Speaker 1: Off the Record is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: It was forty minutes before showtime and David Bowie was missing.
Speaker 1: This was never a good thing, but especially not tonight.
Speaker 1: It was the final date of his Ziggy Stardust Tour,
Speaker 1: the sixteen month trek that had taken him from the
Speaker 1: sleepy English suburbs to America, Japan and beyond. The tour
Speaker 1: had begun on the back of a pub. Now he
Speaker 1: was playing the hometown hero at London's Hammersmith Odeon Arena.
Speaker 1: The show is being filmed for posterity, and high profile
Speaker 1: friends like Mick Jagger, Lou Reed and Ringo Star were
Speaker 1: there to cheer them on. Thousands of fans had gathered
Speaker 1: outside the venue on the Summer's night in July. Many
Speaker 1: came dressed as their idol was spiky day glow hair,
Speaker 1: shiny sequined pants and dangerously tall platform heels. Their faces
Speaker 1: were decorated with glittery disco drew guy makeup and brightly
Speaker 1: painted lightning bolts. One of these fans was a thirteen
Speaker 1: year old East London schoolgirl named Julie. Waiting outside, she
Speaker 1: spotted a pale figure pacing anxiously amid the garbage and
Speaker 1: an otherwise deserted alley behind the venue. He looked like
Speaker 1: just another Bowie clone, ready for the show. But then
Speaker 1: Julie noticed his mismatched eyes, and slowly it dawned on
Speaker 1: her this was no clone. She gingerly approached, eager to
Speaker 1: offer a few words of praise and thanks. As he
Speaker 1: beckoned her over, she quickly realized something was very wrong.
Speaker 1: David was worryingly thin and dishoveled. His famous eyes were
Speaker 1: filled with tears. He fled his dressing room for a
Speaker 1: moment of solitude, but now he seemed relieved to have
Speaker 1: someone to talk to for a few precious minutes. The
Speaker 1: torment had been building for months, years, even, and he
Speaker 1: was desperate to unload. David didn't know who he was anymore.
Speaker 1: Was he Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie, David Jones. He called
Speaker 1: his latest character a Laddin sane for a reason. He
Speaker 1: was heading towards the brink of insanity. A complete physical
Speaker 1: and psychological collapse seemed imminent. He could feel it coming.
Speaker 1: He was going mad. He in fighter to Julie as
Speaker 1: his nicotine stained hands drew another cigarette to his lips.
Speaker 1: Everything had gone right, but then all so wrong. His
Speaker 1: marriage was all but over. His finances were a mess.
Speaker 1: Louis didn't say it. His flirtation with cocaine is wreaking
Speaker 1: havoc on his nervous system. Something had to change and fast.
Speaker 1: David spied some frantic roadies sent to track him down.
Speaker 1: It was time to go. He said goodbye to Julian,
Speaker 1: bounded back inside the theater, passed the guards down the hall,
Speaker 1: up the backstage stairs to a balcony overlooking the street.
Speaker 1: From there, he surveyed the scene, staring out at his
Speaker 1: fans waiting outside, the blessed who remodeled themselves and his
Speaker 1: image to them. He was a god and he was
Speaker 1: about to forsake them. But he had to. He had
Speaker 1: to save himself. His manager's and patient Bark brought David
Speaker 1: down to his dressing room. He stared in the mirror
Speaker 1: as assistance touched up his makeup. The fragile face with
Speaker 1: the injured eye. It looked at him like a stranger.
Speaker 1: He knew what he had to do. David Bowie was
Speaker 1: about to commit murder on the stage. He was about
Speaker 1: to kill off his greatest creation, Ziggy Star dust Clock's
Speaker 1: ticking lights down Volume Up showtime. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: Off the Record, the show that goes beyond the songs
Speaker 1: and into the hearts and minds of rock's greatest legends.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jordan Runtup. This season explores the life,
Speaker 1: or rather lives of David Bowie. Today's episode looks at
Speaker 1: a Latin Saying, the American sibling of Ziggy star Dust.
Speaker 1: The character was born on the road. As Bowie embarked
Speaker 1: on his triumphant first pour of the United States, it
Speaker 1: seemed like everything he had worked towards was coming true.
Speaker 1: Yet David felt more confused than ever. With his face
Speaker 1: bisected by his trademark Lightning Bolt, the character reflects an
Speaker 1: artist coming apart at the seams. The multiple identities David
Speaker 1: araft It had originally brought him personal and creative freedom.
Speaker 1: Now they threatened to tear him apart. As the name suggests,
Speaker 1: Aladdin Saying is a troubling self portrait of a man
Speaker 1: on the brink. It was all David could do to
Speaker 1: pull himself back from the edge. Passengers aboard the Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the second we're settling into the ship's fine dining
Speaker 1: room when a strange figure appeared in their midst David
Speaker 1: Bowie had made his entrance in fools Ziggy stardust regalia.
Speaker 1: It was a black tie version of one of his
Speaker 1: stage costumes, complete with wings protruding from his shoulders. It's
Speaker 1: certainly made an impression. Some people gasped, others coughed up
Speaker 1: their soup. They're all looking at me, David complained to
Speaker 1: his dinner companions. Well what did you expect? Came the reply.
Speaker 1: For the remainder of his journey, David took his meals
Speaker 1: inside his cabin. It was September. David was en route
Speaker 1: to New York to kick off his first tour of
Speaker 1: the United States. Rather than take the relatively quick flight
Speaker 1: from London, he and his if Angie had opted for
Speaker 1: a costly, yet refined week on the high seas. It
Speaker 1: was quite literally the only way to travel. By this point,
Speaker 1: David had developed a serious phobia of flying. It began
Speaker 1: during a recent vacation to Cyprus, when his plane had
Speaker 1: been in an electrical storm and struck by lightning. Soon after,
Speaker 1: his dead father appeared to him in a dream and
Speaker 1: advised him never to fly again. That was enough for David.
Speaker 1: If it flies, its death became his familiar mantra. His
Speaker 1: fear was so intense that for a time he refused
Speaker 1: to stay in hotel rooms higher than the fourth floor.
Speaker 1: David's manager, the cigar chomping compulsively fur coake clad Tony
Speaker 1: to Freeze, saw David's phobia as an asset. It made
Speaker 1: great copy, adding to the eccentrical lure of his most
Speaker 1: important client. Rockers like Led Zeppelin and Elton John could
Speaker 1: keep their private jets. Ocean liners were a throwback to
Speaker 1: the glamour icons of the nineteen twenties and thirties, making
Speaker 1: it the ideal mode of transport for his rising star.
Speaker 1: And make no mistake, David was a star, even if
Speaker 1: no one else knew it. Yet for years, British acts
Speaker 1: wanting to crack the United States had to start from scratch,
Speaker 1: schlepping around small venues and playing third on the bill
Speaker 1: the homegrown American heroes. Eventually, if they were lucky, buzz
Speaker 1: would start to build. Tony DeFries planned to skip the
Speaker 1: whole toil and obscurity part. David Bowie would arrive on
Speaker 1: American shores as an a list. Soon enough, everyone else
Speaker 1: would have to catch on. De Freeze insisted that David
Speaker 1: would never open for anyone, but always headline. He wrote
Speaker 1: outrageous clauses into his performance contracts, demanding the largest grand
Speaker 1: piano in the city for each gig. Anything less than
Speaker 1: nine ft long would result in the show's immediate cancelation.
Speaker 1: If a venue didn't have a private walkway from the
Speaker 1: entrance to the dressing room, they would have to construct
Speaker 1: the wall so David could remain unseen until showtime. In return,
Speaker 1: David was expected to act like a headliner to freeze
Speaker 1: book David into weekends at high end hotels so he
Speaker 1: could get used to v I P treatment. A big
Speaker 1: and brooding Yorkshireman named Stewie George was hired as David's
Speaker 1: personal bodyguard, and together they rehearsed sprinting out of venues
Speaker 1: into one of three vans left idling outside. They've grown
Speaker 1: up with scenes of Beatlemania. Now they were planning for Bowiemania.
Speaker 1: So far, only the fab Forward pulled off such an
Speaker 1: ambitious Atlantic crossing. Tony DeFries planned to do it again
Speaker 1: with Bowie. To announce the upcoming US tour, he flew
Speaker 1: over top American journalists from Rolling Stone and Playboy for
Speaker 1: an all expense paid Deluxe Weekend. The scribes were wind
Speaker 1: and dyed at the Dorchester Hotel before being greeted by
Speaker 1: Bowie himself, who encouraged one and all to call him Ziggy.
Speaker 1: Lou Reid and Niggy Pop were on hand for an
Speaker 1: added dose of chaos before they all trucked over to
Speaker 1: the Friars Club to watch Bowie and concert. The cocktails
Speaker 1: or Derve's and hotel suite set to freeze back some
Speaker 1: twenty thousand pounds, but it was a small price to
Speaker 1: pay for column inches A blood of glowing magazine features
Speaker 1: made David one of the most talked about performers in
Speaker 1: the States, and he hadn't even played a note there.
