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- I'm very much a character
when I go on stage

and believe in my part
all the way down the line,

right the way down.

But I do play it
for all it's worth

because that's the way
I do with my station.

That part of what Bowie
is supposedly all about.

I'm an actor.

- David Bowie,

one of the greatest pioneer
artists and rock stars

of the 20th century,

a visionary, an
innovator, a provocateur,

extravagant and controversial.

He transcended music,
fashion, and art.

A genuine songwriter,

whose songs reached
unprecedented heights
around the world.

A man who kept
expanding, exploring,

and evolving
throughout his life.

Inspiring and teaching
generations of musicians

about blending different
styles of music,

changeable and unpredictable.

He remains immortal
in the hearts of many.

- Music is like a
journey through your life

and his music punctuated my
life in terms of question marks

and exclamation
marks and everything.

That's wonderful about music.

I kinda followed it through.

So yesterday is a tragic day

for a lot of music lovers

and he's about light
and music and love

and everything that's
wonderful in the world

when there's so much
dark in the world

that some like barriers
they're creative

and they can just lift anybody.

So that's why I find
it so sad really

that someone so special is gone.

- Listen to the chords he used,

they are so
unbelievably difficult.

The song structures
are just incredible.

He didn't write three
minute pop songs,

he wrote pieces of art
that we could listen to.

- David Bowie was
a rock and roll revolution,

driven, fierce, and always
wanting to escape conformity,

an outsider, an adventurer,

a man out of this world.

David Bowie was born
David Robert Jones

on January 8th, 1947 in
Brixton, South London.

He came from a
working class family.

He had strong bonds with
Terry, his half-brother,

but he grew up in an
unconventional household.

A dark cloud roamed
over his family.

A number of his mother's
relatives were touched

by mental illness and
suffered from schizophrenia.

Some also committed suicide.

Terry's mental health
deteriorated later on

and Bowie was scared
that he would also

eventually be affected
by this illness.

In fact, some even said that
the different personalities

that David created
throughout his life was a way

of coping with his latent
schizophrenia tendencies.

He grew up a complicated man.

When he was just 15 years old,

a traumatic event
happened to him.

Bowie got in a fight over a
girl and got punched in the eye.

This led him to four months
of hospital treatment,

after which doctors
came to the conclusion

that young David wasn't going

to see completely clearly again.

He was left with a
permanently dilated pupil.

The incident gave Bowie those
unique extra terrestrial eyes

and his most iconic feature.

At 17 David was already
different and determined.

He wore his hair long, really
long considering the times.

After so many insults thrown
his way about his hairstyle,

he decided he just wasn't
going to take it anymore.

He formed a society called the

Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Long-Haired Men.

This move was his first
step on the path to fame

that he would achieve
within five years.

- Well, I think, we're
all fairly tolerant,

but over the last two years
we've had comments like darling

and can I carry a
handbag, thrown at us.

I think you just
have to stop now.

No, I like it, and I think
we all like long hair

and we don't see why

other people persecuted
us because of this.

England has a marvelous
habit of being able

to dissipate everything
through this marvelous media

and long hair quickly
got dissipated.

I mean, I used to be able
to stop traffic quite easily

by just walking down the street,

no move, not just that,
'cause I had long hair.

- A year
later at the age of 18,

David Jones adopted
the name David Bowie

and from then on, he
dreamed of reaching fame.

Bowie was fascinated by
space travel and inspired

by the British
rocker, Vince Taylor,

the legendary Stardust cowboy,

who after taking too many drugs

and an emotional
breakdown decided

he was an alien god on earth.

He created an androgynous

and flamboyant persona
called Ziggy Stardust.

The name Ziggy came
from a tailor shop

he had seen from a train window.

Bowie took Ziggy Stardust
as a stage persona.

Ziggy was for him an
alien rockstar sent

to earth as a messenger.

His intention was to
create a character

who looks like he's
landed on Mars.

With flame red hair and
striking colorful costumes,

he quickly developed
his own style

and looked extraordinary
out of this world.

His appearance
actually reflected

his feelings of
being an outsider.

He said that he
often felt a drift

and alienated from
the normal world,

but that seemed to
appeal to audiences.

It made him relatable because
he had something for everyone

and appeal to people who
thought they were outsiders too.

They were grateful
to him for that.

He made them feel like it
was okay to be different.

- Whenever I
photographed him live,

he always had the 20
different costumes and so on.

He was very different and he
gave people the opportunity to,

he made people understand that
it was okay to be different.

And a lot of kids when
they're growing up,

certainly in the
substances in late 60s,

they weren't sure not only
of their own sexuality,

but of lots of things,
lots of kids are loners,

and not just said,
"Well, I'm different.

You can be different

and just get out there
and be your self."

And I think he encouraged
a lot of people to do that.

And the fact that people
say he was chameleon-like,

but in a way I think, he
was an inventor as well,

an originator, and he never
made the same album twice.

