“I’M KNOWN TO LAY YOU, ONE AND ALL”

When Bowie ‘came out’

“I’M gay, and always have been, even when I was David Jones.” Bowie’s interview with Michael Watts in Melody Maker in January 1972 – reproduced in full in Rock N Roll Star! – directly addressed an issue that Laurence Myers had raised in one of their first meetings. “I came from a time when it was perceived that girls bought pop records and everybody was very closeted,” says Myers. “I said to David I didn’t mind what he did – but in terms of business, could it be an issue? He thought about it for a while and then said, ‘Laurence, don’t worry about it.’ So, I didn’t. He was right. Young people, even older people, thought it was good to be gay as it meant you were creative, brave and talented. You could be a leader.”

Even after the interview, some of Bowie’s acquaintances question whether it was an accurate reflection of Bowie’s sexual orientation. Ziggy engineer Dennis Mackay recalls being told by Ronson that Bowie would invite young men to meet him in the dressing room just to get people talking. Mark Pritchett believes that while “David could occasionally be flirtatious with some men, serious, involved gay relationships were not something that struck me as being a part of his life. Quite the reverse…”

What everybody agrees on, though, was that Bowie’s public claim of homosexuality did nothing to harm his career. “It was the right time,” says Cherry Vanilla. “He was a little early in making his sexuality clear, which was good because we don’t want to be following others. We like the avant-garde. America was opening up to LGBTQ artists, but at that moment it was intriguing and press-worthy for those with sharp ears, so the timing was perfect.”