Speaker 1: To aid in his American assault, Defrees set up a
Speaker 1: field office in New York City for his newly formed
Speaker 1: management company. It was called MainMan. David loved the name, naturally,
Speaker 1: assuming that it referred to himself, but it soon became
Speaker 1: obvious that Defrees saw himself as the MainMan, which would
Speaker 1: lead to some flashes down the line. The expensive offices
Speaker 1: in Midtown Manhattan functioned chiefly as an opulent stage set
Speaker 1: designed to project strength, importance, and above all success. The
Speaker 1: rooms were decorated with elegant leather armchairs and framed portraits
Speaker 1: of David. Desks were piled high with expense charges written
Speaker 1: on custom MainMan stationary. He looked amazing, but the suggestion
Speaker 1: of immense wealth was purely a facade. DeFreeze took a
Speaker 1: similar approach with his employees, who were hired more for
Speaker 1: their flamboyant sense of style than any professional skills. The
Speaker 1: New York man Man office was staffed with an outrageous
Speaker 1: cast of freaks from Andy Warhol's factory scene. Tony Zanetta,
Speaker 1: who become friends with David the prior year when he
Speaker 1: performed in the war Hall stage play Pork, was installed
Speaker 1: as Mainman's president. Fellow Pork veteran Lee black shoulder As
Speaker 1: was taffed as vice president, and Cherry Vanilla filled out
Speaker 1: the ranks as publicity officer. Cherry was the only one
Speaker 1: with any business experience, but that didn't seem to bother anyone.
Speaker 1: In fact, that was their selling point. They were wild
Speaker 1: rule breakers, capable of causing a sensation and looking absolutely
Speaker 1: fabulous while doing it. This was much more in mine
Speaker 1: with the image to Freeze was trying to convey. The
Speaker 1: MainMan staff were urged to act and look like a
Speaker 1: million dollars. This involved pretending that they had a million dollars.
Speaker 1: They returned loose with company credit cards and encouraged to
Speaker 1: pay for lavish meals with enormous groups of in destry insiders.
Speaker 1: Man man have their own expense account. At Max's Kansas City,
Speaker 1: the late night haunt of the downtown Elite, a fleet
Speaker 1: of limousines were kept on constant call on top of
Speaker 1: their hundred dollar a week salary. Staffers had their rent paid.
Speaker 1: So did a group known as the f O d
Speaker 1: s or Friends of David, people who had no tangible
Speaker 1: role within the company. This was all part of the
Speaker 1: Frieze overarching philosophy. You have to spend money to make money,
Speaker 1: But whose money was it? Where was it coming from?
Speaker 1: It was a question that nobody bothered to ask. They
Speaker 1: were too busy launching a star. In an effort to
Speaker 1: build an extra layer of mystique around David, DeFries turned
Speaker 1: down nearly all interviews. Instead, requests were forwarded the Cherry Vanilla,
Speaker 1: who took a somewhat unorthodox approach to her role as
Speaker 1: David's public relations officer. Once she flashed the crowd at
Speaker 1: a press conference, another time she bit the rear end
Speaker 1: of a female reporter. And then there was the time
Speaker 1: she went on American radio and told listeners that David
Speaker 1: was not only gay, but a communist to boot. But
Speaker 1: war Hally and MainMan staff knew little about David's actual life,
Speaker 1: so they felt free to embellish when appropriate, and also inappropriate,
Speaker 1: sex was usually a talking point. Cherry Vanilla frequently described
Speaker 1: David two reporters as quote the sexual Antichrist. During one
Speaker 1: high profile radio interview, she claimed that David made a
Speaker 1: point to sleep with everyone who worked for him. The
Speaker 1: following day, Mayman offices were flooded with job applications. By
Speaker 1: the time he ducked in New York in early September,
Speaker 1: the city was buzzing for Bowie. Members of the press
Speaker 1: were on hand to cover his arrival. Profiles ran in Time, Newsweek,
Speaker 1: and Rolling Stone, the ladder of which included this memorable description.
Speaker 1: His hair dyed bright carrot sticks straight up above the brow.
Speaker 1: His smooth white skin is stretched from bone to bone
Speaker 1: in his face like telegraph wire along poles. He changes
Speaker 1: the expression constantly, as wind blowing across a lake. Instantly
Speaker 1: a static electricity. Everything about his appearance is extreme. Advertisements
Speaker 1: for Bowie's album and tour towered over the streets and avenues.
Speaker 1: Brick walls bore chalk scrawls bearing the words Ziggy Rules.
Speaker 1: Considering David's toward begun in the back of a pub
Speaker 1: six months earlier, this was all pretty far out. David
Speaker 1: had some serious business to attend to. As he settled
Speaker 1: into his plush suite at the Plaza Hotel, it was
Speaker 1: decided to supplement his backing band, now touted as the
Speaker 1: Famous Spiders from Mars, with a new keyboard player, and
Speaker 1: they had just five days to find one. Mike Garson
Speaker 1: came highly recommended, with a background and avant garde jazz.
Speaker 1: He logged time backing the likes of Mel torm A,
Speaker 1: Nancy Wilson, and Martha Reeves. Now he was eking out
Speaker 1: a living in tiny tourist clubs for five bucks a night.
Speaker 1: He had begun to think, Man, I think I really
Speaker 1: need to go out on the road with a famous
Speaker 1: rock star. Soon his wish was granted. That's September, he
Speaker 1: got a call from Maine Man asking if he wanted
Speaker 1: to do audition for the Ziggy Stardust tour. Garson had
Speaker 1: never heard of Ziggy or Bowie for that matter, but
Speaker 1: it was either that to go back to teaching piano lessons.
Speaker 1: He showed up at the r c A Studios, where
Speaker 1: Bowie's guitarist and de facto musical director Mick Ronson plays
Speaker 1: sheet music on the piano. Garson's site read it on
Speaker 1: the spot, adding jazzy flourishes as he went. He only
Speaker 1: played about seven seconds before Ronson stopped him. He had
Speaker 1: the gig. Garson would become a crucial component of bowie
Speaker 1: sound over the next few years, mastering classical, jazz, pop, gospel,
Speaker 1: pretty much everything but rock, and that's what Bowie loved
Speaker 1: about him. Garson, who was rumored to have practiced eight
Speaker 1: hours a day for ten years, brought a studied intensity
Speaker 1: to the band. Bowie referred to the keyboardist, who was
Speaker 1: a devout scientologist at the time, as Garson the parson.
Speaker 1: After some quick rehearsals, Bowie was finally ready to make
Speaker 1: his American debut. It had been scheduled for September twenty
Speaker 1: two in Cleveland, the Heartland rock capital, where a local
Speaker 1: kid had formed the first US Bowie fan club. Due
Speaker 1: to David's no fly policy. The band and crew made
Speaker 1: the long trip from New York by bus. De Frieze
Speaker 1: had drafted Tony Zenetta to act as tour manager, but
Speaker 1: the title meant nothing to him. What does the road
Speaker 1: manager do, Zenetta asked the Freeze. Just make sure they
Speaker 1: find Cleveland. Came the impatient reply. De Frieze was busy
Speaker 1: doing battle with the Cleveland promoter, who had failed to
Speaker 1: provide a properly huge baby grand piano. De Frize was
Speaker 1: ready to pull the plug on the show. Before the concert,
Speaker 1: organizers borrowed a suitably enormous set of keys from the
Speaker 1: city's Symphony Orchestra. A sold out crowd of thirty two
Speaker 1: thou people packed into the Cleveland Music Hall to watch
Speaker 1: Ziggy Stardust live and in the flesh. The screams were
Speaker 1: so loud that Mike Garson resorted to stuffing cotton in
Speaker 1: his ears in the ends. The audience couldn't contain themselves
Speaker 1: and invade at the stage. Afterwards, David met a twenty
Speaker 1: one year old fan from acron name Chrissy Hind, future
Speaker 1: front woman of the Pretenders. She and her friends show
Speaker 1: Feurdom around in her mother's oldsmobile to get a meal.
Speaker 1: How's that for some good old fashioned American hospitality. David's
Speaker 1: first concert in America had been a resounding success, but
Speaker 1: the real test was still to come in New York City.
Speaker 1: If he could make it there, he could make it anywhere.
Speaker 1: He was booked to play Carnegie Hall. The Beatles had
Speaker 1: been the first band to rock the hollowed venue on
Speaker 1: their triumphant American debut in nineteen sixty four. Eight years later,
Speaker 1: David was hoping for similar luck for all of their
Speaker 1: promotional fireworks. His records weren't selling in the States. It
Speaker 1: was crucial that he went over this media mecca. The
Speaker 1: main man Warhol contingent were tasked with distributing tickets to
Speaker 1: the great and good of the New York literati, most
Speaker 1: of whom had never even heard of David. Seats were
Speaker 1: given to True and Campody, Jackie Kennedy's sister, Lee Razzwell,
Speaker 1: Todd Rundren, and the New York Dolls. Cherry Vanilla would
Speaker 1: later say, we peddled David's ass like Nathan sells hot dogs.
Speaker 1: The show was hyped into the social event of the season.
