DAVID BOWIE IN ANONYMITY SINCE 2004

LOS ANGELES - David Bowie is spending his Golden Years in anonymity.

The 63-year-old rock icon last released a new album in 2003, and stopped touring in 2004 after suffering a heart attack during a European trek. The early Internet enthusiast has not even updated his official blog since October 2006, when he proudly revealed he would voice a character on the kids cartoon show "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Last year, he attended a few red-carpet events to help promote his son Duncan Jones' movie "Moon." But otherwise the musical chameleon seems to be savoring his latest metamorphosis into married father of a 9-year-old daughter in New York.

"He's just being Dad, I think, laying low," said bass player Gail Ann Dorsey, who started working with Bowie almost 15 years ago. "I can't imagine he's not writing or doing something, but we'll just have to wait and see."

Dorsey said she e-mailed him a birthday greeting in January, but resisted the temptation to ask if he was working on any projects.

"I never pry into an artist's life, or process either," Dorsey said. "I don't write to him and go, 'What are you doing?' Or call and go, 'Why aren't you playing?' You let people be and you see where it falls."

Bowie biographer Marc Spitz is slowly losing hope that the singer will make a comeback, even as peers such as Lou Reed and Iggy Pop keep recording and touring.

His absence is all the more striking given that Bowie had released an album or single almost every year since 1964. It would be akin to the equally prolific Woody Allen stepping back from filmmaking, Spitz said.

He also noted that people are used to celebrities such as David Letterman and Robin Williams bouncing back after heart ailments, not to mention former Vice President Dick Cheney.

But given that Bowie often performed songs about death and the mysteries of life, Spitz said he might have lost his appetite after getting "that close to the abyss."