I think when we were
watching Ziggy Stardust,

we felt we were part
of a cult really,

our parents were horrified

that we would go and see a
man who dressed like that.

Bowie was always quite an
underground artist anyway.

I mean, he was mainstream
because the tabloids

in the UK were kind of
appalled by the way he looked

and so it was easy for
them to put a splash

on the front cover
and criticize him.

These are all papers now
who did 20 page pullouts

about how great he was.

But at the time they
weren't supportive at all.

- It became obvious to me
that every young person

at some point in their
life thinks of themselves

as the other, the
outsider, the freak.

And they had found in at least
one of Bowie's many personae,

the other, the
outsider, the freak.

They related to that,
it gave them hope.

Bowie had something
for everyone,
including black people.

Very important in the
United States where he did

that soul album,
"Young Americans" and
the Live Soul Tour,

and also in a famous
confrontation on MTV
in 1983, in which

he criticized them for not
playing enough black music.

The widest range of people
for the widest variety

of reasons related to and
felt grateful to this man.

And I think that that is
the lasting legacy of Bowie

more so than any particular
song or any particular album.

- Just five days
before the first moon landing

in 1969, Bowie released
"Space Oddity".

It became his first
top five entry

on the UK single chart
after its release.

♪ This is Ground
Control to Major Tom ♪

♪ You've really made the grade

♪ And the papers want to
know whose shirts you wear ♪

♪ Now it's time to leave
the capsule if you dare ♪

In 1972, he released the
single "Life on Mars",

which reached number
three in the UK.

♪ Is there life on Mars

- There was magic

and mystery in his
music and lyrics.

Following this success,

his Ziggy Stardust tour
catapulted him to stardom

as he toured over the UK and
the USA for a year and a half.

This started a cult of Bowie
and a long lasting fandom.

- I'm really trooping, you know.

This is my life really,
writing or performing.

I don't know, there's
not much else I want.

- It was at that
point with Ziggy

that his previous
releases started flooding
into the charts.

And in late 72 and 73
Britain had Bowie IDAs,

where everything he'd done was

in the chart at the same time.

And it was a very
giddy period for people

who had not known his
work because it was

suddenly like this is the most
productive man of the year.

And in early 73,
"Space Oddity" was

finally a hit single
in the United States.

Of course, "Space Oddity" was
helped in Britain by the fact

that the BBC played it in
coverage of moon operations.

- Just when Starman
was a success,

just when the Ziggy Stardust
album was a huge success,

I saw him playing the
Glasgow, huge venue,

and it was so popular
to do two shows.

And I was working that night,
I was playing that night.

So I went along to see
this afternoon show

and it was just astounding.

I heard four people on stage
making this amazing noise.

And the presence that the
man had it was uncanny.

It had them tight audience
that palm of his hands.

And I seem to remember
in my memory of it

'cause it gets colored
over the years,

my memory was completely
exciting, vibrant show.

In reality, it was four guys
on stage brilliant music

and a few flashing
colored lights,

but it was something I'd
never experienced before.

It changed my opinion
on music forever.

♪ There's a starman
waiting in the sky ♪

♪ He'd like to
come and meet us ♪

♪ But he thinks he'd
blow our minds ♪

♪ There's a starman
waiting in the sky ♪

- Bowie became
famous not only for his music,

but also for his appearance,

something that the whole
world talked about.

He looked strange, but he
was made to be in history.

Bowie married Angie Barnett
in 1970, his first wife.

She was the one who
actually encouraged him

to feel confident in
dressing more feminine.

They had a son they
named Zowie Bowie,

now known as Duncan Jones,
who was born in 1971.

But it was more of a
marriage of convenience,

a show business marriage.

Their love was doomed
from the beginning.

He ended up getting tired

of her wanting to
direct his career.

Their golden years
turned to ashes

and they divorced in 1980.

Bowie declared himself
gay in an interview

in 1972 coinciding with his
campaign for stardom as Ziggy,

which was deemed
very courageous.

On other occasions, he declared
himself bisexual in 1976

and in 1993, a closet hetero.

He did say that these
were more a product

of the times than
his own feelings.

He knew that this would allow
him to get more attention

from the media and draw
more audiences to his music.

His goal was super stardom,
to reach worldwide success,

and to be moving the culture.

He refused to be
put in a category

so that he could
have room to work in

and could remain creative.

No label could describe him.

Some declare that he
was more transgressional

than he was ever really gay,
heterosexual, or bisexual.

He probably liked
experimenting out of curiosity,

the same way he experimented
everything else in his life.

Bowie was never politically
engaged or an activist,

but by being a queer icon,

he did a lot for the sexual
revolution of the 1970s.

His influence was even
above the activists.

- You often heard the word
visionary used about Bowie

and he was, throughout the
1970s into the early 80s,

ahead of everybody's curve.

It's very interesting to
read a couple of comments

by people from today's LGBT
community, trying to figure out

how Bowie relates
to today's community

by the standards of
today's community.