Speaker 1: Andy Warhol was limited to just two tickets and Atlantic
Speaker 1: Records Chief Ama Dagon reportedly couldn't get his hands on
Speaker 1: any made Man received four hundred applications for the one
Speaker 1: hundred press seats available scalpers on Seventh Avenue. We're making
Speaker 1: upwards of fifty dollars on tickets with a face value
Speaker 1: of six bucks. On the night of the concert, Kleague
Speaker 1: lights on the steps of Carnegie Hall lit up the
Speaker 1: sky like a classic Hollywood film premiere. The Marquis bore
Speaker 1: the words fall in love with David Bowie. It was
Speaker 1: a declaration fulfilled. Any semblance of New York cool had
Speaker 1: melted away by the end of the show, as newly
Speaker 1: minted Bowie fanatics were dancing and Carnegie Hall's historic aisles.
Speaker 1: Despite being feverish with the flu, David earned a rapturous
Speaker 1: five minute a vation. The press were equally enthusiastic. A
Speaker 1: star is born. I've always wanted to write that in review,
Speaker 1: and now I can, gushed one reporter. Another declared the
Speaker 1: sixties are well and truly over. The publicity led to
Speaker 1: an influx of requests from promoters, and soon the eight
Speaker 1: date tour swelled to include an additional eight weeks. Bowie
Speaker 1: Mania was beginning d C. Boston, Kansas City, Indianapolis, St. Louis,
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City. David's torbus barreled down the long stretches
Speaker 1: of highway past the ever changing landscape. Cities turned to forests,
Speaker 1: which turned to deserts. David was living out his cherished
Speaker 1: fantasies of Jack Kerouac's character is in On the Road,
Speaker 1: the book that had liberated his imagination as a young boy.
Speaker 1: As is so often the case, the fantasy doesn't always
Speaker 1: equal the reality. On his first journey to America the
Speaker 1: year before, a man in Texas way at the gun
Speaker 1: at David for wearing a dress. This trip featured similar
Speaker 1: hostilities as he struggled to connect in the South. Members
Speaker 1: of the Ku Klux Klan came out in droves to
Speaker 1: pick at his gig in Nashville, objecting to David's bisexuality
Speaker 1: and supposed Communist sympathies. David arrived at ten thousand ced
Speaker 1: arenas in St. Louis, Kansas City and Miami, only to
Speaker 1: find that a few hundred people had bothered to turn up.
Speaker 1: Ever the pro he gathered the small crowd into the
Speaker 1: front rows and performed an intimate cabaret style set just
Speaker 1: for them. Dates and Dallas and Houston sold so poorly
Speaker 1: that the Freeze had to cancel them completely. Even if
Speaker 1: the shows were a bust, they had fun as they
Speaker 1: made their way through the American heartland. David and his
Speaker 1: band loved to crash the sleepy hotel, cocktail lounges and
Speaker 1: full ziggy stardust makeup and costumes just to see the
Speaker 1: open mouth stairs of the usual clientele. Sometimes they had
Speaker 1: too much fun. One morning, road manager Tony Zanetta got
Speaker 1: a frantic call. David was miss sing. The crew was
Speaker 1: packed up and ready to go, but their star was
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. A short time later, Zanetta got
Speaker 1: another call. It was David. He had no idea where
Speaker 1: he was. I'm in a house. There are trees everywhere.
Speaker 1: I think I'm in the middle of a forest somewhere. Somehow,
Speaker 1: a bell hop at the band's hotel was able to
Speaker 1: work out David's location based on that sketchy description, and
Speaker 1: disaster was averted. This time. The partying came to a
Speaker 1: head in late October when the Ziggy start Us tour
Speaker 1: pool in the Los Angeles. By then, the entourage had
Speaker 1: grown to forty six people, including an assortment of drug dealers, groupies,
Speaker 1: a professional palm reader, and diggy pop. Just for the
Speaker 1: hell of it, all were booked into the ultra lux
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Hotel at our sier's expense. Most spent their
Speaker 1: days lounging by the pool and ordering huge meals of
Speaker 1: lobster thermidor for themselves and random horus they met strolling
Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard. All were welcome, just send the bill to
Speaker 1: our c A Records and Tapes. David liked l A.
Speaker 1: It suited his lust for glamour, insatiable hedonism, and compulsive
Speaker 1: need for chameleonic character changes. He was surprisingly sober during
Speaker 1: this time, wanting to keep a clear head for the
Speaker 1: pair of make or break dates at the Santa Monica
Speaker 1: Civic Center. His chief outlet was sex. His bungalow at
Speaker 1: the Beverly Hills Hotel hosted a parade of local groupies,
Speaker 1: visions and glitter and platforms. His latest serious fling was
Speaker 1: with Andy Warhol's newest factory girl, nineteen year old Surrender Fox,
Speaker 1: who would later go on to marry aerosmith Steven Tyler.
Speaker 1: David liked her so much he called her into his room.
Speaker 1: The chat when he was in the middle of having
Speaker 1: sex with other women. This was quite a compliment. One night, she,
Speaker 1: David and Angie had a threesome involving a bathtub, Lady Godiva,
Speaker 1: Wig and lots of pearls. Stories of David's seduction are endless.
Speaker 1: Once at a party, he's at his side on a
Speaker 1: woman dancing with music producer Kim Fowley. David sidle up
Speaker 1: to Fouley and politely asked, are you in love with
Speaker 1: this woman? Or may I take her into the bathroom?
Speaker 1: Receiving no objection, David approached the woman with a well
Speaker 1: honed pickup line, how do you do? I'm David Bowie.
Speaker 1: I'd like to discuss life at the Universal whatever my dear.
Speaker 1: Hand in hand, they went off in search of a restroom.
Speaker 1: A gang of jealous drag queens followed in hot pursuit,
Speaker 1: all eager for their private moment with Ziggy. David's sexual prowess,
Speaker 1: to say nothing of his impressive physical attributes, has been
Speaker 1: widely commented upon. He was a romantic, described as a
Speaker 1: tender yet aerobic lover and an excellent kisser. To quote
Speaker 1: Cherry Vanilla is one time pr manager and occasional romantic partner.
Speaker 1: It never felt like we were just having sex. It
Speaker 1: felt like we were really making love. He was either
Speaker 1: a fabulous actor or a man whose emotions ran deep.
Speaker 1: David's voracious sexual appetite was slightly frightening to some members
Speaker 1: of his inner circle. He seemed down for at any time, anywhere,
Speaker 1: in the limo, in the bathroom, on the sidewalk in
Speaker 1: front of the hotel. Back in his days as a
Speaker 1: student that promptly TechEd, David used sex as a power
Speaker 1: play to capture attention. His newfound fame only amplified this tendency,
Speaker 1: and the effect was startling. Cherry Vanilla, who shared a
Speaker 1: bed with him on more than one occasion, believed he
Speaker 1: was a sex addict. Another intimate would describe him less
Speaker 1: charitably in this period as quote screwing everything that moved
Speaker 1: and quite a bit that didn't. The crew joke took
Speaker 1: on a scary realism one night at his hotel when
Speaker 1: a sinister member of the Hollywood show business elite offered
Speaker 1: to procure a dead body for his pleasure, still warm
Speaker 1: if he liked, David was deeply horrified and rejected the
Speaker 1: indecent overture. However, there is the troubling claim of Laurie Maddox,
Speaker 1: a member of the so called Baby Groupie's Click of
Speaker 1: teenagers that hung around with visiting musicians who roamed the
Speaker 1: Sunset Strip Clubland at night, also known as Lori Lightning.
Speaker 1: Maddox is perhaps most famous for her tempestuous relationship with
Speaker 1: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page when she was a miner. Prior
Speaker 1: to that, she said she lost her virginity to David
Speaker 1: Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust tour when she was fifteen
Speaker 1: years old. Her version of events is varied considerably over
Speaker 1: the years and occasionally features historical impossibilities, leading some to
Speaker 1: doubt her story, but she's repeated the general just for
Speaker 1: decades and tells her tale with utmost fondness. The way
Speaker 1: it happens was so beautiful, Maddox said, I remember him
Speaker 1: looking like God and having me over a table. Who
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to lose their virginity to David Bowie? To
Speaker 1: this day, Maddox claims that her experience with Bowie was
Speaker 1: not only consensual, but also a cherished memory, creating a
Speaker 1: thorny moral quandary for herself and also Bowie's fans. If
Speaker 1: twenty six year old David had sex with a minor,
Speaker 1: it makes the claims of his supper was as sex
Speaker 1: addiction all the more serious and concerning. Yet Maddox always
Speaker 1: rebuffed those who sought to label her a victim. Well,
Speaker 1: she admits that her perception is shifted following the rise
Speaker 1: of the Me Too movement, She still denies that she
Speaker 1: was ever taken advantage of by Bowie. We were friends,
Speaker 1: she says, it was all pure fun. It was a
Speaker 1: different time in rock and roll. In that era, some
Speaker 1: of the world's most famous rock stars shamelessly engaged in
Speaker 1: relationships with young girls. Some of these women have no regrets,
Speaker 1: while others remained scarred by their experiences. At the time,
Speaker 1: it was just an accepted part of the Hollywood music scene,
Speaker 1: which was becoming increasingly dark and menacing. As rock and
Speaker 1: roll became a billion dollar business, a sense of darkness
Speaker 1: has started to creep in the Dayvid's life. There were
Speaker 1: days when he could barely rouse himself from his bed.
