Today David Bowie would have turned 70. Unfortunately he died almost a year ago. The below I wrote in December 2015, in retrospect a month before his death. I didn’t publish it at the time. I didn’t dare to. It made me feel like a vulture. It made me feel like someone writing something for the occasion. In reality, it was the first post of this blog. In reality, David Bowie was the only artist who defined me. Today I feel I can publish it, but…I want it to be as direct and honest as possible. That’s why I didn’t edit the draft and just publish it in exactly the same shape I left it a good year ago.

Starman for all Misfits

Portrait of a fan as a young man. I love David Bowie since I first lay hands on him. I have all his albums on vinyl up until Scary Monsters (1980), which I collected between my 15^th and 17^th year. His performance of ‘My Death’ in the Ziggy Stardust motion picture still moves me to tears. Why do I love the guy so much? Easy answer is that he is just one of the best and most influential musicians ever. Yeah, but I do not adore Elvis Presley, I only have intellectual admiration for Bob Dylan, and I don’t even like Michael Jackson. Only Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground come close, and that should already explain something.

So, if not for the music, why then, why him? In retrospect probably because of what he represented, a beacon of freedom in a hostile world. Someone who happily declared himself gay, wore all possible (extravagant) clothes and make-up, changed his style every couple of years and in essence treated himself as a work of art. I could have done that. I would have done that, if only I had the courage (or if only I was famous enough to do so). I experimented a bit with make-up, I wore stockings, skirts and other items of female clothing for a while and, hell yeah, I even tried out gay sex, although I quickly found out it was not my thing. All this time David was looking over my shoulder, nodding approvingly, telling me not to be scared and just try out whatever I wanted. You reached out to me and helped me when I needed it. I will repay with eternal admiration.