Because everybody
notices, well, he didn't

actually do any
political activism

and that's because he was
above political activism

and what he was doing
had a greater effect

than political activism
because he didn't affect laws,

he affected human beings
and he probably did as much

for gay liberation
as any individual law

during the time period

because he liberated the
people in themselves.

- He was weird.

I mean, I have to say
working class kids growing up

in Glasgow, quite a
hard city at the time,

to see this androgyny on
national television was shocking

and unbelievably exciting
'cause the music was great.

The look of the
guy was fantastic.

Him and Mike Ronson, he's
a guitarist sidekick,

were just outstandingly
powerful, but brilliant music.

So it kind of took that
whole, I don't know,

we'll just call it glam rock,

I'm not sure you'd
call it glam rock,

that took that whole idea of
top of the pops been a bit fun

and bubbly in water
and challenged

that held a mirror
up to us all saying,

"Okay, you know what you
think your life is okay,

this is what we can
do, this is acceptable.

This is okay to have
this bizarre presence
on your screen."

Yeah, and you saw it,
you saw people react

in very strange
and wonderful ways,

but it was like a door opening
in the use of that period.

It was a door opening that
exposed them to something

that they had never
ever thought about.

This fantastic, weird, almost
alien light character coming

into your sitting room, it
was just incredibly exciting.

- In 1972, he
released the lead single

to his album "Aladdin
Sane" that would remain one

of his signature tunes,
"The Jean Genie".

It became Bowie's
biggest hit to date.

♪ Jean Genie lives on his back

♪ The Jean Genie
loves chimney stacks ♪

♪ He's outrageous

♪ He screams and he bawls

♪ Jean Genie, let yourself go

In July, 1973 Bowie and his
backing glam rock group,

The Spiders from Mars, performed

at the Hammersmith
Odeon in London.

The sold out concert
was triumphant,

but Bowie made the sudden
surprise announcement

that the show would be the
last show he would ever do.

Later understood to mean

that he was retiring his
Ziggy Stardust persona.

- It was the most exciting thing

I'd ever seen on
stage to that day.

Seeing Bowie marry that
theatricality in a way

with rock music was something
nobody had had ever done.

People were talking about
it for weeks beforehand

and really, really
looking forward to it.

And then on the night, so
many kids were dressed up.

So many people wanted
look like Bowie

and we'd all love to have Panart

and various degrees of success.

Your memory of it at the
time, you didn't have that

to compare it to, you have
nothing to compare it to.

And it was until and the most
exciting thing I've ever seen.

I would still say it was one

of the greatest
shows I've ever seen.

♪ Ziggy played guitar

♪ Jamming good with
Weird and Gilly ♪

♪ And the Spiders from Mars

♪ He played it left hand

- It was some kind of
discovery in the 80s I think

that a lot of what I
am is my enthusiasms,

that I've always
been a very curious

and enthusiastic person,

again, it says from
when I was a teenager.

And that it really
wasn't up to me

to try and identify
exactly what that meant.

I just had to accept
that I was a person

who had a very short
attention span,

who would move from one thing
to another quite rapidly.

Throughout his career,

he appeared in over 30 movies,

television shows, and
theater productions.

His love for acting manifested

in the way he immersed himself
completely in the characters.

He often stated that he
preferred dressing up as Ziggy

rather than being David.

His musical and film roles
added another dimension

to his career, whatever
persona he was playing,

the work was always
creative and imaginative.

His theatricality and
creativity fascinated people.

His shows like "Ziggy Stardust"

and "Aladdin Sane" were filled
with shocking stage moments,

where he looked almost as
if he was being possessed.

As soon as he
walked on the stage,

he unleashed this
crazy character,

but off stage, he was
intensely private.

- That's great.

There must be moments where
the persona takes over,

the character kind of dominate

because all we ever get to
see, but then you see the guy

behind it and it says
the character Manatee.

So it's a vehicle for
him to express himself,

but every time I ever met him,

he was this funny, lovely,
warm, just great character.

- I'm very much a character
when I go on stage.

I feel it.

Yeah, I believe in my part
all the way down the line,

right the way down.

But I do play it
for all it's worth

because that's the way
I do with my station.

That's part of what Beau
is supposedly all about.

I'm an actor.

- I think he was saying
tensely private off stage.

And he can dress up and
be this outrageous figure

of video and film on stage,
but off stage in a way,

he was never much
of a public figure.

- With his fame,

came difficulties
and challenges.

Some of his singles and
albums didn't have the success

that he was expecting and
he was often disappointed

and angered by the
crowd's response.

At 27, 1974, he was also broke

and in serious financial trouble

due to lack of
business management.

- I need the money.

I desperately need the money.

I've been a silly boy about
my financial arrangement.

And it's only over the
last couple of years

that I've been able
to get back anything

from almost 10 years
working publicly.

So I really, I really
have to do this.

I mean, it sits my job
when it sort of it's

like carting your paintings
around the exhibitions

and the gallery is trying
to sell it for you,

and for me, it's the
equivalent thing.