Speaker 1: He often stayed in his hotel room, writing, reading, or
Speaker 1: just staring at the television. He was described in this
Speaker 1: period as a frail, chalk white figure with almost vampiric tendencies.
Speaker 1: Maybe that was the effect David was going for. When
Speaker 1: a friend asked why he wasn't soaking up the Southern
Speaker 1: California son by the hotel pool, David solemnly replied, all
Speaker 1: melt below lows seemed like the logical inverse of his
Speaker 1: performance highs, both sexual and musical, but it was also
Speaker 1: something deeper. The public persona of David Bowie, overlaid with
Speaker 1: even more outrageous siggy stardust alter ego had caused the
Speaker 1: boy from Bromley's identity to fracture. He'd later say, in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, I was surrounded with people who indulged my ego,
Speaker 1: who treated me as ziggy Stardust, never realizing that David
Speaker 1: Jones might be behind it. His biggest fear was coming true.
Speaker 1: His grip on reality was starting to slip. With the
Speaker 1: curse of his familial mental illness claim him too, like
Speaker 1: it had claimed his beloved half brother Terry, David found
Speaker 1: himself paying an enormous psychic price for his fame, and
Speaker 1: the financial one too. Their stay at the bear A
Speaker 1: Hills Hotel cost a hundred thousand dollars, including twenty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in room service bills alone. DeFreeze sole attempt at
Speaker 1: cost cutting was the decree that groupies be sent home
Speaker 1: without breakfast. The seventy one day tour lost four hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty five thousand dollars or seven thousand dollars a day.
Speaker 1: The silver tongues Defriese talked our Cia into paying off
Speaker 1: the debt, a move that caused the cancelation of the
Speaker 1: label's annual Christmas bonus that year. In exchange, our c
Speaker 1: would recoup its losses from Bowie's future record sales. In
Speaker 1: other words, our ci a would pay now, but Bowie
Speaker 1: would pay later. It would take some time for David
Speaker 1: to realize that he was footing the bill for this
Speaker 1: traveling circus and to freeze increasingly ambitious schemes. Our Cia
Speaker 1: didn't have to wait long for new Bowie product, America
Speaker 1: did wonders for his creativity. A new album began to
Speaker 1: take shape, Inspired by David's cautious embrace of the country
Speaker 1: that had embraced him so warmly. His Jubie first visit
Speaker 1: the previous year had planted the seeds of ziggy stardust.
Speaker 1: Now a portrait of Ziggy's disturbed and paranoid sibling began
Speaker 1: to emerge. David had seen the real America from his
Speaker 1: vantage point on his tour bus. It thrilled him, but
Speaker 1: it also frightened him. When I was a boy, we
Speaker 1: were all fascinated by America, he glumily told the journalist.
Speaker 1: But now that I'm here, I've forgotten why I wanted
Speaker 1: to come. His personal on the road adventure in the
Speaker 1: United States of Richard Nixon didn't match up to the
Speaker 1: one Jack Carowac had presented. David had expected freedom and opportunity.
Speaker 1: He found it, but he also found urban decay, addiction, violence,
Speaker 1: and death. If I'm in a very light mood, I
Speaker 1: find everything in America so kitch, he explained. It's wonderful
Speaker 1: and I love to have it all hanging in my bedroom.
Speaker 1: If I'm in a bad mood, I find it terribly
Speaker 1: repressive and heavy. He declared the United States to be
Speaker 1: the loneliest place in the world, and the people insecure
Speaker 1: and in need of warmth. Perhaps the fundamentally shy man
Speaker 1: who never got enough hugs as a child, recognized himself
Speaker 1: among the Yanks. His thoughts crystallized As he sailed home
Speaker 1: to England that December. He spent most of the sea
Speaker 1: voyage curled in an over stuffed armchair in his suite,
Speaker 1: thumbing through a copy of author Evelyn Walls Vile Bodies.
Speaker 1: It was a futuristic novel about a hedonistic society of
Speaker 1: bright young things living a life of decadent deprevity and
Speaker 1: the eve of an impending World War. Wall's tale of
Speaker 1: frivolity on the brink of catastrophe resonated with Bowie. To him,
Speaker 1: this wasn't sci fi, but a chilling reflection of reality
Speaker 1: as he saw it. If the Ziggy start Us opening
Speaker 1: track five years as any indication, David really seemed to
Speaker 1: think that the planet Earth wouldn't survive into the eighties.
Speaker 1: Setting aside his copy of Vile Bodies, he reached for
Speaker 1: the spiral notebook on the small mahogany table at his
Speaker 1: side and began to write the words to a new song.
Speaker 1: It's my interpretation of what America means to me, he'd say.
Speaker 1: It's like a summation of my first American tour, his
Speaker 1: schizophrenic impression of the country, to say nothing of his
Speaker 1: preoccupation with the mental illness that blighted his family inspired
Speaker 1: his new character a Laddin Sane. He was welcomed home
Speaker 1: on British shores like a triumphant war hero. Bowie's back
Speaker 1: trumpeted the full page ads that filled the music papers.
Speaker 1: Shows for his upcoming UK tour dates had already sold out,
Speaker 1: and he had big things planned for nine. David managed
Speaker 1: to carve out time to celebrate Christmas with his wife
Speaker 1: Angie and toddler Zoe at their house, Hadden Hall. It
Speaker 1: would be the last holiday they'd spend that their beloved home,
Speaker 1: and more or less the last they'd spend together as
Speaker 1: a happy family. During the final dates of the Ziggy
Speaker 1: Stardust tour, a fan snatched David's way sting bracelet off
Speaker 1: his wrist, twin to the one worn by his wife Angie.
Speaker 1: The theft was highly symbolic. Barely into its second year,
Speaker 1: their marriage was, in David's own words, pretty much over
Speaker 1: and all but name they would see less and less
Speaker 1: of one another in nine Jealousy played a sizeable role
Speaker 1: in the disintegration of their union. They had always enjoyed
Speaker 1: an extremely open relationship, but many in their circle felt
Speaker 1: that David was overdoing his freedom just a bit. Angie
Speaker 1: was inclined to agree. She would later say that David
Speaker 1: was quote nailing everything that moved, and characterized him as
Speaker 1: having quote the morals of a bisexual alley cat. As
Speaker 1: a result, Angie kept her distance. This was generally encouraged
Speaker 1: by Bowie and his coterie. They acted more like business
Speaker 1: partners than lovers, staying in different suites and generally living
Speaker 1: separate lives. For Angie, the tour was nothing but a
Speaker 1: string of increasingly humiliating incidents, sometimes in private, sometimes painfully public,
Speaker 1: but always involving her husband and groupies. Andie got her
Speaker 1: revenge by flaunting an affair with David's bodyguard. Never shy,
Speaker 1: they hooked up one night while skinny dipping in the
Speaker 1: motel pool. Motel management took a rather dim view of
Speaker 1: this sort of thing. David smooth things over before rounding
Speaker 1: on Angie. She'd humiliated and before like the night she
Speaker 1: performed oral sex on a friend in the middle of
Speaker 1: a closed but not empty hotel bar. But this was
Speaker 1: the final straw. The next day he booked her a
Speaker 1: one way ticket back to England. Aside from special occasions,
Speaker 1: and she was never welcomed on as tours again, she
Speaker 1: had been banished from his inner traveling circle. The betrayals
Speaker 1: weren't just sexual, after all, they were bonded not just
Speaker 1: by love and lust, but also by mutually shared ambition.
Speaker 1: As far as Andie was concerned, David broke a promise
Speaker 1: they had made when they were both struggling and penniless.
Speaker 1: The plan was, once they made David a rock star,
Speaker 1: they turned their attention to her career, building her up
Speaker 1: into a world famous performer in her own right. Andie
Speaker 1: felt she'd done her part by styling David, encouraging him,
Speaker 1: and serving as a dedicated creative collaborator. But David hadn't
Speaker 1: kept up his end of the deal. He was too
Speaker 1: caught up in the whirlwind of his own success to reciprocate.
Speaker 1: David felt heed outgrowner, Angie felt there wasn't any room
Speaker 1: for her. She felt frustrated, even used, so she resorted
Speaker 1: to attention grabbing stunts, like sex in a public swimming
Speaker 1: pool to assert herself. This succeeded only an annoying David,
Speaker 1: who pushed her even further away. Andrew didn't mind the
Speaker 1: space at first. Her acting ambitions kept her busy. She
Speaker 1: even auditioned for the role of TVs Wonder Woman, ultimately
Speaker 1: losing out when she refused to wear a braw for
Speaker 1: the screen test. But before long she'd get a call
Speaker 1: from David. There was a new problem to solve, a
Speaker 1: new door to kick down, a new idea he wanted
Speaker 1: to run by her, or he just missed her. Sooner
Speaker 1: or later she'd be drawn back into the Bowie orbit
Speaker 1: and her plans were put on hold. So the cycle continued,
Speaker 1: but it was clear there wasn't room for two prima
Speaker 1: donnas in this marriage. In the midst of this marital turmoil,
Speaker 1: David re recorded a song called The Prettiest Star, written
Speaker 1: three years earlier as a tender ode to Angie. He
Speaker 1: first played it for through the telephone as part of
Speaker 1: his marriage proposal back in nineteen sixty nine, and released
Speaker 1: it as a single soon after. His decision to revisit
Speaker 1: the song in late nineteen seventy two, when the relationship
Speaker 1: was well and truly on the rocks is a puzzling one.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was his way of apologizing, or maybe it
Speaker 1: was his way of saying goodbye. It was an anomaly
Speaker 1: on his album in Progress, A Laddin Sane, which was
Speaker 1: written mostly while on tour in the United States. In
Speaker 1: a loose sense, the record was a sequel to Ziggy
Speaker 1: Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, lacking any kind of narrative,
Speaker 1: The general theme was Ziggy Goes to America. The record
Speaker 1: was a travelog by a stray You're in a Strange Land,
Speaker 1: observations from an alien traversing the country in a chartered
Speaker 1: Greyhound bus. Each song served as a musical postcard from abroad.
