London, April 26 (TIWN) Legendary singer David Bowie had once saved rock musician Peter Frampton from a smoke-filled plane cabin just before take-off.

In a memoir due to be published in October, rocker Frampton, 69, reveals Bowie - a 'lovely man' who he first met when they went to school together in Bromley, south east London - saved him twice. 

Bowie chose his old friend to play the guitar on his 1987 Glass Spider World Tour and album as a broke Frampton struggled to launch a career comeback, The Sunday Mirror reports.

The second, more dramatic encounter, was as the pair settled down in the cabin of one of the private planes used to cart the musicians between venues.