WEBVTT - Chapter Eight: Cracked Actor (1975) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.360 Off the record is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:08.039 What was that? Was that? A falling body? David Bowie 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.480 was sure he'd seen a body fall from the sky, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.680 sailing downwards past the picture window of his Hollywood home. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.840 He went to look, and it was gone, vanished. But 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.319 it seems so real. So did the phantom voices that 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.520 called to him from the intercom at the front gate. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.720 So too did the spirit that haunted a swimming pool, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.800 which manifested as a swirling vortex of bubbles. He was 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.320 in touch with a practitioner of white magic, a so 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.160 called good witch, to exercise the demons. This good which 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.599 could probably handle a pool, but she was gonna need 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.120 some serious backup if she was going to exercise the 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.440 demons that plagued David's soul. He pulled the blind shut, 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.440 desperate to block out the bright sun and the dark 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.200 forces that lurked outside. Now his world was a dimly 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.080 lit living room, made all the more tomb like by 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.680 the unsettling Egyptian decor. Often the only light emanated from 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.600 the film projector running loops of Nazi newsreels with alarming frequency. 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.400 For extra spiritual protection, David drew pentagrams on the wall 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.000 and lip black candles, tricks he'd gleaned from his growing 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.840 library on the occult, He'd collected volumes of religious and 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:22.840 mystic texts, including works on Tero, Kabbala, numerology, and Egyptology. 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.920 His spirit was under assault, and this would help keep 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.440 the enemies at day. Another enemy was sleep, which he 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.759 ward it off with mounds of white powder. A few 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:40.000 sniffs kept him awake, productive, vigilant, and safe. It was 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:45.479 the spring of or maybe summer. Who's to tell really. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.520 For David, time passed and a breakneck blur as he 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.800 stayed up for three or four days at a stretch. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.800 He was in town to make his feature film debut, 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.080 or production delays left into his own devices. Often these 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.040 devices were stable. The mix of sleep, deprivation and drugs 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.440 drove him to a state that bordered on psychosis. He 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.280 would remember a few specifics of this period in later years, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.960 just disturbing emotional impressions. Over the course of his day's 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.600 long bouts of consciousness, his world would transform into, in 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:23.320 his words, a bizarre nihilistic fantasy of oncoming doom, mythological characters, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:28.040 and imminent totalitarianism. The line between dream and reality was 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.560 becoming impossible to define. Each hour he remained awake, a 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.520 new enemy seemed to come for him. There were witches 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.200 who were after his seamen, intent on using it to 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.760 create a baby to sacrifice to Satan. Bowie kept a 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.200 close watch on his bodily fluids, even storing bottles of 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.600 his urine in the fridge. The CIA was interfering with 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.000 his writings. The Manson family had proud these hills just 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.080 a few years earlier, and their energy was still palpable. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.359 The perceived threats came even from his fellow musicians. Ever 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.320 since a n s the altercation with Jimmy Page, David 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.040 was sure that the led Zeppelin guitarists was conspiring with 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.520 his coterie of black magic women to wish him ill 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.520 the Rolling Stones. Meanwhile, we're taunting him with messages hidden 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:17.280 in their albums Nazis Manson Satan. David felt surrounded by 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.680 forces of evil, but to his friends, the real enemy 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.799 was cocaine. Sigmund Freud had called it his magical substance. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.200 It pushed David further into the realms of magical thinking, 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.840 which is looking awful lot like madness, and his reputation 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.320 was taking a hit. One Music magazine described him in 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.680 print as old vacuum cleaner nos but it wasn't a 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.520 laughing matter. Cocaine had overtaken food as his most crucial sustenance. 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.040 Blow milk and red peppers kept them alive, though just barely. 