"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring."
He would have been 70 today.
Music legend, accomplished artist, leftfield actor, philanthropist and icon for weird loners everywhere... for many reasons, the entertainment world is still mourning the loss of David Bowie.
But while his music – and estimated 140 million worldwide record sales – understandably took centre stage in the tributes, fans and contemporaries are also remembering their favourite stories about man behind the Man Who Sold The World.
From his birth in Brixton, London in 1947, through to his infamous Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke and jungle phases, here are just a few of the lesser-known reasons he will be remembered as a legend…
1. He had the coolest mugshot of all time
What to Read Next
Taken in 1976 after Bowie was arrested on marijuana possession charges in a New York hotel room along with Iggy Pop, the photo was lost for years until finally being recovered in the house of a retired police officer. (Sidenote: a grand jury later decided not to indict either Bowie or Pop.)
2. He was a staunch defender of men... with long hair
David's first appearance on TV came in 1964, as a spokesperson and founder of the amazingly-named The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. "The last few years we've had comments like 'Darling, can I carry your handbag'," Bowie complained. "I think it just has to stop now."
3. He always wrote back to his fans
"A few moments ago I was handed my very first American fan letter," he typed in 1967, "and it was from you. I was so pleased that I had to sit down and type an immediate reply... Thank you for being so kind as to write to me and do please write again and let me know some more about yourself." Read more here.
4. He could forgive and forget
His famous discolouration in his eyes occurred after his friend George Underwood punched him in the eye when he was 15 in a fight over a girl, leaving one of his pupils was permanently dilated. But Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and Underwood even produced artwork for some of Bowie's earlier albums.
5. He had a never-say-die attitude to pop stardom
Before he hooked up with manager Ken Pitt and went properly solo, he tried his luck in no less than 12 bands – including The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers, The Lower Third, The Buzz and The Riot Squad. His first single? Liza Jane, credited to "Davie Jones and the King Bees". Followed shortly by I Pity The Fool, with "The Manish Boys". And his first standalone single The Laughing Gnome remains a kitsch classic to this day - albeit one that, despite petitions from fans, he refused to ever play again.
6. He knew how to play Glastonbury in style
7. He knew how to charm the press...
When Word magazine did a big series of interviewers with writers who'd met Bowie, they all realised that he'd played the same trick on nearly all of them. In short: the journalist would be booked in for a 45-minute interview slot. After around 40 minutes, his press officer would wander in to wrap it up. At which point Bowie would say "Look, I know we're on a schedule, but - honestly, we're having such fun here, could we do an extra 15 minutes? This is going really well."
Obviously, the slot was scheduled for an hour all along - but the journalist bounces out, happy that they were so massively charming that even Bowie wanted to talk to them for 15 extra minutes. And would thus give whatever album he's selling a glowing write up.
8. ...And scare the hell out of parents
Just witness Bowie doing 'Starman' on Top of the Pops in 1972, as Ziggy Stardust in his absolute pomp. And then try to imagine the nation of lorry-driving dads staring at their TV in horror. And then remember that the whole show was probably hosted by Dave Lee Travis and a giant Womble.
9. He had big ambitions…
"I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human," he said in graphic novel Fas Ferox. "I felt very puny as a human. I thought, 'F**k that. I want to be a superhuman.'"
10. And he possibly was superhuman
During his 'Thin White Duke' phase in 1976 – where Bowie dressed as a kind of mad aristocrat – he admitted to living entirely on "red peppers, cocaine, and milk". For over a year.
11. Although maybe it did have an effect
"I re-invented my image so many times," he told Conan O'Brien in 2003, "that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman."
12. Despite his lifestyle, his voice stayed amazing…
Check out this striped-down, a capella version of 1982's Under Pressure, with Bowie and Mercury battling it out to see who had the best voice of the 1980s:
13. …Although even when silent he was entertaining
From Musicless Musicvideos: a "different" version of David Bowie and Mick Jagger's Dancing In The Street from 1985:
14. His choice of wedding guests was suitably odd. And rhyming.
15. His backstage hospitality was second to none
Via @PhilipNByrne: "I interviewed Ranking Roger from [1980's ska band] The Beat on the phone once. He told me how they'd supported Bowie at a stadium UK show in the mid-eighties. They were in their dressing room before the show, Bowie poked his head around the door and asked if they were all good and ready.
"Their trombone player, an elderly Jamaican man with no clue who David Bowie was, started complaining that they'd been promised another tray of Red Stripe, his favourite beer. The band stood dumbstruck as he laid into Bowie about it. Bowie then said 'Right' and walked out, leading to an explosion in the room as they shouted at the hapless geezer.
"A few moments later, Bowie came in, two trays of Red Stripe in his arms, all smiles. Top man."
16. He was happy to blow his own trumpet
"To not be modest about it," he told Livewire's One On One, "[but] you'll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I've worked with have done their best work by far with me".
And then there was this AOL chat in 1997: "I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized autobiography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version… in which I will play everybody."
17. Although he did turn down the Queen
And not just once, but twice. In 2000, he turned down the offer of a CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire title, saying: "I seriously don't know what it's for." And then in 2003 he snubbed HRH again - by turning down a knighthood offered in recognition of "having a major contribution" to British life. The supposedly rock 'n' roll Sir Mick Jagger should watch and learn.
18. He loved it when The Telegraph drew David Cameron as him
19. ...But this was his preferred reading material
(Although it's not as funny as it used to be.)
20. He turned down 007
In 1985 he turned down Bond movie A View To A Kill after being tipped to play villain Max Zorin – a role later taken by Christopher Walken. "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs," Bowie later explained.
21. ...But he was happy to appear in Spongebob Squarepants
In 2007 - in one of his last acting roles, in fact - he played the Lord Royal Highness of Atlantis SquarePantis. We're not kidding:
22. Nirvana fans annoyed him
"I was quite overwhelmed to see so many people singing the songs," he told GQ in 2000. "And they were such a young crowd, younger than most of my fans. I know that because, in America especially, when I do 'The Man Who Sold The World' the amount of kids that come up afterwards and say, 'It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song'. And I think, 'F**k you, you little tosser!'"
23. But he helped keep Space Oddity... in space
When Commander Chris Hadfield recorded a cover of Bowie's 1969 song 'Space Oddity' aboard the International Space Station in 2013, Bowie himself posted on Facebook to say that the cover was "possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created". Except the song had to be removed from Youtube shortly afterwards, when a license with the song's publisher expired.
No matter: Bowie himself then stepped up and, following some legal wrangling and complications, demanded an agreement that allowed the song to be used for another two years.
24. Everyone who was anyone turned up to his 50th birthday
Uploaded to the Facebook page of the Pixies, there is no better indictment of Bowie's influence than the musicians who appeared at his 50th birthday concert at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1997. Dave Grohl, Lou Reed, Billy Corgan, Robert Smith... how many can you spot?
25. ...And yet he knew how lucky he was
"You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world," he told Conan O'Brien in 2003. "It is."
26. He will make you feel like a massive underachiever
Seriously. Visit this website, type in your age – and see how much cooler he was than you. At every single point in his life.