Speaker 1: On the track list, place names were included next to
Speaker 1: each title, notating the location where each song was composed.
Speaker 1: The first of these was conceived somewhere between Cleveland and Memphis.
Speaker 1: During a bus ride jam session. Bowie, his old friend
Speaker 1: George Underwood, and Mick Ronson beat out an impromptu version
Speaker 1: of Bou Didley's I'm a Man, which soon morphed into
Speaker 1: an original song called Bustin. The song got new words
Speaker 1: a few weeks later, when Bowie visited his tour flings
Speaker 1: Surrenda Fox. Over discussions of the author Jeanine, Bowie twisted
Speaker 1: the bluesy stomp into gene Genie. He recorded the song
Speaker 1: and just one take days later at our c A
Speaker 1: Studios in New York, My first New York song, he'd
Speaker 1: remember proudly. In just ninety minutes he had his new single,
Speaker 1: Another New York Song was watched that man. Inspired by
Speaker 1: the American characters who crammed into his suite for a
Speaker 1: particularly rowdy party at the Plaza Hotel, the senior minded
Speaker 1: David of Evelyn Wall's Vile Bodies passionate, bright young things
Speaker 1: partying while the world teetered on the brink of disaster.
Speaker 1: Drive in Sunday, on the other hand, takes place after
Speaker 1: the apocalypse occurred. David was intrigued one night while gazing
Speaker 1: out at the desert vistas from an observation platform on
Speaker 1: a train journey through the Southwest. Strange lights on the
Speaker 1: horizon gave him visions of a world after a nuclear catastrophe.
Speaker 1: David being David, he added sex and media to the plot.
Speaker 1: The songs set in twenty three, when humans have forgotten
Speaker 1: how to reproduce need to watch old pornographic films as
Speaker 1: teaching tools. Panic in Detroit required less imagination. It was
Speaker 1: taken largely from the mouth of his friend and MotorCity
Speaker 1: native Iggy Pop. When the Ziggy Stardust Tour passed through Detroit.
Speaker 1: Iggy kept David up all night by regaling him with
Speaker 1: tales from the nineteen sixty seven riots, a time when
Speaker 1: teenage revolutionaries joyously discussed the day when the system would
Speaker 1: be obliterated by machine gun wielding kids. When Iggy finally
Speaker 1: left the room at daybreak, David peered out that the
Speaker 1: decayed urban ruined from his hotel suite. Slowly, the lyrics
Speaker 1: started to take shape. Cracked Actor was pure l a
Speaker 1: a portrait of the sleeves and menace, barely masked by
Speaker 1: a thin facade of glamour. The track was written during
Speaker 1: David's week in the City of Angels, inspired by strolls
Speaker 1: up and down Sunset Boulevard, an open market place for
Speaker 1: hookers and dealers to ply their wares. Even more intriguing
Speaker 1: to David were prostitutes of the legal variety, older producers,
Speaker 1: preoccupied with sex, drugs, and money. They were quite strange, looking,
Speaker 1: quite charming, David would recall, but thoroughly unreal. The lyrics
Speaker 1: examined their debauched desires and sinister motivations. One only needs
Speaker 1: to look at the album's title track, Aladdin saying to
Speaker 1: understand the toll his globe trotting venture was taking on
Speaker 1: David's psychological equilibrium. He was a man divided. On one hand,
Speaker 1: he wanted nothing more than to perform his songs for
Speaker 1: increasingly expansive audiences. On the other, the life of a
Speaker 1: rock and roll gypsy was beginning to wear on him.
Speaker 1: He found himself surrounded by users, sycophants, and drug casualties
Speaker 1: whose grasp on reality seemed even more tenuous than his own.
Speaker 1: As he would say, there were some very mixed up
Speaker 1: people on that tour, including myself, and I didn't like
Speaker 1: myself very much at that time. Psychological subdivision through his
Speaker 1: many alter egos left them confused about exactly who was
Speaker 1: earning this mass adoration. It was clear that Ziggy was
Speaker 1: in charge. It was he who the crowd cheered for,
Speaker 1: who the interview was clamored to talk to, who the
Speaker 1: labels wanted more product from. For the first time, David
Speaker 1: began to realize the downside of a hit on the
Speaker 1: scale of Ziggy, Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. When
Speaker 1: he was effectively a nobody, he could explore creatively to
Speaker 1: his heart's content. Now there was an expectation the artists
Speaker 1: arch enemy I felt for the first time and the
Speaker 1: only time that I was working for someone else, He'd say,
Speaker 1: A Laddin. The same is effectively continuation of Ziggy Stardust.
Speaker 1: David hated doing sequels, but he seated to the label
Speaker 1: pressure in popular demand. The split was apparent in the
Speaker 1: album's cover, shot by legendary photographer Brian Duffy. David's face
Speaker 1: is bisected by a flashy lightning bolt. Makeup designer Pierre
Speaker 1: Laroche borrowed the symbol from Elvis Presley, David's birthday twin,
Speaker 1: who used it as a personal logo for himself and
Speaker 1: as Memphis Mafia for the King. The lightning meant taking
Speaker 1: care of business and a flash. In David's case, it
Speaker 1: represented his fractured psyche. Following early sessions in New York,
Speaker 1: David entered his familiar creative home at London's Tried and
Speaker 1: Studios in January n to complete the album. Recording was rapid.
Speaker 1: The day the sessions ended, David boarded a ship bound
Speaker 1: for America for another string of US concert dates designed
Speaker 1: to top his show from just a few months earlier.
Speaker 1: Everything about the nineteen seventy three US concerts were bigger, grander,
Speaker 1: and more outrageous. The Freeze had booked venues that were
Speaker 1: twice as large as the last tour. David had started
Speaker 1: integrating costumes into his performance, bringing the characters of Ziggy
Speaker 1: and a Laddin Saying to life with masks and clothes.
Speaker 1: He racked up as many as seven outfit changes per show,
Speaker 1: sometimes performing tearaway quick changes right on the stage. He
Speaker 1: brought along Pierre Laroche to oversee his elaborate makeup, which
Speaker 1: took between two and five hours each night to apply.
Speaker 1: In addition to the thick lashings of eyeliner and silver lipstick,
Speaker 1: David adopted a gaudy silver disc painted in the center
Speaker 1: of his forehead, a version of the so called love
Speaker 1: jewel worn by his former friend Calvin Mark Lee in
Speaker 1: the waning days of the sixties. Even the band was
Speaker 1: augmented with the additions of guitarist John Hutchison, a pair
Speaker 1: of sacks players, and backing vocalist Jeffrey McCormick, a childhood
Speaker 1: friend of day VID's. The expansion allowed David more freedom
Speaker 1: to move around the stage, but it also caused friction
Speaker 1: with the original Spiders from Mars, who feared that they
Speaker 1: were being relegated to the thankless roll of a solo
Speaker 1: stars anonymous backing band. The breakneck pace of recording and
Speaker 1: touring was taking a toll on intergroup relations. Gone was
Speaker 1: the all for one, one for all hippie spirit from
Speaker 1: their days sleeping on the floor at hadden Hall. Sessions
Speaker 1: for a ladd and Saying had been particularly tense between
Speaker 1: David and drummer Woody Woodman's, who had refused to blindly
Speaker 1: yield to David's creative whims. But the real schism occurred
Speaker 1: on the eve of the tour, when the original Spiders
Speaker 1: found out how much new boy Mike Garson was being paid.
Speaker 1: It happened in the most painfully awkward way. Woodman's was
Speaker 1: thumbing through a magazine and he saw an advertisement for
Speaker 1: a flashy Lamborghini. Wouldn't it be great to have one
Speaker 1: of those? He daydreamed aloud to Garson. Why don't you
Speaker 1: buy one? Garson replied, you must be able to afford
Speaker 1: one by now? Would He assured him that it was
Speaker 1: still way out of his budget. Garson was confused. After
Speaker 1: some hemming and hawing, the men compared salaries. That's when
Speaker 1: they learned that Garson was making ten times the salary
Speaker 1: of the original Spiders. The revelation led to a full
Speaker 1: scale mutiny before the nineteen seventy three tour kicked off
Speaker 1: in New York City, Tony DeFries playcated Mick Ronson with
Speaker 1: the promise of a main man solo deal, but Woody
Speaker 1: and bassist Trevor Bolder were on strike. No pay, no play.