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.000 His skeletal frame now weighed around ninety pounds. He'd overdosed 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.960 on several occasions, and by his own admission, he could 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.520 have easily died. Partiers like Keith Richards and Elton John 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.760 seemed to so. It was the most destructive period of 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.640 David Bowie's life, as he pushed himself far past the 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.680 point of no return. Secluded in his mansion populated by 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:13.040 a parade of dealers and parasites, he was beyond help, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.920 estranged from his family and old friends, and completely unmoored 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.080 from everything that had kept him grounded. After years on 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.560 the brink, he'd finally split snapped. He was a cracked 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:32.359 actor lost in the long l a night. Hello, and 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.120 welcome to Off the Record, the show that goes beyond 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.400 the songs and into the hearts and minds of rock's 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.920 greatest legends. I'm your host Jordan Runtug. This season explores 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.520 the life or rather lives of David Bowie. Today's episode 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.039 looks at Bowie's l a years a time when he 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.520 battled as deepest Demons in the City of Angels. It 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.600 was the high point of his career to date, but 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.159 it was the low point of his life and nearly 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.880 the end of it. Somehow, in the midst of this 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.159 personal native, he pulled himself back from the edge and 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:11.600 made an album that many consider a masterpiece. In January, 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.680 David Bowie completed his very first number one single, and 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.719 he had a beatle for backup. It was a twist 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.200 of faith that even he couldn't have predicted. A decade earlier, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.279 David had attempted a feeble John Lennon impression on his 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.760 first ever release, Liza Jane. Now he was in the 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.359 studio with the man himself, hanging out, playing together, and 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:37.239 even writing together. The resulting track was called, appropriately enough, Fame. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.120 Their burgeoning friendship had allowed the two to compare notes 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.839 about their extraordinary lives. David was beginning to learn the 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.240 hard truth that Lennon had arrived at years earlier. Being 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.599 a rock star ain't all it cracked up to be. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:55.400 It's fitting that this meditation on the shallowness of show business. 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.039 Notoriety would ultimately take David to the top of the 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:02.840 American charts, but the achievement only underscored is growing dissatisfaction, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.800 outlined in the song. Carlos Alamar's relentless guitar riff endlessly 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.279 swirling around the single chord evoked the monotony and claustrophobia 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.320 of celebrity. The lyrics, which David wrote on the spot 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.400 in just twenty minutes, were a snapshot of his life 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.000 at his supposed peak of success, a litany of money, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.560 worries and insecurities. Fame takes you there where things are hollow, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:33.159 he sang, what you need, you have to borrow. This 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.600 all led to one big question, why didn't David ever 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.200 seem to have any money? Through his friendships with Mick Jagger, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.839 Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon, he'd witnessed the lifestyles of 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.200 the obscenely wealthy. These people had a states tax, shelters, 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.520 fleets of cars, jewelry collections. David had none of that. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.960 He just sold out a residency at Radio City Music 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.520 Hall and debuted his new single on national television. Yeah, 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.720 he had the r O petty cash from his management 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.200 offices just to buy a few records. Something didn't add up. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.000 He began to grow suspicious of his manager, Tony Defrees. 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.960 The partnership had launched his career, but he became increasingly 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.440 fearful that he had nothing monetary to show for it. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.120 He confided in John Lennon, who was still dealing with 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.840 the legal quagmire of the Beatles split more than four 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.960 years before. Managerial mishaps had played a pivotal role in 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.200 driving the fab for apart, and it made John wise 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.720 to the world of contracts. John advised his younger friend 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.440 to take a closer look at what he got himself into. 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.880 At the dawn of the decade, David and DeFries reunited 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.520 by the shared goal of making David the biggest rock 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.880 star on the planet, and they had more or less 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.240 succeeded together from the start. De Frieze offered him a 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.240 creative cocoon, taking care of all business and finance concerns. 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.840 There is management company Maine Man. When David was effectively penniless, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.200 it was a pretty good deal. He didn't have to 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.160 worry about rent or food. To Freeze made sure everything 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.920 was covered, leaving him free to focus on his music. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.520 In a way, it was every artist's dream. But the 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.240 campaign to launch David had come at a high cost, 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:17.160 and to freeze intended to recoup his investment. He'd operated 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.560 under the theory that to be a star, one had 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.960 to look like a star, act like a star, and 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.160 generally live like a star, a classic case of fake 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.840 it till you make it. David was fine with this. 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.560 He knew you had to spend money to make money. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.520 He just didn't realize that the money being spent was 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.760 his own. The lavish expense accounts, the on call limos, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.120 the failings of bodyguards, the elegant offices, the hotel suites 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.840 and room service, the whole big budget diamond dogs tore debacle, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.600 every gleeful, shameless excess of the whole manman managerial stable. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.599 David put the bill for all of it. What he 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.200 didn't have on hand was taken as an advance against 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.400 future earnings. At the present rate, he'd have to work 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.600 the rest of his life just to break even. David 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.920 had no idea, or so he'd claim. Like most artists, 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.240 he had little interest in the fine print. Early in 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.920 his career, he let his father manage every aspect of 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:17.760 his finances, from bills to taxes and insurance. The Frieze 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.800 was just another father figure, and he trusted him blindly 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.840 for years. David just left him to it. De Freeze 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.680 once handed a stack of contracts to a secretary, saying, 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.640 take these to David. Don't worry, it won't take long. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.960 He'll sign anything. And it was true. I had my 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 eyes on the Star Prize. David would later admit nothing 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.080 else mattered. As a result, he was blissfully ignorant of 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.800 his precarious financial situation. But by four he began the 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.880 wonder allowed where his money was going. Why did the 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.240 Freeze own multiple properties in Manhattan and a country estate 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.480 in Connecticut, while he, the alleged Star made do with 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.400 a single Crumby townhouse. It was rented. Just like everything 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.240 else in his life, he didn't own anything. Yes, his 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.920 reliance on cocaine had made him a little edgy, but 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:14.720 surely something was badly wrong. DeFreeze, for his part, didn't 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.119 appreciate the torrent of questions from his mercurial client. Besides, 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.800 he had his own gripes with Bowie. Some of it 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.240 could be chalked up to creative differences. David's ferret into 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.320 R and B on his new, yet to be released 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.360 album Young Americans had left the Frieze cold. Plus the 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.880 abrupt abandonment of a quarter million dollar diamond dog stage 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.000 set got under his skin. Even a big spender like 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.120 DeFreeze had a shutter at the waist of it all. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.360 But the artistic disagreements were just the beginning. More than 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.080 anything else, he disapproved of David's drug use. De Frieze 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.160 barely even drank. By now Bowie was snorting lines in 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.120 the middle of main man meetings, making communication all but impossible. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:58.959 De Frieze knew better than the talk to David when 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.840 his eyes had that pecure earlier glimmer. To him, David 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.320 was becoming increasingly unmanageable. To David, the Frieze was becoming 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:13.120 increasingly useless. A collision seemed imminent. It occurred in July, 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.280 as David was set to play a doubleheader at Madison 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.079 Square Garden. De Frieze had taken David's wife Angie to 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.080 task for spending too much on airfare in recent months. 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.480 David had his own problems with Angie these days, but 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.040 he didn't react well to this criticism of his spouse, 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.080 even if their open relationship was on the rocks. Moreover, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.440 he was confused, while they had the penny pinch, surely 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.040 they were doing well enough to cover airline fees. Annoyed 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.760 and more than a little baffled, David Cold MainMan president 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.200 Tony zenetted to his hotel suite for an uncharacteristically blunt 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.719 discussion of company finances. It was the first time he'd 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:53.840 ever really asked what was being done in his name. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.839 Sanetta's explanation left him shocked. From the start. David thought 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.200 he and Defrieze has split everything down the middle as 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.360 equal partners. He believed that he was a co owner 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.160 of Maine Man, the company that controlled his music, his management, 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.640 his life. The reality mapped out in his contracts was 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.280 heartbreaking lee different. He owned no part of Maine Man. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.199 He was an employee of DeFreeze, entitled of the profits 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:31.880 after expenses, expenses like tours, offices, hotel suites, everything. In 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.360 an instant, David realized that the business empire he strove 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.840 the build didn't belong to him. It was a mirage. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.040 After a few moments of denial, he gasped, did I 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.560 work this hard to have nothing. From then on it 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.080 was over between him and Defrieze. David had no interest 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.480 in changing the terms of his deal. He simply wanted out. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.920 David's assistant and right hand woman, Coco Schwab, found the 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.079 a lawyer named Michael Lippman, and in January of nine 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.920 five he began proceedings to sever all ties with MainMan 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.480 and DeFreeze. Lawyers shuttle between rooms in an l A 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.000 hotel for forty eight continuous hours before a settlement was 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.800 reached to Freeze emerged the clear Victor may Man would 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.800 receive half of all profits on all albums David had 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.840 made under their management forever. This included classics like Hunky Dory, 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:31.840 Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin, Saying, and Diamond Dogs. Defriese would also 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:37.000 receive a sizeable percentage of David's income through throughout the 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:41.240 long shadowy history of music management deals, these terms were 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:46.199 unusually favorable for an ex manager. Their partnership had begun 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.720 with Bowie and Tears desperate to leave. As former manager 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:54.040 Ken Pitt now that was how their union ended. David 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.840 broke down at the meeting as millions of his future 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.240 earnings were surrendered. He was escorted from the room and 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.560 what some believed was a state of clinical shock. For 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.920 days after, anguished cries could be heard coming from the 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.720 direction of his bedroom. He tried to take a zen 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.880 approach to the whole man man a fair later, saying 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.200 I certainly wouldn't have achieved that degree of notoriety without 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.360 all that nonsense going on. I guess I'm thankful for 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.360 that period. In a way, he was free, but he 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.840 was alone. Some changes were made to preserve the trickle 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.800 of money he had coming through. He moved out of 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.600 the two bedroom suite at the Pierre Hotel, where he'd 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.280 run up twenty dollars worth the room service in a 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.560 single month, and into a rented brownstone in New York's 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.440 Chelsea neighborhood. David barely bothered to furnish the place, and 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:49.120 the spartan accommodations left visitors feeling claustrophobic and depressed. David's 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.560 difficult financial position forced him to cancel the small allowance 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:54.600 that he had been paying to his mother Peggy back 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.200 home in England. The relationship wasn't exactly warm at the 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.920 best of times, and now Peg he was furious that 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.960 her boyd cut her off. She took her complaints to 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:08.760 the press, calling David a terrible hypocrite. David Cooley informed 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.280 her that if she ever repeated the stunt, she would 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.080 never see him or his money ever again. He reinstated 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.120 her allowance and even sent her a gold records and awards. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.720 She set up a virtual shrine to David in her apartment, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.160 but she seldom saw her son in the flesh for 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:30.840 much of the decade. He'd maintained his distance. After touring 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.400 NonStop for almost three years, David was rarely seen for 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:38.600 most of nineteen That March, he made one of his 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.000 only major appearances, presenting the Best Female R and B 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.120 Award at the Grammys in New York. Clad in an 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.080 elegant white tie tucks, he looked amazing, every bit the 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:53.520 classy show business idol, yet he was gripped by nerves. Beforehand. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.960 He confided in John Lennon, a fellow presenter and a 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:03.240 fellow Englishman abroad, that he misunderstood in America, Yanks, David 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:08.080 believed just didn't get him creatively. After addressing the Grammy's 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.920 crowd with a very bowie like ladies, gentlemen and others, 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.080 He handed the trophy to winner Aretha Franklin, who blurted out, Wow, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.960 this is so good. I could kiss David Bowie. She 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.120 didn't mean it as a compliment, and David was deeply 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.880 mortified by the line. He slunk off stage and into 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.120 the arms of Lenin, who tried to cheer him up 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.600 by planting a theatrical kiss on his cheek. See Dave 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:38.440 Lennon teased, America loves you. The incident was indicative of 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.280 a minor backlash that had set in, at least among 