Damon Albarn will always be grateful to soul star Bobby Womack for sharing his musical knowledge with him in the years before his death.

The pair became close friends after the British rocker helped Womack achieve a career comeback by involving him in his band Gorillaz, and Albarn insists he will never forget the veteran musician's lessons.

He tells BBC Radio 4's The Last Word show, "In a strange way, I find it very hard to sort of accept that he's not there anymore... For me, he feels very present and I don't quite understand why... He taught me things that will never leave me, and he will never leave me."

The Blur star also recalls working with Womack for the first time, revealing there was a scare in the studio when the star suffered a bout of hypoglycaemia due to his diabetes,

Albarn explains, "He literally just stood there for 45 minutes just singing. Finally at the end there was a silence. I put my arm around him and he was quite cold. I thought maybe he was going to collapse. Some sort of inner voice said to me, 'Go and get him a banana'. And I came back and gave him the banana and he was absolutely fine, but I had no idea he had diabetes."

Womack passed away last month (Jun14), aged 70.