Random David Bowie Stories From His Biggest Fans (13 items)

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  (#8) A Club DJ Pointed Out His Uncanny Resemblance To... David Bowie

  One night in 1989, a scruffy-looking man walked into the Ritz night club in New York City's East Village, where Russ Johnson worked as a video DJ.

  "I remember saying to him, 'Man, if you shaved your beard you'd make a pretty good David Bowie look-alike,'" Johnson told BBC News. "He kinda laughed and carried on doing what he was doing and then left."

  But that wasn't the end of the story. The next night, the club's stage manager asked Johnson to show the same scruffy-looking dude the club's sound system.

  "That's when I realized that I'd told David Bowie he would look like himself if he bothered to shave," Johnson said. "It turns out he was scouting locations to shoot a music video and he chose our club... meeting David Bowie was an experience I'll never forget, if only because it was so embarrassing!"
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  (#2) He Wrote A Heartwarming Response To His First American Fan Letter

  How many people write fan letters to their favorite celebrities, hoping to get any kind of reply, even a form letter? Sandra Dodd got far more than that when she reached out to a still-unknown Bowie.

  In December 1967, Bowie received what he called his first American fan letter from the 14-year-old Dodd, who had received a promotional copy of the artist's first album from her uncle (who managed a radio station). She wrote Bowie telling him his music was as good as that of The Beatles, and offered to start a fan club in the States for him.

  Bowie was so happy to receive a fan latter from the US that he sent her a personal response, including his hopes for the future and self-aware typos:

  Dear Sandra,

  When I called in this, my manager’s office, a few moments ago I was handed my very first American fan letter - and it was from you. I was so pleased that I had to sit down and type an immediate reply, even though Ken is shouting at me to get on with a script he badly needs. That can wiat (wi-at? That’s a new English word which means wait).

  I’ve been waiting for some reaction to the album from American listeners. There were reviews in Billboard and Cash Box, but they were by professional critics and they rarely reflect the opinions of the public. The critics were very flattering however. They even liked the single “Love You Till Tuesday.” I’ve got a copy of the American album and they’ve printed the picture a little yellow. I’m really not that blond. I think the picture on the back is more ‘me’. Hope you like those enclosed.

  In answer to your questions, my real name is David Jones and I don’t have to tell you why I changed it. “Nobody’s going to make a monkey out of you” said my manager. My birthday is January 8th and I guess I’m 5’10”. There is a Fan Club here in England, but if things go well in the States then we’ll have one there I suppose. It’s a little early to even think about it.

  I hope one day to get to America. My manager tells me lots about it as he has been there many times with other acts he manages. I was watching an old film on TV the other night called “No Down Payment” a great film, but rather depressing if it is a true reflection of The American Way Of Life. However, shortly after that they showed a documentary about Robert Frost the American poet, filmed mainly at his home in Vermont, and that evened the score. I am sure that that is nearer the real America. I made my first movie last week. Just a fifteen minutes short, but it gave me some good experience for a full length deal I have starting in January.

  Thank you for being so kind as to write to me and do please write again and let me know some more about yourself.

  Yours sincerely,

  (Signed, ‘David Bowie’)
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  (#9) At A Venue In Cornwall, The Still-Unknown Artist Did A Duet With A Patron

  A man named Timothy ran into the artist backstage after being one of a small handful of people to see a still unknown Bowie perform in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK at Christmastime around 1967. As he told BBC News in 2007:

  ...and there he was crouched over a suitcase applying makeup. I asked questions and he was charming, humble. Later he joined us in the bar and did a duet with my chum Terry. He could not have been more friendly. He was well spoken, almost shy and conservatively dressed.
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  (#3) A Reporter Was Just As Flustered By His Charm On The Third Interview

  The first time David Thomas interviewed Bowie, the reporter was just 24 years old and so nervous about meeting a hero of his that his palms were sweaty. He took out a handful of tissues to dry them, only to have the tissues flutter to the floor when the men went to shake hands. That broke the ice for that interview.

  When he interviewed Bowie for a third (and final) time in 1996, Thomas jokingly told Bowie he would try to do a better job to resist the artist's charm. When asked what he meant by this comment, the reporter continued:

  "Well," I said, "it's just that you're so f*cking charming and always it makes me think, "He likes me! He likes me!" and then I don't ask any really tough questions."

  "Hmm..." [Bowie] pondered. "Of course there is another possibility."

  "What's that?"

  "I may not actually dislike you."

  In an article written for The Independent shortly after Bowie's passing, Thomas used this anecdote as an example of what the reporter referred to as the artist's "pure distilled charm."
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  (#12) He Babysat His Roommate's Younger Siblings

  Colin Hartley shared a story of when the artist had been his babysitter for a day in 1969. At the time, Bowie and Marc Bolan (of T Rex fame) shared a flat in South London with Hartley's half-sister. When she had to go to work, she arranged for Bowie to babysit.

  "He took my brother and me to the nearby playground where my sister worked and spent the whole afternoon playing with us on the tyre swings," Hartley recalled.

  As he was only three years old at the time, he admitted he didn't have a very clear memory of the artist. "I remember the bus journey we took there more than I remember David - we got to sit on the top deck right at the front. My mum would never let us sit there - those Routemasters used to take off while you were still climbing up - but David Bowie said: 'Let’s go upstairs!'"

  Back at the flat, Bowie and Bolan let Hartley and his brother play with their instruments. "I have an image of Marc Bolan leaning over in a cream shirt with burgundy polka dots," Hartley continued, "but all I can remember of David was his guitar - a Gretsch with white and gold plated machine heads."
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  (#7) He Helped His Body Painter Who Was Struggling With Addiction

  Carolyn Cowan first met Bowie in Dublin in 1991 when she worked as his body painter on the music video shoot for Tin Machine. Three days after the shoot, Cowan told The Guardian that Bowie accompanied her to her very first Narcotics Anonymous meeting:

  Wherever one went with him, there was always a seismic shift. Space and time changed. Mine, beyond all recognition:

  Every moment of my reality changed in that moment, on that day. I am now almost 25 years clean and sober. I know I would not be here without that intervention, and all the years working with him, subsequently, reinforced the power of recovery, sobriety and faith in the self.

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