- He also started

to struggle separating
Ziggy Stardust

from his own character off stage

and his personality
became affected.

Bowie was always striving

for innovation, novelty,
and experimentation.

And it turned out that
playing the same character

over and over was exhausting.

His enthusiasm started to fade.

In 1975, at 28, he
relocated to Los Angeles

leaving his Ziggy
alter ego behind.

Bowie released his 10th
album "Station to Station"

in 1976 with a new character.

After Ziggy Stardust came
the elegant thin white Duke.

Again, the persona was based
on a humanoid alien played

by Bowie in the film, "The
Man Who Fell to Earth",

the album may the top five
in both the UK and US charts.

And this put him back on
solid financial ground.

♪ The return of the
Thin White Duke ♪

♪ Throwing darts
in lovers' eyes ♪

♪ Here are we, one magical
moment, such is the stuff ♪

♪ From where dreams are woven

- Again, he was so different

and the influence of
soul on this music

and the kind of music
he'd been listening to

in the US made a
completely different album.

But I loved that persona as
well The Thin White Duke period.

I don't know if it again
it's because I saw him then

and I was so young and it
kind of formed an impression,

but it was so mysterious.

But it was very exotic for me

as a young child, it
was very exciting.

- However,
the 70s were one

of the worst
periods of his life.

He became addicted to cocaine,

which caused severe
weight loss and paranoia

and it affected
his sanity deeply.

He overdosed several times
during the year of 1976.

He even claimed that
he was pro-fascism

and compared Hitler to rock
stars, such as Mick Jagger,

which he later on apologized for

and blamed on his
psychosis from cocaine use.

It was a time of huge emotional

and inspirational
struggle for him.

He claimed that
his drug addiction

and delusional behavior
were due to Los Angeles,

which he came to resent as he
felt the city alienated him

and that he was living
like one of his characters.

He was falling apart,

but he realized it and
decided to make a change.

- And as I really didn't
want to be by myself,

I was living more and
more in the style of one

of my characters who
wanted terrific success

because they're all Messiah
figures most of them,

either light or dark shadowings.

And so because I
knew, I really felt

that the material aspect was
something that had to be done

in Los Angeles because
it's driven into you.

It's the food of Los
Angeles, Hollywood rather,

not Los Angeles,
unfair on Los Angeles.

And so I just packed
up everything one day

and I moved back
to Europe again.

- He and his family
left California for Europe

in late 1976 to improve his
physical and mental wellbeing.

He moved to
Switzerland for a time

where his cocaine use decreased

There, he indulged in his
childhood passion of painting,

which was a way for
him to make sure he was

always doing something
productive and creative.

He was also an art collector.

That's the first thing I did
when I got back to Europe,

was to sort of stop thinking
about music and performing

for a bit and think about
something that I hadn't done

for a long time,
which was paint.

And that helped me get back
into music again actually.

Whatever the job in hand is,

is the style that
I tend to adopt.

I'm pretty anti-consistency in
style much as I am in music.

- Would you
give up music for art?

- No, but neither would
I give up art for music.

I am really fortunate
in having both the time

and the inclination and

possibly the talent
to work in both media.

And I'm not a buyer of things.

I think the only
thing that I buy

addictively and obsessively
probably is art.

I'm not really a house
man or a car man.

The only nice car
I've ever bought

for myself was a 1967
HR, one and half,

which is I would get the half.

And I don't know things,
I don't have a plane.

I haven't got very much, Jone.

I'm not a buyer of stuff.

I do tend to regard money

as the order to get
other things going.

I feel more comfortable
with the money.

- But he wasn't
completely over his drug use.

He settled in West
Berlin in early 1977,

joining his friend Iggy Pop

to clean up and
revive his career.

He felt we vitalized, even
though he struggled sometimes

to stay clean and sober.

While he was sharing
an apartment with Iggy,

he started to gain more interest
in the German music scene

and began focusing on
minimalistic ambient music.

In October, 1977, he released

his 12th studio album "Heroes".

It became the best received work

of his Berlin Trilogy
and a commercial success.

♪ For ever and ever

♪ We can be Heroes,
just for one day ♪

♪ We can be Heroes

♪ We can be Heroes

- But Bowie not only knocked
it out of the park with heroes,

he made heroes seem like
an anthem for the day,

we can be heroes
just for one day.

The fact that people
still want to heroes,

even though it was
novel at the time,

shows it's a quality piece

regardless of the fact
that it was innovative.

And similarly the whole
album still sounds great.

- He's described his time here

as the happiest
period of his life.

The city seemed to correspond
with his personality

from his interest in history
from the Weimar Republic

to the Berlin he discovered
here in the 1970s,

his passion for
discovery and innovation,

his interest in art,
which whilst in Berlin,

let him to take
up painting again.

It was here that he seemed
to escape his demons to throw

off creative burnout and
rejuvenate his inspiration.

