Nile Rodgers had terrifying premonition about George Michael two days before death
Music legend Nile Rodgers has opened up about working with George Michael in the days before his death.
The producer, writer and guitarist had been working on the former Wham! singer’s documentary George Michael: Freedom, as well as new music.
After the programme aired last night Nile took to Twitter to share a photograph he took the last time he saw the singer.
He had visited the house on 23rd December, barely 36 hours before the star’s death.
As he arrived at the house a funeral procession passed in front of his car.
He wrote: “This a photo I snapped whilst waiting to turn on the street to go to @GeorgeMichael house on Dec 23 2016. Was this some kind of omen? #tears” he wrote after watching last night’s George Michael: Freedom documentary.
Explaining his heartbreaking premonition, he wrote: “I’ve never shared this series of snaps. It’s too emotional and strange. The entire confluences of events over those two days defy explanation.”
George was found dead less than two days later on Christmas Day, aged 53.
The postmortem found he had heart disease, myocarditis, inflammation of the heart wall and a fatty liver, as well as dilated cardiomyopathy.
Nile said the Wham! star had a profound impact on his life and work.
“I could not believe how much listening to @GeorgeMichael right there in his home touched me so much. He was truly an artist,” he said, admitting that back then he’d been too busy to see the depths of George’s talent.
“I can say that life was moving so fast for me then, it was often hard to see what was right in front of me. I knew George was great but OMG,”he added.
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Speaking to Diffuser FM earlier this year, Nile said: “On December 23rd [of 2016], I am at his house finishing up my work on the film and I leave to come back home on the 24th.
“Well, on Christmas Day we were supposed to speak and I get an alert on my phone that George Michael was found dead. It didn’t make any sense.
“It felt like one day to me that we hadn’t spoken and he was gone. It was shocking, it was alarming.
“After cancer I decided I wanted to chronicle my life better so I started taking more pictures on my cell phone.
“There is a photograph I took when I was approaching George Michael’s house on the 23rd.
“Before we made the last turn to go down his street, there was a funeral procession coming out of his street.
“At the time, I didn’t make anything of it other than photographing this tradition of the English to have a horse pull the casket.
“In retrospect it is spooky. I keep thinking about it. All of this impacts me artistically.
“I have been working on music thinking about these people as I do.”
Since his death, dozens of people have opened up about the singer’s extraordinary generosity and anonymous philanthropy.
The star is be buried next to his mother, in highgate Cemetery, in the burial plot he bought when she died in 1997.
