David Bowie wanted ‘Peaky Blinders’ to use songs from ‘Blackstar’ on the show

The new Peaky Blinders movie, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, is in select theaters now and will debut on Netflix Friday. To coincide with the release, its star Cillian Murphy has shared his choices for the ultimate Peaky Blinders playlist, and that includes“Lazarus” from David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar.

It turns out, Bowie had a real connection to the series, which debuted on Netflix in 2014, and always wanted his music to be a part of it.

In a interview posted to Instagram, Murphy says Bowie was “a very early advocate of the TV show,” noting, “He loved it from the start when many people didn’t.”

“I worked with him briefly in the year before he died and we’d spoke about it,” he says. “He told me how much he loved it and then I sent him the cap that I wear in series 1 with the razor blade in it and everything. And he sent me back a picture of him wearing it, which I treasure.”

Murphy says after Bowie died in 2016, they found out he had wanted songs from Blackstar to be used in the show.

“We were all like speechless and just kind of overwhelmed and just beyond moved,” Murphy says. “And then we tried to use them in a fitting way and I think that it really works.”

Also included on Murphy’s playlist is Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” Murphy notes “you could draw some line” between his character Tommy Shelby and Ozzy Osbourne. “Kind of rebels, both of them,” he says.

The list also includes songs by Sinéad O’Connor, Leonard Cohen and Radiohead Thom Yorke.

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