- By 1978, he'd
broken his drug addiction

and was slowly recovering to
a healthy enough mental state.

Isolar II world tour
was the first tour

where he didn't have to take
copious quantities of cocaine

before taking the stage.

By the time he had reached 30,

his marriage with
Angie had deteriorated.

They reached a
breaking point in 1980

and Bowie gained sole
custody of their son.

This was a bold move
and he was determined

to be a good role model for him.

In 1980, he moved to New
York and made his debuts

in Broadway with "Elephant Man",

where he played a man with a
grotesque disfiguring disease.

He identified with the role
as he always had an attraction

to alienated people,
feeling like one himself.

His work was
critically acclaimed.

- But Bartholomew does
not care about Juliet,

I care.

- Does he take her pants,
does he get the doctor?

Does you make sure?

No, he kills himself.

The illusion follows him because
he does not care about her.

He only cares about himself.

I always look for
characters who have

either an emotional
or a physical limp.

I find that for me not being,
I don't really see my future

in acting to a greater extent
than my involvement now.

So I really liked
to have characters

that I can at least
play around with.

In 1981, Bowie moved to the
new romantic and pop era.

He paired with Queen

for one off single
release "Under Pressure",

the duet was a hit.

♪ Pressure, pushing down on me

♪ Pressing down on
you, no man ask for ♪

♪ Under pressure, that
burns a building down ♪

♪ Splits a family in two

♪ Puts people on streets

He reached his prime at
36 with "Let's Dance"

and other hits such as "Modern
Love" and "China Girl".

"Let's Dance" reached number
one in the UK, the US,

and various other
countries in 1983.

It sold more than 10
million copies worldwide,

making it Bowie's best-selling
album of all time.

♪ Let's dance put on your red
shoes and dance the blues ♪

♪ Let's dance to the song
they're playing on the radio ♪

- If you were starting out now,

I think did I read somewhere

that you said if you were
19, you wouldn't go into
.

- I think that's
probably quite right.

I think I'd probably
just be a fan

and a collector of records.

What would you do?

- I wanted to be a musician

because it seemed rebellious,
it seems subversive.

It felt like one could
affect change to a form.

It was very hard to hear
music when I was young.

When I was really
young, you had to tune

into AFM radio to hear
the American records.

There was no MTV,

it wasn't sort of
wall-to-wall blanket music.

And so therefore, it
had a kind of a call

to arms kind of feeling to it.

Is that this is the thing
that will change things.

This is a dead dodgy
occupation to have.

It still produce signs
of horror from people

who you said you're, I'm in
rock and roll is my goodness.

Now, it's a career opportunity.

- His
fan base exploded

as he entered popular culture

by becoming less underground
and controversial.

He reached a wider audience

and appeared more
accessible and mainstream,

topping charts along with Tina
Turner and Michael Jackson.

- I think his breakthrough
kind of crossover album is

obviously "Let's Dance"
and that's when I felt

he'd got a bit too
commercial for me.

'Cause you kind of
like your artists

to be unknown and be underground

and you to be part of the
secret society almost.

- David Bowie is great.

- And ugly.

- I'd like to embrace the idea

that there's a new
demystification process going on

between the artist
and the audience.

I think when you look back
at say this last decade,

there hasn't really been
one single entity, artist,

or group that have personified

or become the brand
name for the 90s.

And like it was starting to
fade a little in the 80s.

And in the 70s there were
still definite artists.

In the 60s, there were the
Beatles and the Hendrix.

In the 50s, there was Presley.

Now it says
subgroups and genres.

It's hip-hop, it's girl power.

It's a communal kind of thing.

It's about the community,

it's becoming more and
more about the audience

because the point
of having somebody

who led the forces
has disappeared

because of the capillary
of rock is too well known.

It's a currency that is
not devoid meaning anymore,

but he's certainly only a
conveyor of information.

It's not a conveyor of rebellion

and the internet has
taken on that as I say it.

And so I find that a
terribly exciting era.

So from my standpoint,
being an artist,

I'd like to see what
the new construction is

between artists and audience.

There is a breakdown, there's
a personified, I think,

by the rave culture
in the last few years,

where the audience is
at least as important

as whoever is
playing at the rave.

It's almost like the artist
is to accompany the audience

and what the audience is doing.

And that feeling is very
much permeating music.

- However, he
eventually came to realize

that being mainstream was
not what he was really after.

He was more used
to being stubborn,

obscure, and confrontational.

- It's quite a relief, really.

I feel a lot more free
in what I do.

I just needed a positive
decision to only do what I want

to do and not do things
for the sake of what

either David Bowie or whoever
I was playing last time thing

like juke or something,
what he was expected to do.

- Bowie always
loved pushing limits,

challenging himself.

He in fact, believed
that a good artist has

to go out of their depth to
become meaningful, and that

it requires some kind of
social dysfunctional nature.

- Incredibly interested artist.

He was interested in
various kinds of music

and of course the various arts.

And he picked up elements from
the avant-garde and all sorts

of areas and incorporated
them into his own work.

