12 THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW about DAVID BOWIE
Fully aware that I will forget a thousand things that make David Bowie so memorable, damn, I must say ‘made’, I still want to take you through his life.
The life of a man who was both handsome and likable and musical and artistic. And who also loved the most beautiful woman on the planet. Here’s to you, David Bowie.
1. Let's start with the name. Because David Bowie is actually just called Jones. That's not really celebrity-proof and he was also afraid that he would be confused with Davy Jones, the singer of The Monkees. He chose Bowie because it refers to the ‘Bowie knife’ and in his teenage years he wanted to tell the truth and a knife served to cut through things and break them open.
2. His extraordinary destiny was probably already determined in his nest. His mother ran a cinema and his father worked for an orphanage for which he also organized charity performances where little David began to perform.
3. From a previous marriage, his mother had a half-brother who suffered from schizophrenia. This Terry introduced him to modern jazz. Bowie wrote several songs about his brother's schizophrenia such as ‘All the mad men’ and ‘Jump they say’. His brother's illness ultimately led to suicide. Bowie was not at the funeral because he didn't want to make a media spectacle out of it...
4. Bowie's first marriage could be called a failure. It lasted eleven years and produced a remarkable son; Duncan Jones. He is a successful director and made the films ‘Moon’ and ‘Source Code’.
His brother's illness ultimately led to suicide.
5. After the divorce, Angela sued David for 56 million dollars (yes, you read that right). She of course didn't get that and was given a ten-year gag order not to speak about Bowie. When that ban was over, she immediately went off on The Joan Rivers Show where she said she had once seen Bowie and Jagger lying naked in a bed. Quite fancy, that Angela.
6. So it is not true that Bowie has two different colored eyes. One of his pupils is just larger. This is the result of an old-fashioned fight on the playground with his friend George Underwood. It seems to have been about a girl... The pupil is ‘frozen’ and has remained enlarged and that is what makes it so remarkable. George and David have actually remained friends. Nitpicker who keeps whining about that eye, right?
7. Bowie was quite addicted to cocaine in the seventies and claimed to live on a diet of peppers, coke, and milk. An extremely remarkable combination, if I may say so. He was so paranoid that he kept his urine in the fridge because he was afraid people would steal it. His words, not mine. I just find him even more likable.
Iman's Instagram feed is full of reposts of her beloved husband.
8. In 1992, Bowie married top model Iman. They have been together for 23 years, which is exceptional in the entertainment world. Iman’s Instagram feed is full of reposts of her beloved husband. David also had a child with Iman; daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones was born in 2000. I am very curious about her, but her Insta account is private...
9. Queen Elizabeth wanted to knight Bowie and declare him ‘Sir’, but he refused. “I didn't work my whole life for that.”
10. Bowie was not only an artist but also a great actor (‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’, ‘Labyrinth’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, ‘Twin Peaks’) and in his free time, he drew, painted, and sculpted.
11. Bowie made the song ‘Fashion’ which was the theme music for the MTV program ‘MTV Fashion’ for years.
12. The first line of the song ‘Lazarus’ on Bowie's new album goes like this: ‘Look up here, I’m in heaven’.
RIP Mister Bowie, you will be remembered.