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.880 his musical peers. He learned that Fay meant not only 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.440 rubbing shoulders with fellow superstars, but ruffling the feathers of 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.720 a few, and it hurt. At one party, David met 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.760 Bob Dylan, who sniped, glam ROCKI isn't music before turning 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:01.480 his back on him. The rejection stung. David responded by 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.240 disappearing into the private quarters of his downtown brownstone and 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.560 indulging in an increasingly vampiric existence. For most of the year, 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:21.760 he'd retreat from the public eye and into himself. By 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.720 the spring of nine, David Bowie was ingesting what a 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.879 friend would refer to as enough cocaine to kill a horse. 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.760 It had long since gone for being a tool to 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.000 being a necessity required to maintain his energy. On the 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.639 Diamond Dogs tour the prior year, he refused to go 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.359 on stage without it, and there was always a roady 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.320 groupier fan willing to keep him supplied. The gold topped 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.919 cane he twirled during the show wasn't merely a prop, 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:52.040 but sometimes necessary to hold up his frail frame. One 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.240 night in Detroit, he accidentally spilled a baggy of white 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.240 powder on his hotel room floor. Saying nothing, he dropped 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.600 to the ground a big and huffing the rug. Cocaine 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.200 was simply a part of his life. He thought nothing 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.240 of openly snorting lines during dinner in front of girlfriend 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.960 Avia Cherry's parents. At least on the road he had 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.680 performances to burn off as chemically enhanced stenergy. But when 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.280 the tour wrapped, he simply stowed in his house, foregoing 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.880 sleep with the aid of medical grade Merrick cocaine stronger 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.560 than anything he'd encountered in England. It was easily obtainable, 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.280 and it kept me working. He would recall, I wasn't 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.520 really an out on the town guy. I was much more. Okay, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.120 let's write ten different projects this week and make four 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:40.960 or five sculptures. After several days awake, he started to hallucinate, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.840 spotting angels floating outside his window. The delusions came hard 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.320 and fast. Even Mick Jagger, no stranger to elicit substances, 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.919 grew worried as David started rambling about enemies bugging his 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.399 phone or tailing his car. He spouted fears that the 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.600 freeze was Hitler incarnate and on again off again friend 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.240 lou Reid was inhabited by the spirit of a devil, 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.960 and together they were out to destroy him. He became 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.600 convinced that led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, an enthusiastic student of 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:16.120 legendary Satanist Alistair Crowley, also intended to do him harm. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.720 To ward them off, David embarked on what he would 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:23.000 later refer to as his wayward spiritual search. He developed 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.879 an all consuming interest in taro, astrology, numerology, and the Kabbalah, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.800 not to mention more fringe theories like black magic, prehistoric 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.320 spacemen and the Third Reich's alleged search for the Holy Grail, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:39.520 and pre war Britain. All manner of psychic phenomenon was explored, 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.480 and even the mundane took on supernatural significance. He insisted 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.840 he possessed the power of telepathy, once urging a friend 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:52.000 to concentrate on a five figure number. Amazingly, after a 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.120 few minutes of focus, David guessed four of the five 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.680 numbers in the sequence. Maybe he was onto something, after all. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.080 David was fairly open about his idiosyncratic interests. During an 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.800 interview with American chat show host Dick Cavitt the prior December, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:12.080 he confused television viewers and Cavitt himself by discussing not 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.720 his new single, but something called black Noise, a sound 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.600 powerful enough to level buildings or even destroy an entire city. 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.960 After several minutes of painfully stilted, semi comprehensible rambling, Cabot 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.760 finally asked his guest, do you want to be understood? 