I got to a stage two
years ago where I found

that the experimenting that
I was doing was eradicating

a lot of the subject
matter of my writing,

but now I feel for
the next few years,

I'll be concentrating a lot
more basic kind of material.

- In January,
1985, during Bowie's prime,

he received a devastating news
that would break his heart.

His brother Terry had
committed suicide.

It was a difficult and
tragic period for him.

He would later on write a song

about the death of his
brother called "Jump",

but he had to put
his struggle aside.

In 1988, he formed a new act,

Tin Machine, a hard
rock supergroup.

He wants more reinvented
rock and roll.

However, it was hard to
top his previous hits.

Tin Machine didn't
have as much success.

As he had expected as he
was once again experimenting

by doing different things
to challenge himself,

he fell on it from many people.

♪ You belong in rock 'n roll

♪ You belong in rock 'n roll

♪ Well so do I

♪ I love how she moves me

♪ It makes me

The 1990s seem to be the
legend's forgotten decade,

where his work was overlooked,

but he didn't dwell
on the negatives

and he was determined to move
on to the next adventure.

- He had a lot from the 90s.

He had his bad period
for a few years,

but I think in my opinion,

he came back, he
came through that.

And I think in
his own admission,

he would say he was
often taking the money

and his creativity
suffered massively.

- In my tour of television
studios the day Bowie died,

not a single person asked
me about Bowie in the 1990s.

It's as if his work

in that decade had
existed only for his fans.

And even though one of his
albums did reach number one

in Britain during that decade.

But the curious thing is
that Bowie in the 90s was

still an extraordinarily
influential person.

- In 1992, he
married his second wife

in Switzerland, the Somali
American fashion model, Iman,

with whom he had one
daughter named Alexandria.

In 1996, his musical success
was finally recognized

and he was inducted into the
rock and roll hall of fame.

This was a groundbreaking
accomplishment.

- Mr. David Bowie.

- While me and my
buddies are hanging out

on the Hollywood
Entertainment Museum,

I would've just whip out a
mirror on the opposite side,

that's my star up there

with my name written
backwards, divaD eiwoB.

Thank you very much.

If I make any more bad albums,
you can come all over here

and walk all over me, all right?

- He finally
had reached a stable,

successful life, which
gave him more time to focus

on both his passions,
music and painting.

- I'm doing a music
for self gain.

I'm doing a lot of
stuff on the internet.

I'm doing a lot of painting
and a little bit of sculpting.

I'm enjoying married
life tremendously.

It was my 7th wedding
anniversary the
other day on the 6th,

6th of June.

The hub of my creativity comes
from what I do, where I go,

and I put myself in places that
maybe I've never been before

or that I feel there's a
certain tension involved.

I can't really write
or produce much

if I'm in a place
that's relaxing.

I have to have a set of
conflicts going around me,

not necessarily of my own doing,

I've learned that that
is particularly bad idea.

- What do you mean?

- Well, I don't create my
own conflicts in my own life.

I think I might've done
that to quite an extent

when I was young as actually
things are going too smoothly,

being an addictive personality,

I would be drawn
to create conflicts

that would reduce the
attention necessary to write.

Now, I find that I can do it
by observation more than being

deeply involved in a
mess to become to write.

- That means, at personal level,
you don't do drugs anymore.

- No, absolutely not.

- And you don't drink.

- I don't
drink either, no.

- Not even a glass
of wine or anything?

- No, it would kill me
if I start it again.

- What do
you mean it would kill you?

- I'm an alcoholic, so it
would be a kiss of death

for me to start drinking again.

My relationships with
my friends, my family,

everybody around me, are so good

and have been for
so many years now.

I wouldn't do anything to
destroy that again, you know?

It's very hard to
have relationships

when you're doing
drugs and drinking.

I felt for me personally anyway.

And you become closed off,
unreceptive, insensitive,

all the dreadful things
that you've heard

every other pop
singer ever saying.

And I was very lucky that
I found my way out of that.

♪ A whisper of hope
that seems to fade ♪

- In
1999, the front cover

of "Hours" showed an older
Bowie with shoulder length hair.

From then on, he never
released anything

as frenetic as he
did in the 1990s.

- A lot of what I
am is my enthusiasm.

That I've always
been a very curious

and enthusiastic person.

Again, this is from
when I was a teenager

and that it really
wasn't up to me to try

and identify exactly
what that meant.

I just had to accept
that I was a person

that had a very
short attention span,

would move from one thing
to another quite rapidly

when I got bored with the other.

I became comfortable
with that and didn't try

and identify myself or trying
to ask myself who I was.

The less questioning
I did about myself

as to who I was, the
more comfortable I felt.

So now I have absolutely
no knowledge of who I am.

I'm extremely happy.

- In 2003, Bowie
performed his Reality Tour,

which would become
his last tour.

