscape.

"Bowie's musical landscape affected you in a way that is completely different from all the other music around it. You have to close your eyes, imagine you don't speak English and just feel the songs and say, "What part of me is being played by those notes?" Or "Who else plays them?

"And in his case, the answer is nobody. That part of me is only played by David Bowie. So that part of me is now a void — I have to find other ways to wake it up. But it woke me up when I was 14."

In his eulogy, he also described Bowie's negative review of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, a musical Bono produced with his bandmate The Edge. "He sent me the reasons he didn't like it. And everything he said was really helpful."

The February issue of Rolling Stones also features a tribute by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor who talks of how Bowie helped him get sober. Remembering a conversation with the music icon, Reznor said, "There were a number of times where the two of us were alone, and he said some things that weren't scolding, but pieces of wisdom that stuck with me: "You know, there is a better way here, and it doesn't have to end in despair or in death, in the bottom.""

David Bowie passed away on 10 January following an 18-month battle with cancer.