One article said he attended AA regularly, while living in NYC. He died from liver cancer.
I have lost friends that way. I also have a BIL that had a successful transplant.
Makes me wonder, why Bowie never got a transplant? Probably technical medical reason, maybe the six heart attacks. Maybe his age.
There are more clean and sober celebrity performers than you hear about, since they observe the second A, which is "anonymity."
Many remain sober continuously (oldest Beatle Ringo Starr and his beautiful wife Barbara Bach, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Williams, Eric Clapton, Robert Downey Jr. to name a few) and some have relapses (Stephen Tyler, Mel Gibson, Nick Nolte etc.). And some never really get it together as far as the "recovery" thing goes (Whitney Houston, Amy Whitehouse).