♪ And I'm never ever gonna get

♪ And I'm never ever gonna get

♪ Never ever gonna get old

The show was cut short after
a blocked artery forced him

to have emergency heart surgery.

He retired from live
performing three years later

and stepped out of the public
eye to focus on his family,

but he never stopped being
part of the music scene

and continued to produce albums.

On January 10th, 2016,

the world was shaken
by heartbreaking news,

David Bowie died
from liver cancer.

He apparently had
been quietly battling

with it for 18 months.

He had told very
few people about it,

focusing rather on creating
a new album "Blackstar",

which would reveal itself
being a farewell album.

Blackstar reflected
the theme of death

and mortality and
mysticism of the afterlife.

And he wanted his last
album to outlive him.

Days before his death, people
didn't guess that he was ill.

He put on a brave
face until the end.

And even the press wrote

that he looked very
well and healthy,

but behind the podium from
his Lazarus musical premiere,

he collapsed from exhaustion.

Having kept his illness
a secret from the world,

he died two days after
his 69th birthday

and the release of his 25th
and final album "Blackstar",

which took on a whole
new unexpected depth.

♪ By the time I
got to New York ♪

♪ I was living like a king

♪ There I'd used
up all my money ♪

- Obviously, the Blackstar
album, everybody's now,

since he died, has seen
the meaning in the lyrics

and it's really obvious now,

but obviously without him dying,

it wouldn't have been
that obvious at all.

- He was just always out
there ahead extraordinary.

And then the ultimate

artistically planning
for his own death.

When they were making
the album Blackstar,

which actually was in
the first half of 2015,

at one point, Tony
Visconti, his producer,

looked to him and said, "You're
writing a farewell album,"

and Bowie laughed.

Tony Visconti was the first
to realize, this is goodbye.

To make even your final
weekend a work of art.

This is just off the
scale of performance art.

It takes your breath
away, such courage,

and the scene where
he walks backwards

into the wardrobe
and closes the door.

- All
his life, he dealt

with personal and
professional struggles.

And his career wasn't always
filled with successes,

but he always overcame
what life through at him.

- People were actually ringing

in a state of shock
and incredibly upset.

So many people were so touched
by it and so shocked by it

because I think Bowie, because
he was quite over-worldly,

you never really thought
he had the same mortality.

And it was a shock, it
was a terrible shock.

- You can never imagine
such a loss until it happens

because he was a life force.

And the reason why so
many people are touched

by this news is because he
touched their personal lives.

In the 1970s, with all
of those various images

that he went through, he was
always doing some variation

of the other, the outsider,
and every young person thinks

of themselves as the other,
the outsider, the freak,

and they latched on to one or
more of those Bowie images.

And thus his loss
is very personal

to so many people
watching at this moment.

- Bowie channeled
his family's mental illness

by expressing himself
through different personas.

He overcame drug addiction
and found peace and stability.

He never stopped
reaching for the stars

and influenced generations.

Family, frustration,

and failure would shape
the icon we know today.

- He's one of a kind.

This is one reason why
the grief is so widespread

and so deep is because
people know that this is it.

That was it.

Just to think that the earth
is billions of years old

and you happen to live at
the same time as David Bowie.

Well, we did see someone
unique that's for sure.

- He did everything
and he never stopped.

He never stopped challenging
himself for his audience

and I think that's
incredibly special.

I mean, when you look

at today's artists no
one's pushing it like that.

It just doesn't touch
people in the same way.

- It's
magic, his music is magic.

It takes you places,
it's other worldliness,

it's so spiritualist in a sense,

but it's about romance and love

and everything that's
good in the world

about being different
and being accepted.

- He teaches us that
change is possible,

that we're not fixed
as human beings,

that we can be anything
that we wanna be.

And he also really spoke
to people that are unique

that don't quite fit
in because he was kind

of this alien angel child that
came down to set us all free.

- When he was at his peak, it
was completely all inspiring.

And you go to see the shows and
they'd be utterly different.

Not all of them successful,
but hey, it didn't matter

because come back in six months
and there'd be a new one.

And that's literally
the way it was.

And this is how Bowie could
have the occasional mess

and no one held that against him

because they knew they're
trying something different

and then he'd be back in six
months or something else.

- When I was a teenager,
I had it in my mind

that I would be a
creator of musicals.

I sincerely wanted
to write musicals

for the West End or
for Broadway, whatever.

I didn't see much further
than that as a writer

and I really had
the idea in my head

that people would do my songs.

And I was not a
natural performer.

I didn't feel the
decency at all.

I had created this one
character, Ziggy Stardust,

that it seemed that I would
be the one that would play him

because nobody else
was doing my songs

and the chances of him

actually getting musical
mounted were very small.

And so I became Ziggy
Stardust for that period.

And things sort of
led, I liked the idea

and I felt really
comfortable going

on stage as somebody else.

And it seemed a rational
decision to keep on doing that.

And so I've got quite
decided with the idea

of just creating
character after character.