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:33.840 David replied, there's absolutely nothing to understand. A more worrisome 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.199 profile appeared a month later in the form of a 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:41.680 BBC television documentary. Young producer Alan Yentub initially planned to 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.000 call his film The Collector, based on Bowie's description of 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:49.199 himself as a collector of faces. Gestures and presences. But 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.480 when they first met up to begin filming during the 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.840 Diamond Docs tour the prior September, yent ub saw the 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:59.159 troubling effects of the endlessly shifting personalities, not to mention 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:02.920 the copious cope can use. He ultimately called the documentary 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.760 Cracked Actor, after the Aladdin Sane song about the perils 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:11.240 of fame. It was an appropriate title. The film presents 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.880 Bowie as a man perpetually in motion, driven by a potent, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.720 toxic blend of ambition and fear, criss crossing America in 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.679 search of an identity, having jettison Ziggy for Diamond Dogs 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.000 and now this New Guys. As the soul singer of 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.320 young Americans, Bowie seemed haunted and lost throughout the shoot. 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:34.080 He was barely sleeping or eating, and looked fragile, aching, lee, sad, 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.119 and at times scarcely human. Their late night interviews were 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.639 obtuse and difficult to follow, with Bowie often speaking in 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.199 riddles and referring to himself and the third person. He 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.840 made repeated references to schizophrenia and claimed not to know 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.560 quote whether I was writing the characters or the characters 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.960 were writing me. The most memorable scenes and Cracked Actor 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.080 take place in the back of Bowie's limousine. There is 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.159 a nocturnal cruise through l A. The sound of a 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.640 police siren in the distance sends Bowie into a paranoid panic. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.480 Is there anything behind us? He asks anxiously. Then he 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.760 sniffs a sniff all too familiar to anyone in the 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:18.000 entertainment scene of the seventies. There's an underlying unease here, 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:20.919 he tells you, trubs camera. You can feel it in 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.320 every avenue. It's very calm, and it's a kind of 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:27.520 superficial calmness that they've developed to underplay the fact that 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.399 there's a lot of high pressure here. Later, while driving 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:35.280 through the desert, yentabasques David how he's absorbed the American 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.119 culture that surrounds him. David responds by pointing to a 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:41.280 fly who had come to rest and his ever present 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.920 bottle of milk. He's a foreign body and he's getting 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:47.920 a lot of milk, David says of the insect. That's 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:52.840 how I feel a foreign body. For all of David's success, 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:57.359 he still felt like the perpetual outsider. Cracked Actor was 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.680 the most thorough portrait of David to date. It also 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.240 offered David the unique experience of viewing himself from the outside, 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.119 just like his audience. Bowie later told Yenub that he 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:11.359 watched the film again and again because, in his words, 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:15.639 he told the truth. What he saw captivated him and 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:20.920 horrified him. His debilitating cocaine addiction is on full display 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.919 edging him towards a precipitous mental decline. He looked awful, 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.679 waxy and emaciated. Cracked Actor is the defining document of 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.680 his most difficult period, and he would find it painful 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:37.080 to watch. But for a group of Hollywood film executives, 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:40.440 it was exactly what they were looking for. They were 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:44.320 casting for English director Nicholas rogues latest film, a sci 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.960 fi parable called The Man Who Fell to Earth. It's 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.760 an allegorical tale of an extraterrestrial soul destroyed by all 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:58.880 too human vices and frailties, power, greed, corruption, alcohol, and media. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.679 It's Senator Out, an alien visitor who had come to 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:05.000 Earth to save his planet and his family, shielding his 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.840 true identity with a human alter ego known as Thomas 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:11.760 Jerome Newton. The endeavor initially made him rich and influential, 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.639 then It left him spiritually depleted and addicted as he 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:17.760 fell in with those who sought to cash in and 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:24.200 take advantage. Any of this sounding familiar, the producers searched 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:27.119 for their leading man had so far been fruitless. They 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:30.160 kicked around established names like Peter O'Toole, but it didn't 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:34.840 quite feel right. No, said Nick Rogue. I want someone weak, slender, 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:37.080 and pale. I want them to look as if they 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:40.800 have no bones. By chance, a casting agent caught a 0:24:40.840 --> 0:24:43.960 screening of Cracked actor. The shots of Bowie in the 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:46.800 back of the limo, clinched it, gazing out the window, 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:52.120 totally disconnected from the world outside, alone, isolated an alien. 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:56.080 Bowie was initially wary when he was first approached for 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:58.760 The Man Who Fell to Earth. He had been pitched 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:03.160 piles of alien film gimmicky, ziggy stardus the movie type vehicles, 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.840