Biography of David Bowie: Between success, eccentricity and excess

Music icon David Bowie has enjoyed a phenomenal rise. From nothing, he became a true legend. His life has been marked by significant success, with 28 albums in his career. The character, as flamboyant as he was eccentric, also had a life dotted with excess, says a new biography.

The one who made himself known with the song Fame seemed to enjoy maintaining the mystery around his person. Even today, eight years after his death, many still wonder, who really was David Bowie? An artist with an infinite number of masks, working on various musical styles, but who maintained something dark.

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Born in the London neighborhood of Brixton in 1947 into a middle-class family, David Robert Jones (his real name) worked at school and already stood out from the other children. In his free time, he dances, sings, plays music, the piano and saxophone in particular, in addition to being fascinated by the numerous records he collects.

As a teenager, he became interested in jazz and then rock. Apparently, it’s rock that would make him work on his imagination more, allowing him to fantasize.

Moreover, this book emphasizes the way in which Bowie managed to metamorphose from one album to another, constantly reinventing himself.

In 1962, in London, he sang at weddings with a first group. He then moves from one group to another with the idea of becoming a pop star.

After some 45s and as many failures, he changed managers more than once, and his style too, moving from blues to rock, then to folk.

He had to wait a few years before experiencing real success, thanks to his song Fameafter settling in the United States.

His fictional character, Ziggy Stardust, also contributed to his success. It was in 1983 that he became an international star with his song Let’s Dance.

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Bowie was known for his colorful looks that could go from blonde to green hair in addition to wearing excessive makeup.

Descent into hell

Drugs were also part of the singer’s career, as he was also an actor.

In this biography, we recount his descent into hell as well as his morbid moments, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.

The multifaceted artist is said to have even had paranoid episodes, believing he was possessed by the devil. It is also said that his half-brother was schizophrenic and that mental illness has affected several other members of his family. In fact, two of his aunts committed suicide, while another was lobotomized.

It was apparently his wife, Iman, an American model of Somali origin whom he married in 1992, who pulled him out of the hell of drugs.

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Bisexuality and Nazism

Bowie also became known for his bisexuality, although he was twice married to women.

However, some people around him would have claimed that the singer would only have used men to achieve his ends. His bisexuality was not a passion, but rather a means to advance his career.

According to various accounts in this work, sexual orgies under the influence of psychedelic drugs were common. Apparently his sexual thirst was insatiable. Furthermore, he had no problem sleeping with young girls, groupies, who gave him confidence. “The rock legend was consumed by his sex addiction,” says another insider.

Moreover, much stranger would have been his fantasies about extraterrestrials and Nazism. Bowie loved watching or reading anything related to Nazism, maintaining a real fascination with the Nazi Party. “He was captivated by the narcissism of Adolf Hitler. »

David Bowie died in 2016 at the age of 69 in his New York apartment after an 18-month battle with liver cancer. He had two children.