And I think probably
there must've been a point

in the late 70s,
or in otherwise,

where I felt that
the characters were

in fact getting in the
way of myself as a writer

and I endeavored to
kind of kill them off

and start writing for me as
just a singer songwriter.

I'm not sure if I was
ever successful in that

because I do take a
degree of theatricality

when I go on stage all the time.

It's sort of that's how I
deal with the stage situation.

I'm still not
comfortable on stage.

- But I mean David Bowie
himself is an invention.

I mean, do you think
you've yourself as Bowie

or David Jones
from South London?

- Less and less Bowie,
Bowie, Bowie .

- The astonishing body of work
that an amazing collection

of music that is so
original all the time,

and that sometimes draws on
what's around at the time

and all the times kind
of sets the agenda

for all the new musicians.

I don't think there's a
single rock musician today

who hasn't been influenced by
Bowie in some way or other.

- He was a giant of
the music industry.

Not just someone who had been
successful over a long period,

which is a very
difficult thing to do,

but someone who consistently
pushed the boundaries,

who consistently challenged

what people would
expect to hear.

- He earned
our respect as he chose

to stay true to himself
rather than commercially safe.

- The odds against another
David Bowie are astronomical

because of the
commercial pressures

of the music industry forced
most artists to conform.

Occasionally, there's someone
who stays true to themselves

like Adele and the public
latch onto that and love it.

But very few, even
of those kinds

of artists have the
variety of interests

and talents that Bowie did.

Even now to watch him
in his film roles,

whether they're great films
or not, he is charismatic,

he is a presence
to contend with.

And I think of so many
people watching right now

who will in their minds have
an image of David Bowie,

but it won't be the same image

because he did so
many different things.

Such a variety of styles

and images can only come
from an inquiring mind.

And that's what Bowie had an
intensely interested mind.

He was always picking up
elements of the avant-garde

and bringing them
into the mainstream.

And thus in the 1970s alone,

we had this amazing
progression, science fiction

to bisexuality, to American
soul music, to electronic music,

and the images, Ziggy
Stardust, Aladdin Sane,

The Thin White
Duke, the Soul Look,

the Berlin Electronic
Music Look.

There was so much to digest.

In the 1970s alone, 24
hits singles, 15 albums.

This is amazing.

And that's why people have
been digesting his work

ever since, there's
just so much there.

- My phone started
ringing at 7:00 o'clock

in the morning that David
Bowie's death was announced.

I have not had so many requests
for broadcast commentaries

since John Lennon
day 36 years ago.

That's phenomenal.

That tells you the
widespread impact of Bowie

amongst the current generation

'just that hundreds
of millions of people

all had personal relationships
with David Bowie.

And this is what became so
movingly apparent so quickly.

This showed you that
somehow some aspect

of his life had affected
the widest possible range

of world personalities

and of course people
who were not famous.

I found this deeply moving.

Genius is an overused word,
but I think musically,

creatively, artistically
David Bowie was a genius.

For someone of my age,

he provided a lot of the
soundtrack of our life.

So we mourn the loss
of a great talent.

We think about his
family and friends

who've lost a loved
one too early,

but I think also we an
immense British talent

who has enriched
all of our lives.

- I grew up listening
to David Bowie.

My mom was really,
really loved him

and I suppose he was
my first introduction

to sort of queerness
and outsider-ness

and just such a strong
joyful presence.

- Having him as an
influence from when

I was very young influenced
everything I've done really

from how I dress to
artwork to everything.

And just to being
confident in who I am.

He's done more for me
than anyone could really.

- I felt he just liberated so
people from mundane things.

He came from suburban,

just a lot of people
could relate to that.

And the how he just
made life just sexy

and vibrant
throughout his career.

It's gonna be a very different
world without Bowie in it.

I hadn't really given it a
lot thought about his passing,

'cause why would I?

It's like really thought he
would live forever, really.

- Few artists
mark the 20th century

like David Bowie did.

He was an astonishing,
passionate,

and eclectic performer that
didn't belong in a box.

Searching for change
was the only constant

that didn't change
throughout his life.

He was a true artist in
every sense of the word.

His art included not
only his music and sound,

but also his style
and appearance, his
films, and videos.

Bowie had a unique
vision and courage

and seem to turn
everything into art.

The Human League
Founder, Martyn Ware,

declared that he lived his life

as though he were
an art installation.

His influence is deep.

- His generosity, his energy,
his spirit, so full, so real.

That's the essence of being
alive because let's face it,

how many people can die

and have 28 albums sell
in large quantities.

- What he
did is absolutely timeless,

will be listening to
in 100 years' time.

Any musicians out there,
listen to the chords he used,

they are so
unbelievably difficult.

The song structures
are just incredible.

He doesn't write three
minute pop songs,

he wrote pieces of art
that we can listen to.

- If you were there in the
60s and 70s, you were there,

if you weren't, you missed.

You can still love the
music, don't worry.

But to have been there
as well as to have lived

through a very special
moment in musical history,

and David Bowie is one of
the giants of the period.