Speaker 1: This is a joke, they complained to Defrieze. Even the
Speaker 1: roadies are getting more than us. Defrieze snapped back, well,
Speaker 1: I'd rather give the money to the road crew than you.
Speaker 1: Things were eventually smoothed over, but the damage had been done.
Speaker 1: David view the mutinyous tantamount of treason. Relations between him
Speaker 1: and the rhythm section were never the same again. David
Speaker 1: took the stage as scheduled on Valentine's Day at Radio
Speaker 1: City Music Hall. The six thousand seat venue was loaded
Speaker 1: with everyone from Andy Warhol and Salvador Dolly to Alan
Speaker 1: Ginsburg and Truman Capote. David himself made an unforgettable entrance
Speaker 1: by descending fifty feet from the ceiling to the stage
Speaker 1: in a literal gilded cage, a propy borrowed from the
Speaker 1: Rockett stage show. The audience had a great time, but
Speaker 1: the show wouldn't rank among David's favorites. Makeup man Pierre
Speaker 1: Laroche had doused him with glitter for the first time,
Speaker 1: which mixed with David's sweat and ran into his eyes.
Speaker 1: I did the whole show almost blind, he complained. Then,
Speaker 1: as he delivered his rock and roll suicide finale, a
Speaker 1: fan leapt on stage and planted a kiss on David's cheek.
Speaker 1: David was so startled that he fainted, collapsing center stage.
Speaker 1: His timing was so impeccable that even the band thought
Speaker 1: it was just the new bit of drama for the
Speaker 1: song's climax. It wasn't until he was bodily carded off
Speaker 1: the stage that they realized anything was amiss. Blinded by
Speaker 1: glitter and smothered by fans. As far as almens go,
Speaker 1: these were not the best for David's new tour, but
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy three American track generally went off without
Speaker 1: much of a hitch. It was the greatest Hits reel,
Speaker 1: consolidating the successes of months earlier. He followed back to
Speaker 1: radio city shows with an astonishing seven concerts in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: plus two in Memphis. Two in Detroit and two in
Speaker 1: l A. After taking Hollywood, he continued west all the
Speaker 1: way to Japan for a ten date tour. If Ziggy
Speaker 1: Started Us was a success in England in the States,
Speaker 1: it made an even bigger splash with the Japanese. The
Speaker 1: album had been selling non stop in Japan despite almost
Speaker 1: no promotional effort, ultimately remaining in the charts for two years.
Speaker 1: Though mocked by the highbrow Japanese press, Bowie had earned
Speaker 1: a passionate following with teenagers and college students. The attraction
Speaker 1: was understandable. Their culture was a major part of Ziggy
Speaker 1: Start Us. D n A. David had been drawn the
Speaker 1: Japanese styles, colors, and textures while designing Ziggy's costumes, crafting
Speaker 1: a look that was in every sense alien to Western audiences.
Speaker 1: The clothes, the makeup, the choreography. To the Japanese, Bowie
Speaker 1: was a rocked up, larger than life reflection of their
Speaker 1: own cultural heritage. They illustrated the point quite literally by
Speaker 1: welcoming Dave it with a massive ninety ft poster of
Speaker 1: his face, the largest poster in the world at the time,
Speaker 1: hung from a Tokyo skyscraper. The tour allowed David to
Speaker 1: delve deeper into Japanese drama. He was particularly intrigued by
Speaker 1: the theatrical style known as kabuki, a word meaning song, dance,
Speaker 1: and art characterized by elaborate makeup, garish costumes, and physical expressionism.
Speaker 1: It's easy to see why kabuki would appeal to David
Speaker 1: in many ways. It was the Eastern counterpart to the
Speaker 1: mime work he'd done with Lindsay Kemp in the sixties,
Speaker 1: but kabuki allowed for even greater freedom of expression. Exclusively
Speaker 1: male Kabuki actors portrayed both men and women, sometimes in
Speaker 1: the same scene, rapidly changing costumes to express this change
Speaker 1: of personality. For David, a man who swapped personas like clothes,
Speaker 1: this notion was especially compelling. His latest shows incorporated an
Speaker 1: ever growing number of costumes crafted by Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto.
Speaker 1: David met up with the Future Fashion Icon upon his
Speaker 1: arrival in Tokyo to collect the nine outfits he commissioned
Speaker 1: for the Aladdin Same tour. They were kabuki costumes with
Speaker 1: a sci fi twist. Many could be torn off with
Speaker 1: a dramatic flourish to reveal a second outfit. Underneath. Some
Speaker 1: of these were done in more traditional modes, like the
Speaker 1: white satin Komono cape decorated with black and red Chinese
Speaker 1: letters that spelled out David Bowie phonetically. Less traditional was
Speaker 1: the Space Samurai costume, a quilted one piece made of
Speaker 1: lustrous black, red and blue fabric and lined with rows
Speaker 1: of black sequins. David would call on Yamamoto and at
Speaker 1: least one occasion during his stay to repair the damage
Speaker 1: to his clothes inflicted by over zealous fans. David was
Speaker 1: equally enthusiastic about Japan and its culture. When he wasn't performing,
Speaker 1: he explored the country, visiting bathhouses and fish markets, sampling
Speaker 1: sake and admiring Kiyoto's famous cherry blossoms. He took in
Speaker 1: theatrical performances, fashion shows, and sumo wrestling competitions. He even
Speaker 1: went further afield of the outlying provinces, where he marveled
Speaker 1: at the into temples and elaborate dance rituals performed by
Speaker 1: the villagers. In a rare moment of unity, Angie and
Speaker 1: Baby Zoe had come along for the tour. Together. They
Speaker 1: attended a tea ceremony at the Imperial gardens. For a
Speaker 1: fleeting moment, they were just an ordinary family on vacation.
Speaker 1: Zoe would treasure the memories. He would be his last
Speaker 1: trip with both his parents. It would also be his
Speaker 1: first time seeing his father perform. The two year old
Speaker 1: was dressed for the occasion in a tiny kimono. It
Speaker 1: must have made quite an impression, as if seeing his
Speaker 1: father transform and the ziggy Stardust wasn't memorable enough. The
Speaker 1: audiences in Japan were unusually ardent. At one gig, they
Speaker 1: stomped so hard that they bent the enormous steel girders
Speaker 1: holding up the floor of the venue, which nearly caused
Speaker 1: the ceiling of Bowie's dressing room and collapse. David tried
Speaker 1: to give as good as he got, assuming that the
Speaker 1: Japanese fans couldn't understand the word of his lyrics, He
Speaker 1: delivered the most physically demanding shows of his life, activating
Speaker 1: his songs with his hands and body. Due in part
Speaker 1: to the exertion, he began performing part of the show
Speaker 1: and what was essentially a red sequined jockstrap. The sight
Speaker 1: of this whipped the crowd into an even greater frenzy.
Speaker 1: David was certainly appreciative of the attention, sometimes signing autographs
Speaker 1: in his hotel room and to the early morning hours.
Speaker 1: With the outpouring of affection bordered on dangerous. Once he
Speaker 1: was forced to barricade himself in his dressing room for
Speaker 1: hours after a show due to a transport mix up.
Speaker 1: But love was simply too much. Emotions reached the breaking
Speaker 1: point during the final show of the tour when fans
Speaker 1: in Tokyo began to riot. Japanese authorities blamed Angie, claiming
Speaker 1: as she intentionally sparked the hysteria by swinging chairs and screaming.
Speaker 1: Angie claimed she was trying to rescue young fans from
Speaker 1: heavy handed security guards. Regardless, Japanese officials demanded she and
Speaker 1: MainMan executive Tony Zanetta turned themselves in the police. Instead,
Speaker 1: they fled the country, hopping a flight to Hawaii. Whether
Speaker 1: or not she was actually at fault, David was furious
Speaker 1: with his wife, declaring her a virtual idiot who possessed
Speaker 1: all the tact and finesse of a mack truck. Just
Speaker 1: a few years ago, they've been partners. Now there was
Speaker 1: an ocean between them, and it still didn't seem like enough.
Speaker 1: David took the long way home from Japan, crossing half
Speaker 1: the world by ship, rail and even hovercraft before completing
Speaker 1: the eight thousand mile journey to England. He arrived home
Speaker 1: just in time to learn that the newly released A
Speaker 1: Laddin Saying had gone the number one in Britain. It
Speaker 1: was the best selling album there since The Beatles had
Speaker 1: stormed the sales charts. His older records, even the ones
Speaker 1: that had sank without a trace upon their initial release,
Speaker 1: were selling in vast quantities. His new single Drive in Saturday,
Speaker 1: was peaking at number three. Everything he'd worked for had
Speaker 1: come true. David should have felt on top of the world, elated, overjoyed,
Speaker 1: but he didn't. He felt lost. David we through a
Speaker 1: homecoming party in early May after more than three months
Speaker 1: on the road. He was grateful to settle in at
Speaker 1: Hanton Hall. Old friends like George Underwood, designer Freddie Baretti,
Speaker 1: mime teacher and former Lover Lindsey Kemp and Ziggy Stardust
Speaker 1: producer Ken Scott all came out to welcome him back
Speaker 1: with wine, chicken and then the Laddin Saying themed cake.
Speaker 1: But ultimately David didn't feel much like partying this night.
