David Bowie: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

by David Bowie

SALVO: Do you write to gain or lose your identity? BOWIE: Possibly to understand it. I don’t think either to lose or gain.

Their views are so heavy, so pointed that it becomes very well analyzed, what is going on in this country. My country is in the depths of lethargy and very apathetic, there is very little happening. There’s no action in my country. This is quite a challenge to come over to a country like this where for me the most important thing to me is that the music is a communicative blanket media. Where at home it’s merely something to listen to.

SALVO: At the very finale you state that you want to believe. At times this is quite difficult, but exactly in what do you want to believe in? BOWIE: I would like to believe that people knew what they were fighting for and why they wanted a revolution, and exactly what it was within that they didn’t like. I mean, to put down a society or the aims of a society is to put down a hell of a lot of people and that scares me that there should be such a division where one set of people are saying that another set should be killed.

A song has to take on character, shape, body, and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

For the West, Jagger is most certainly a mother figure and he’s a mother hen to the whole thing. He’s not a cockadoodledoo; he’s much more like a brothel keeper or a madame. BURROUGHS: Oh, very much so. BOWIE: He’s incredibly sexy and very virile. I also find him incredibly motherly and maternal clutched into his bosom of ethnic blues. He’s a white boy from Dagenham trying his damnedest to be ethnic.

Now let’s get into the “Day-In Day-Out” video. BOWIE: Yeah. VOX POP: Now what was the idea behind it? BOWIE: The subject matter generally, if I can preface that with the subject matter generally on the album, seems to be split between personal romance, personal feelings of love and, uh … some kind of statement or indictment of an uncaring society on this—particularly the response to what’s happening in major cities, in terms of the homeless, of people who are just totally uncared for in terms of education or being fed properly or being housed properly.

LODER: And how did Aladdin Sane then mutate into the Diamond Dogs period? BOWIE: Christ knows! I know the impetus for Diamond Dogs was both Metropolis and 1984—those were the two things that went into it. In fact, Diamond Dogs was gonna be a rewrite of 1984—I wanted to try to get the musical rights for it and turn it into a stage musical for touring. But my office, MainMan, didn’t bother to do anything about it, and then I found out that if I dared touch it, Mrs. George Orwell would sue or something.

LODER: Have you ever been offered the lead in any other biographical films? BOWIE: Oh, funny things—like Byron, stuff like that. I don’t know, I think Mick would do a better Byron. I’d probably be a better Shelley. [Laughs]

BOWIE: Do you think of clothes themselves as being a way of torturing society? MCQUEEN: I don’t put such an importance on clothes, anyway. I mean at the end of the day they are, after all, just clothes and I can’t cure the world of illness with clothes. I just try to make the person that’s wearing them feel more confident in themselves because I am so unconfident. I’m really insecure in a lot of ways and I suppose my confidence comes out in the clothes I design anyway. I’m very insecure as a person.

BOWIE: Here’s a fan question. Who would you like to dress more than anyone else in the world and why? MCQUEEN: There’s no one I’d like to dress more than anyone else in the world, I’m afraid. I can’t think of anyone who deserves such a privilege! [Laughs] BOWIE: The sub-headline there! [Laughs] MCQUEEN: Oh my God no, ’cause I’m an atheist and an antiroyalist, so why would I put anyone on a pedestal?

BUST: What do you think makes relationships between men and women work? BOWIE: Complete and absolute generosity with the duvet. The realization that the differences between you will be the key to love, as they will become more apparent as the relationship grows. These are the things to be treasured above all else. The similarities will take care of themselves.

EMIN: Did you always want fame? Is it something you’d wish on your children? BOWIE: I certainly fancied my own spoonful of it when I was young. I was more than downcast to find that fame brought nothing more than good seats in a restaurant. There is nothing there to covet. The nature of fame seems to have shifted recently. I understand that it doesn’t even get you a Madonna ticket these days. So I won’t be recommending it to my offspring. Having influence is more rewarding for feeding ego. Satisfaction and excitement with one’s work is the biggest buzz, though.