My social media feeds are filled, as I’m sure yours are, with memories of the great David Bowie. His passing caught us all off guard and the stories are flooding out with the tears. Below are some of those stories from my friends, some you might know, others not. But the influence and gratitude, sadness and shock are shared by many.
“Somewhere in my past… late 60s early 70s… I was at day camp and during lunch break one day a boy visited camp who was in private school in England. He was very posh and had long hair and dressed better than the rest of us. He was elegantly bragging about how he had been at a concert by a performer named David Bowie and heard him perform Major Tom. He was a bit annoyed than none of us had heard of him yet and went on to explain what he was, what he did, what his songs were like. I went to the local record shop a few days later and listened to his music – purchasing my second record album ever, HUNKY DORY. To this day I can sing every song, word for word, note for note. And the first song I learned to play on guitar was Andy Warhol. Prophetic perhaps? xoxo RIP beautiful and innovative man… you inspired a generation of outlanders.” –Designer, Sally Randall Brunger
“I first met him on a ship bound for New York in 1974 and he has been a major influence on me ever since -he was fearlessly unique and innovative – he came to one of the B-52s first shows -he was a true hero!” –singer, Kate Pierson
“I’ve said over and over again, there is no songwriter whose catalogue is so deep, peculiar, thoughtful, evocative, moving, inspiring, befuddling and wondrous, no matter how many odd missteps, or Mr. Steps – (which are, in any case, laudable as brave experiments) than David Bowie’s. No, not your McCartney, your Dylan, your Costello, your Berlin, your Porter. Bowie took what seemed at first a mediocre striving talent into some astral realm of the preternaturally adventurous, pole vaulting into realms unimagined. His mistakes were all poetry. His successes were all religion. There was, and is no other.” –Singer/ Songwriter, Kristian Hoffman
“I’ll never forget that night in 1979 my dear friend Joey Arias performed backup with Klaus Nomi for David Bowie on Saturday Night Live. Joey and I had moved to NYC together not long before and needless to say we were besides ourselves with excitement. Joey turned Bowie onto his designer friend Thierry Mugler who made them all man-skirts to wear for TVC-15. Trust me, it was a seminal moment I’ll never forget. RIP david Bowie. You inspired us all.” –Paper magazine founder, Kim Hastreiter
“My good friend, Cheryl Hardwick was the music director of Saturday Night Live. She was generous with giving me tickets to the show over the years. So, when I heard David Bowie was the musical guest, I asked to get tickets. My friend, artist Chuck Nanney, is and was a HUGE Bowie fan and his birthday coincided with the show, so I took him as my guest. We got floor seats right in front of Bowie and I get goose bumps thinking about his performance. After the show, we waited for Cheryl and she took me by the hand to Bowie’s dressing room. His door was open but as we got near, I turned back to grab Chuck and in that instant an assistant shut the Bowie’s dressing room door in our faces. It was almost more exciting than getting to meet him. Almost.” –artist, Trey Speegle
“Sometime in the early 1990’s, when I working as Phylicia Rashad’s assistant, she was going to be on the Today Show. I met her at NBC and we were escorted back to the Green Room. David Bowie was in the room. I almost left my body at that moment. He was wearing a gorgeous lime green suit and his face lit up when we walked in. He was so happy to meet Phylicia! I couldn’t believe it. I remember thinking to myself, David Bowie watches The Cosby Show? He was so gracious and so sweet. I got to shake his hand and tell him that I was a long time fan. He thanked me. Thank you, David, for bringing so much joy into our lives through your music and your infinite artistry. One of a kind.” –designer, Jackie Shapiro
“To me, Bowie was a mannerist art school critique of what defines a Rock Star. People who “got Elvis” were threatened by Bowie because he represented a different kind of male rock star. Then I started thinking about Bowie and Brian Eno in Berlin as analogous to the Beatles going to India and bringing a whole new sensibility to Pop music that defined the following decade. (I have a tendency to stretch a metaphor until it collapses.)
But for a little 15 year-old fag in Cincinnati, Ohio in the mid 70’s, he represented freedom, artistry, courage, defiance, STYLE, glamor, and a whole lot of things for which I needed a role model. When I first read he died this morning I was sort of numb. I know…nobody gets out of here alive…but it’s sad that he’s no longer around, because he’s defined so much of my life as an artist.” –designer, Patrick Lehman
"Bowie from front row center at Carnegie Hall (seated, eerily enough, singing "My Death") and Bowie in the audience for the N Y Dolls, at the Mercer Arts Center." Photos, Kristian Hoffman
“It’s impossible to find the words for the passing of David Bowie. Bowie’s music, art, fashion, sense of life, has been with me every single step of my way. In junior high I would etch BOWIE IS GOD into pay phones, desks, bathroom walls and any other surface I could find. When I was told either I left my family home or changed my homosexual ways (at 17) my goodbye note to my parents said:
‘I got my Mother in a swirl
She’s not sure if I’m a boy or a girl’Before Gay Power, Gay Rights, easy access social media and blah blah blah in your face there was David Bowie. Just living his life and sharing his other in so many ways. He saved my life. And from what I’m seeing today he saved so so so many others who then went on to save other others. David Bowie. Thank you.” –artist, Lori E Seid
“I was an habitue’ of the late lamented Mudd Club and Bowie sightings there were fairly commonplace. On this particular occasion he was in the basement with a close friend of mine and, let’s just say, ‘something’ had slowed them down a bit. I commented that they seemed a bit down… to which David replied, in a voice that almost sounded mechanically altered,
‘Then why don’t you go where the happy people are?'” –designer, Berns Fry
“I met David Bowie three times at the New Museum. He wore suburban drag in an attempt to be low key. But once, I clocked him from across the street before he even set foot inside. I printed free tickets and handed them to him while he stood in line and he looked surprised and a little disappointed his cover was blown. But there really was no hiding his energy. His eyes. You can’t just stick a tweed hat on that and make it go away. My David Bowie story couldn’t be more unremarkable, but he was so remarkable himself, that he made everything around him seem temporarily special. I’m glad I got to feel a tiny little bit of that special.” –New Museum’s, Rick Herron
“He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry.” –producer, Tony Visconti
“Me at my desk, beneath my framed @therealmickrock, as I try to process the news. Every piece of music I love exists because of Bowie. I spent the last few days listening to Black Star, and I kept thinking how somber “Lazarus” sounded — those horns! Bowie was Bowie until the end, even somehow orchestrating the perfect exit from this world, only a couple of days after his birthday — and my beloved aunt’s death as well. She was the only other person I knew who had different colored eyes.” –Author, Lori Majewski
“One day, about 5 years ago, I was walking through Soho up Crosby Street. It was in the winter, and was almost dark out already, when suddenly the sky got even blacker and it started to pour like the end of the earth. I was caught without an umbrella, and had no money to take a cab home. As I walked briskly through the downpour towards Houston, I hated being the only person on the street. It felt like the old old days when you probably wouldn’t make it much farther without incident. In the distance I could see one lone figure approaching me in the rain. I got more nervous. I was hoping they would cross the street or go into a shop, but they did not. I found myself preparing to run if I had to. looking for an open store…
Holding my breath I just kept marching forward…when finally the person appeared 5 feet in front of me out of the downpour… He looked at me and smiled the biggest smile ever, and I smiled back, still kind of holding my breath, and just kept walking.”
It was David Bowie.” –Photographer, Sally Davies
(Images courtesy Lori Majewski, Jeff Joyce)