Speaker 1: A year and a half of grueling, repetitive touring he
Speaker 1: left him emotionally and physically wiped. His stage costumes were
Speaker 1: coming apart at the seams, held together with some tape
Speaker 1: and pins. David was in similar shape. He was suffering
Speaker 1: from exhaustion and his weight had fallen to barely a
Speaker 1: hundred pounds for the first time in his life. He
Speaker 1: just wanted to stay at home and watch TV, but
Speaker 1: in just a few days he had to go out
Speaker 1: and do it all again. Tony DeFreeze had booked him
Speaker 1: to play sixty concerts in fifty two days across Britain.
Speaker 1: David and the other Spiders grumbled that they were worked
Speaker 1: the bone. It was one of the few things they
Speaker 1: agreed on. Ever since the pay dispute, the camaraderie of
Speaker 1: the band's early days had evaporated. They were no longer
Speaker 1: a gang of doerd I rock and roll drugs sharing
Speaker 1: a home, a van, on a stage. Mick Ronson was
Speaker 1: kept happy with a solo deal on man Man, but
Speaker 1: drummer Woody woodman Z and bassist Trevor Boulder barely exchanged
Speaker 1: words with David. During their concerts in Japan and the States.
Speaker 1: They had initially boycotted these new English dates until Mick
Speaker 1: Ronson begged them the return of the fold. They agreed,
Speaker 1: but were noticeably absent from David's party. It's doubtful they
Speaker 1: were missed. One person who did attend was Tony Visconti,
Speaker 1: David's friend and former Hadden Hall housemaid. They had seen
Speaker 1: little of one another since Visconti had produced the frustrating
Speaker 1: Sessions for The Man Who Sold the World three years earlier.
Speaker 1: He found David a change person. I recognized him, but
Speaker 1: he really wasn't the same man he'd remember. He was Ziggy.
Speaker 1: David had created an alter ego, and it had completely
Speaker 1: taken over his life. Like a cancer. It grew and grew,
Speaker 1: threatening to kill of the host audiences, journalists, label executives,
Speaker 1: even his own entourage. They all wanted Ziggy, not David Jones.
Speaker 1: So David simply played Ziggy at all times. He became
Speaker 1: lost in the fantasy. The doppelganger and myself were starting
Speaker 1: to become one and the same person, he'd recall. Then
Speaker 1: you start on the trail of chaotic psychological destruction. David
Speaker 1: was locked in a battle for his identity and his soul.
Speaker 1: He was insulated from normal daily life by a coterie
Speaker 1: of handlers, security guards, and assorted sycophants, all of whom
Speaker 1: treated him like an alien in need of constant protection.
Speaker 1: As a result, David lost touch with reality. He began
Speaker 1: to doubt his own sanity. The madness that he spent
Speaker 1: all his life trying to keep it bay now felt
Speaker 1: dangerously close. The UK tour did little to elevate morale.
Speaker 1: It got off to a rough start when David was
Speaker 1: booked to be the first rock act to play Earl's Court,
Speaker 1: a massive exhibition hall traditionally used for fairs and trade shows.
Speaker 1: All of the eighteen thousand seats had sold out in
Speaker 1: three hours, making it David's biggest audience to date. It
Speaker 1: should have been a triumph, but the gig was a disaster.
Speaker 1: The band's inadequate sound system, coupled with the poor acoustics
Speaker 1: of the venue, ensure that almost no one could hear
Speaker 1: the music. Poor seating arrangements meant that few could actually
Speaker 1: see David's elaborate stage show either. This, combined with a
Speaker 1: lingering smell from a recent horse competition, made for a
Speaker 1: less than optimal concert experience. The show had to be
Speaker 1: halted midway through his hundreds of raucous fans stormed the stage,
Speaker 1: kicking and punching each other as they went. Boie pleaded
Speaker 1: for calm while drunken revelers fought and urinated in the aisles.
Speaker 1: He and the band hid backstage for more than fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes until order was restored. Routiness became something of a
Speaker 1: theme at his recent concerts. A show in Glasgow made
Speaker 1: headlines when couples were caught having sex in their seats
Speaker 1: as He's saying, Oh, you pretty things. David thought this
Speaker 1: was fabulous, but he was less than thrilled in Brighton
Speaker 1: when fans tore out an entire row of theater seats,
Speaker 1: resulting in David's permanent band from the venue. David caused
Speaker 1: damage to himself at another gig when he took a
Speaker 1: flying leap off a five foot speaker, only to face
Speaker 1: plants on the stage. He performed the encore confined to
Speaker 1: a chair, singing a cover of chuck Berries round and
Speaker 1: round through the pain of a sore ankle. Well David
Speaker 1: was sacrificing his body on the stage. Tony Dufries was
Speaker 1: scheming yet another trip to the United States, David's third
Speaker 1: and less than a year, he claimed to have thirty
Speaker 1: eight North American dates lined up, with plans to double
Speaker 1: the number. He also had gigs and far flung regions
Speaker 1: like China and Russia. He claimed the proposed concerts would
Speaker 1: be even more elaborate than anything Broadway had ever seen.
Speaker 1: In fact, they would challenge the laws of physics. David's
Speaker 1: technical director dreamed up a method to cover the stage
Speaker 1: with a giant two layered plastic bubble gases pumped into
Speaker 1: the bubbles double wall could make Bowie seemed to grow
Speaker 1: larger or smaller, then turn him shades of orange, blue,
Speaker 1: or red. At least that was the story Tony de
Speaker 1: Freeze put around, But he was faced with a problem.
Speaker 1: For all his talent for getting good press, the Freeze
Speaker 1: had violated the first rule of show business, always leave
Speaker 1: them wanting more. David's many trips to the States had
Speaker 1: all but eliminated demand to see him. American seats were
Speaker 1: going unsold, and promoters worried about making a return on
Speaker 1: their investment. As main man executive Tony Sinetto would explain,
Speaker 1: david stardom was more in the press. It didn't translate
Speaker 1: into real numbers. The American tours had never made any money.
Speaker 1: They increased David's fame, but decreased his bank account. This
Speaker 1: has been de freeze planned from the start, but the
Speaker 1: spending was spiraling out of control. The dinners, limos, first
Speaker 1: class hotel suites. It all added up to say nothing
Speaker 1: of the astronomical production costs of the concerts themselves. Recent
Speaker 1: tours made back barely a quarter of what they spent.
Speaker 1: David's refusal to fly limited the number of shows he
Speaker 1: could do to recoup expenses. Our c A Records, still
Speaker 1: furious at footing the bill for the last US ROMP,
Speaker 1: refused to underwrite another tour. Main Man didn't have the
Speaker 1: resources the amount the tour themselves. The organization was hemorrhaging money,
Speaker 1: losing upwards of a thousand pounds a week. Bowie himself
Speaker 1: certainly didn't have the cash. Despite his stardom. He was
Speaker 1: forced to borrow money just to survive. Once he and
Speaker 1: Angie arrived home to find their door padlocked shut by creditors,
Speaker 1: Little Zoe was sent to stay with friends just to
Speaker 1: ensure he got fed. Simply put, the price of touring
Speaker 1: was just too much, too much money, too much energy,
Speaker 1: too much of everyone's sanity. David just didn't have anything left.
Speaker 1: His enthusiasm for the road was rapidly growing thin as
Speaker 1: he felt like a slave to his manager's ambitions. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do another tour of America this year, he sighed
Speaker 1: to one journalist. I might die, but I have to
Speaker 1: do it. Tour or no tour. A showdown between David
Speaker 1: and Ziggy was imminent. It boiled down to a choice.
Speaker 1: Would he do what was expected, demanded, even or would
Speaker 1: he satisfy himself and his own creative curiosity Aladdin saying
Speaker 1: had been the closest David had ever come to repeating
Speaker 1: himself creatively. Would David remained the singing Martian forever? Would
Speaker 1: he continue cranking out spacey pop tracks for the rest
Speaker 1: of his career. For David, the thought was untenable. He
Speaker 1: was bored to death of the whole Ziggy concept and
Speaker 1: eager to write for a different kind of project. He
Speaker 1: had to move on. It became clear that he had
Speaker 1: the phase out Ziggy before Ziggy phased him out. In
Speaker 1: times of crisis, we returned to our base instincts. The
Speaker 1: survival skills and coping mechanisms set in places frightened children
Speaker 1: desperate to protect ourselves through fear, we become who we were.
Speaker 1: As David struggle for spiritual balance, a memory revealed itself,
Speaker 1: barely on the threshold of his consciousness. He was a boy,
Speaker 1: maybe four or five, in his Brixton childhood home. He
Speaker 1: was screaming that he was dying. His parents leapt into action.
