David Bowie: 15 Surprising Facts about the King of Glam Rock
Original Article by Rebecca Hawkes, Adapted by Brea Stokan
Martin Chilton, Culture Editor
April 1, 2016 • 8:45am
1. He voiced a character in a Spongebob Squarepants movie
In yet another addition to his slate of memorable (and often memorably bizarre) acting roles, Bowie provided the voice of the long-nosed, blue-skinned, stiletto-sporting Atlantean King “Lord Royal Highness” in the 2007 animated TV movie SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePantis. “I’ve hit the Holy Grail of animation gigs,” Bowie wrote in a blogpost at the time. “Yesterday I got to be a character on … tan-tara … SpongeBob SquarePants. Oh Yeah!! We, the family, are thrilled. Nothing else need happen this year, well, this week anyway.”
Bowie appeared in over 25 films throughout his life, including The Last Temptation of Christ as Pontius Pilate, Basquiat as artist Andy Warhol, and The Prestige, as inventor
2. He was nominated for an MTV award for his cameo in Zoolander
“If nobody has any objections, I believe I might be of service?”
In one of the best movie cameos ever committed to film (we’re a little biased and possibly a tad emotional, but we’re going to stick by this), Bowie pops up to judge a “walk off” between warring models Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) in Stiller’s beautifully ridiculous 2001 comedy film.
We can’t imagine a better judge. Nikola Tesla.
3. He changed his original name (David Robert Jones) to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees
Otherwise, we’d have always struggled to tell the two apart.
4. He couldn’t stand The Little Drummer Boy
That’s the song, incidentally: not some unfortunate Miles Teller wannabe. Asked to collaborate with music veteran Bing Crosby on a version of the song, for a rather unlikely appearance on Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas in 1977, Bowie outright refused.
“I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?” he asked songwriter Ian Fraser at the time.
Bowie and Fraser then collaborated on a new song, Peace on Earth, that Bowie could sing as a counterpart to Crosby’s Little Drummer Boy
5. He had a tea phobia
Bowie reportedly had a “horrible incident” with a cup of tea when he was five years old. According to a widely-reported internet rumor (sadly, we’ve been unable to trace the source, but the story’s too appealingly, Bowie-ishly odd not to repeat), he’s been unable to drink it ever since.
6. He was almost in a film with Liz Taylor
Bowie reportedly nearly starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor in the 1976 film Bluebird but backed out after reading the script.
He also nearly starred alongside Michael Caine in The Eagle has Landed (he was apparently quite keen on this one’ it never came out due to scheduling conflicts).
David Bowie: the man who loved books.
7. He suffered from repeated eye issues
Bowie’s right pupil was permanently dilated: his friend, the artist George Underwood, punched him while they were both at school (in a fight over a girl) and accidentally sliced his eye with a fingernail.
Due to the appearance the dilated pupil gave his eye, the injury later gave rise to the rumor that Bowie had Heterochromia, a condition whereby a person’s eyes are naturally different in color.
In 2004 (as if he hadn’t already had enough eye trouble), the poor singer was hit in the eye with a lollipop, thrown at the stage as he performed in Oslo, Norway. It became stuck, but a member of Bowie’s crew eventually managed to remove it (and the singer then bravely continued with the show).
8. He had a taste for jazz
As a teenager Bowie was a fan of jazz and Charles Mingus. He used to play jazz on tenor and saxophone. In the early Eighties, he once danced with Princess Diana at concert by jazz singer George Melly with his Feetwarmers band.
9. He was friends with Elton John (before Elton John was Elton John)
When he was 17, Bowie (who was then still David Jones) loved meeting his friend Reginald Kenneth Dwight (later Elton John) at the Soho’s Giaconda Cafe, to talk about music.
10. He tried to send a pig fetus to Rolling Stone
In a nice way, of course.
Back in the Nineties, while being interview by the magazine’s David Wild, Bowie saw that the singer Tom Petty had sent the journalist a gift. Feeling that he, too, should thank the writer for his time with a present, Bowie promptly tried to send him an unborn piglet, sealed in a jar.
“The border police, they absolutely shut it down, and it never got to me. But there were weeks and weeks of [Bowie] checking in to see if a pig fetus had ever arrived,” Wild told the Adam Carolla Show, years later. “I personally was actually very glad it never came.”
11. He only had one O-Level
Bowie achieved just one qualification at Bromley Technical High School: a single O-level in art.
12. He turned down a knighthood
Bowie was offered a knighthood from the Queen in 2003, but turned it down. He told The Sun, “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”
13. His Ziggy Stardust alter-ego ‘drove him insane’
Bowie toured as the character Ziggy Stardust (with his backing band the Spiders from Mars) from 1972–73, before retiring the persona live on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1973, stating: “not only is this the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do.” Bowie later said that the alter-ego “wouldn’t leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour … My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity.”
14. He once went on TV to defend his hairstyle
In 1964, Bowie defended his hairstyle in an interview with the BBC as the 17-year-old founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men. He said, “it’s not nice when people call you darling and that.”
15. He learnt to mime from the same person as Kate Bush
Bowie was trained in mime by Kate Bush’s choreographer, Lindsey Kemp. His mime skills re-emerged as a warm-up performance for T. Rex in 1969, while the band were still a folk act called Tyrannosaurus Rex.
**This article was adapted Jan 29, 2017. 80’s and Gentlemen does not take credit for any of this article’s original content.**
Credit: Rebecca Hawkes, The Telegraph-Culture-Music