Speaker 1: Ordinarily they were so stoic and still, but in this
Speaker 1: moment their faces were twisted and worry. For once David
Speaker 1: knew they cared, he felt their love. An ambulance came
Speaker 1: tearing up the sleepy lane, drawing neighbors to their windows
Speaker 1: to see what all the fuss was about. At the
Speaker 1: Jones house. They mirrored his parents concern. Of course, David
Speaker 1: didn't die that day. Doctors found nothing wrong, and that's
Speaker 1: because there wasn't physically. But the stunt had given David
Speaker 1: exactly what he needed. It suspended all expectations and responsibilities
Speaker 1: in his everyday life, and it brought him the attention
Speaker 1: and sympathy that he craved. After that, the ambulance made
Speaker 1: frequent trips to the Jones residence. Another false alarm came,
Speaker 1: the inevitable grumble, but it wasn't completely fake to David,
Speaker 1: it was a genuine cry for help. The words were
Speaker 1: simply beyond him. Now an adult, David found himself having
Speaker 1: similar thoughts. What if he died, or rather, what if
Speaker 1: Ziggy stared us died? David would kill him off or
Speaker 1: perhaps just retire him? Best to keep his options open.
Speaker 1: It seemed the perfect solution to all of David's personal
Speaker 1: and professional headaches. In the short term, it would excuse
Speaker 1: him from the upcoming American Tour, which was shaping up
Speaker 1: to be a poorly attended financial disaster. By canceling these
Speaker 1: dates for creative reasons and not economic ones, he could
Speaker 1: save face. It wouldn't look like a failure, quite the opposite.
Speaker 1: It would bolster his reputation as an unclassifiable artistic enigma,
Speaker 1: restlessly evolving before his audience's very eyes. Who else would
Speaker 1: abandoned their star making persona which was, as far as
Speaker 1: the public knew, wildly successful. The move made him look
Speaker 1: daring and adventurous rather than exhausted and overexposed. Retirement was
Speaker 1: a stroke of public relations genius. It offered David creative
Speaker 1: freedom and the well deserved rest. The Frieze loved the
Speaker 1: idea the Beatles had retired from the road during the
Speaker 1: peak of their career, why not David. Arrangements were made
Speaker 1: for Ziggy's Final Bow, which would occur on the final
Speaker 1: date of their UK tour, a sold out gig at
Speaker 1: the Hammersmith Odean on July three three. The plan was
Speaker 1: top secret and kept strictly between David and de Frieze.
Speaker 1: Not even Angie was told of the retirement, an indication
Speaker 1: of just how estranged she and her husband had become.
Speaker 1: Mick Ronson was one of the few to be given
Speaker 1: a heads up, but he was sworn to secrecy. The
Speaker 1: rest of the band wasn't informed that after three years
Speaker 1: of living together, traveling together, and reaching the highest echelons
Speaker 1: of rock fame together, their services with David were no
Speaker 1: longer required. Legendary documentary and d A. Penny Baker was
Speaker 1: hired to capture the proceedings on film. Our c A
Speaker 1: also sent a mobile recording unit for a proposed live album,
Speaker 1: ensuring there were no second thoughts. News of the retirement
Speaker 1: was leaked to a handful of trusted journalists at the
Speaker 1: last possible moment. Headlines trumpeting David's retirement were headed to
Speaker 1: the printing press as the audience were still taking their seats.
Speaker 1: The crowd was packed with huge names including Mick Jagger,
Speaker 1: lou Reid, Ringo Star and Tony Curtis, and also a
Speaker 1: young girl named Julie. Guitar god Jeff Beck appeared as
Speaker 1: a special guest on Jeane Genie and Round and Round.
Speaker 1: Other than that, the show was mostly business as usual,
Speaker 1: just another gig as far as the band was concerned.
Speaker 1: But David had asked the musicians the way to beat
Speaker 1: before launching into their trusted finale rock and Roll Suicide.
Speaker 1: Being the last night of the tour, they figured David
Speaker 1: would give a little speech marking the occasion. They had
Speaker 1: no idea what was about to happen. They were about
Speaker 1: to be fired in the most public manner imaginable. Having
Speaker 1: thanked the road crew in the band, David paused, cowed
Speaker 1: by the gravity of what he was about to do,
Speaker 1: and then he plunged the knife into his most successful
Speaker 1: creation and into the backs of some of his closest associates.
Speaker 1: Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show
Speaker 1: will remain with us the longest, he said, because not
Speaker 1: only is it the last show of the tour, but
Speaker 1: as the last show will ever do thank you. The
Speaker 1: spiders shot quizzical looks at one another as they struggled
Speaker 1: through the lengthy end of Rock and Roll Suicide. Did
Speaker 1: David say something about retiring? It was hard to hear
Speaker 1: over the dismayed cries of the crowd. Trevor Boulder mouth
Speaker 1: to Woody Woodman's he sacked us. That's when it's sunk
Speaker 1: in what he considered storming off in the middle of
Speaker 1: the song, but somehow managed to keep his composure and
Speaker 1: play through. After taking their final bows, they looked in
Speaker 1: vain for David, desperate for some kind of explanation, but
Speaker 1: he was gone, vanished, nowhere to be found. The press
Speaker 1: reaction to David's news was monumental. Headlines across the globe
Speaker 1: blared variations of bowie bows out. Most reports quoted a
Speaker 1: main Man press release issued the day after the concert,
Speaker 1: which dramatically stated that David was quote leaving the concert
Speaker 1: stage forever. It would take weeks before it became clear
Speaker 1: that it wasn't David himself who would never perform again,
Speaker 1: but Ziggy. By that point a few cared to make
Speaker 1: the distinction. The impending US tour had gone up in smoke.
Speaker 1: David was free almost a year to the day after
Speaker 1: his star making appearance on Top of the Pops. David
Speaker 1: had carried out the self emilation for told in the
Speaker 1: Ziggy Stardust narrative, a real life rock and roll suicide.
Speaker 1: Ziggy had transcendent fantasy, becoming so real that he threatened
Speaker 1: to consume David. Through the act of killing Ziggy, David
Speaker 1: put the master stroke on his most enduring work of art,
Speaker 1: but it also meant saying goodbye to a part of
Speaker 1: himself and life as he knew it. After that night,
Speaker 1: the Spiders would never play together again. Within months, David
Speaker 1: and Angie would leave Hadden Hall. Their long time home
Speaker 1: was now overrun with fans. Some of these well wishers
Speaker 1: just wanted a hello. Others broke off door knobs and
Speaker 1: shingles as souvenirs. A few even found their way inside,
Speaker 1: prowling the halls in search of the object of their desire.
Speaker 1: David couldn't stay. He had a family to think about,
Speaker 1: but even that seemed tenuous as he drifted further and
Speaker 1: further from Angie. It's telling that David's next musical endeavor
Speaker 1: was a covers album called Phin Ups. It's a collection
Speaker 1: of British pop songs from the mid sixties, a time
Speaker 1: when David was struggling to find his musical voice with
Speaker 1: an endless stream of failed bands. Revisiting these hits from
Speaker 1: his frustrated youth allowed them to rewrite his own history
Speaker 1: as a full blown superstar. By laying claim to these songs,
Speaker 1: he could recast them in his own image and retroactively
Speaker 1: make himself a part of the London rock scene that
Speaker 1: rejected him all those years ago. It gave him a
Speaker 1: sense of closure. One by one, the links to his
Speaker 1: past were severed. The future was wide open. Some would
Speaker 1: say that David's retirement was a business decision, a hackey
Speaker 1: and opportunistic show business trope, but his true feelings about
Speaker 1: Ziggy were far more complicated. David would say of his creation,
Speaker 1: He's a monster and I'm Dr Frankenstein. He's my brother
Speaker 1: and God I love him. His death hit him hard.
Speaker 1: After taking his final bows at the Hammersmith Odean, David
Speaker 1: returned to his dressing room, collapsed on the vanity and wept.
Speaker 1: He wept for Ziggy, for his disintegrating marriage, for his
Speaker 1: half brother terry, institutionalized and lonely for his father dead
Speaker 1: far too soon, and for himself. Then his tears turned
Speaker 1: to rage. He uncorked the furious emotions that he bottled
Speaker 1: for years, and they erupted out of him in a
Speaker 1: violent frenzy. Chairs, tables, lamps, windows, wine bottles, and flowers
Speaker 1: all were kicked, thrown and spat on. Then he turned
Speaker 1: the violence on his real target, himself, clawing his neck
Speaker 1: and face. When it was all over, he stared into
Speaker 1: the shattered mirror. His mismatched eyes that stared back at
Speaker 1: him were bloodshot and his cheek was bruised. Ziggy Stardus
Speaker 1: was dead. David Jones was alone again. For him, that
Speaker 1: was the scariest fate of all. Off the Record is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. The executive producers are
Speaker 1: Noel Brown and Shan t. Tone. The superbusing producers so
Speaker 1: Taylor Skyn and Tristan McNeil. The show was written and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Jordan Runtag and edited, scored and sound
Speaker 1: designed by Tristan McNeil. If you liked what you heard,
Speaker 1: please subscribe and leave us a review. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart radio, app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to Off the record. We've
Speaker 1: reached the midpoint of the season, so we're gonna take
Speaker 1: a brief pause in the story. Next Monday, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have an interview with Ken Scott, co producer of Ziggy Stardust, A,
Speaker 1: Ladin Saying, and Hunky Dorry. Throughout the course of his
Speaker 1: legendary career, he's also worked with the Beatles, Elton John
Speaker 1: and Pink Floyd, among many others. You won't want to
Speaker 1: miss this. We'll be back to the next chapter of
Speaker 1: David Bowie's life on Monday. Mark J.