David Bowie — Sexuality, Religiosity, and Political Ideology David Bowie, stage name of David Robert Jones, (London, January 8, 1947 – New York, January 10, 2016), was a British singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. Sometimes referred to as the "chameleon of rock" for his ability to constantly reinvent his image, he was an important figure in popular music for five decades. He is considered one of the most innovative and influential popular musicians of all time, especially for his work in the 1970s and 1980s, and is distinguished by his characteristic vocals and the intellectual depth of his work. Sexuality Bowie's sexuality has been the subject of debate. Biographer David Buckley writes: "If Ziggy confused both his creator and his audience, much of that confusion centered on his sexuality." While married to Angie, he came out as gay in a famous 1972 interview with journalist Michael Watts of Melody Maker, which generated publicity in both Great Britain and the United States; Bowie was adopted as a gay icon in both countries. In a 1976 interview with Playboy, he stated: "It's true—I'm bisexual." His affirmation of bisexuality was supported by Angie. According to Ava Cherry and Angela, Bowie had a relationship with Mick Jagger. Ava Cherry is an American singer and model. She collaborated with David Bowie between 1972 and 1975; the two met in New York when she was working as a waitress in a nightclub and Bowie was touring with the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. After that, they began a period of personal and artistic collaboration that strongly influenced the "blue-eyed soul" of Young American. Next, she launched herself as a solo singer. Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is a genre of rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music. The term was coined in the mid-1960s to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly Black Motown and Stax record labels. In 1983, Bowie told Rolling Stone writer Kurt Loder that his public declaration of bisexuality was "the biggest mistake I ever made" and that "I've always been a closeted heterosexual." On other occasions, he said that his interest in gay and bisexual culture had been more a product of the times and the situation he was in than of his own feelings. Blender magazine asked Bowie in 2002 if he still believed his public declaration had been his biggest mistake. After a long pause, he said: "I don't think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was much harder in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to champion any cause or be a representative of any group of people." Bowie said he wanted to be a songwriter and performer, rather than a headline for his bisexuality, and in "puritanical" America, "I think that prevented me from doing a lot of what I wanted to do." Buckley wrote that Bowie "exploited sexual intrigue for its capacity to shock." According to Mary Finnigan—a brief girlfriend of Bowie in 1969—David and Angie "created their bisexual fantasy." Christopher Sandford, author of the biography "Bowie: Loving the Alien," wrote that Bowie "repeated the joke that he and his wife met while 'sleeping with the same guy'... Gay sex was always an anecdotal subject and a source of laughter." Mark Easton of the BBC stated in 2016 that "Britain has become much more tolerant of difference" and that gay rights and gender equality would not have "enjoyed the widespread support they have today without Bowie's androgynous challenge all those years ago." Spirituality and Religion From 1967 onwards, influenced by his half-brother, Bowie became interested in Buddhism and, as commercial success eluded him, considered becoming a Buddhist monk. Biographer Marc Spitz states that Buddhism reminded Bowie that there were other goals in life besides fame and material gain, and that one can learn about oneself through meditation and chanting. After a few months of study at Marpa House in London, his Lama, Chime Rinpoche, told him: "You don't want to be a Buddhist… You should follow the music." Lama Chime Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist, Tulku, and Dharma teacher—in Buddhism, Dharma refers to two main concepts: the teachings of the Buddha and the natural law or universal order that governs existence. Chime Rinpoche was born in 1941 in Kham, Tibet. In 1959, due to the annexation of Tibet, he was forced to flee to India, via Bhutan, and into exile. Obtaining British citizenship in 1965, he taught extensively throughout Europe and founded Marpa House, the first Tibetan Buddhist center in England. Lama is a title bestowed upon an accomplished Dharma practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners may be recognized and titled as lamas. The Tibetan word la-ma means "high mother" and reflects the qualities of a person titled as lama. A tulku is a Tibetan Buddhist master recognized as the reincarnation of another enlightened master. Although Bowie and Iman had legally married in a private civil ceremony in Switzerland on April 24, 1992, he said they knew that: "Our true marriage, sanctified by God, had to happen in a church in Florence." The religious ceremony took place on June 6, 1992, at the Episcopal Church of St. James in Florence, and was attended by famous friends such as Bono and Brian Eno. Bowie, although a spiritual person and not strictly religious, felt the need for this formal blessing, and Iman (who is Muslim) agreed to perform the ceremony in the church. Earlier that year, he knelt on stage at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recited the Lord's Prayer. In 1993, Bowie said he had an "unwavering" belief in the "unquestionable" existence of God. In a 2005 interview, Bowie said that the existence of God "is not a question that can be answered." … I'm not exactly an atheist and that worries me. There's that little part that persists: 'Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a few months.' …I almost got it right.” He had a tattoo of the Serenity Prayer in Japanese on his calf. Bowie stated that “questioning [his] spiritual life [has always been] …pertinent” to his songwriting. The song “Station to Station” is “very much related to the Stations of the Cross”; the song also makes specific reference to Kabbalah. Bowie called the album “extremely dark… the closest thing to a treatise on magic I’ve ever written.” Earthling, meanwhile, showed “the constant need in me to oscillate between atheism or a kind of gnosticism.” "What I need is to find a balance, spiritually, between the way I live and my death." Hours boasted overtly Christian themes, with its artwork inspired by the Pietà. "Lazarus," from Blackstar, begins with the words "Look up, I'm in Heaven," while the rest of the album deals with other issues of mysticism and mortality. Political Ideology In his first television interview, Bowie, under the name Davie Jones, spoke about prejudice against men with long hair after he and his then-band, the Manish Boys, were asked to cut their hair before an appearance on the BBC. He and the Manish Boys were interviewed on the BBC's Tonight show on November 12, 1964, to defend their cause, where Bowie claimed to be a spokesperson for the nonexistent Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. He stated on the show: "I think we all like long hair and I don't see why other people should persecute us because of it." In In 1976, speaking under the pseudonym Thin White Duke and "at least partly in jest," he made statements expressing support for fascism and an apparent admiration for Adolf Hitler in interviews with Playboy, NME, and a Swedish publication. Bowie was quoted as saying: "Britain is ready for a fascist leader... I think Britain would benefit from a fascist leader." "After all, fascism is really nationalist... I believe very strongly in fascism, people have always responded more efficiently under regimented leadership." He was also quoted as saying, "Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars" and "It takes a far-right front to emerge and sweep everything away and tidy it all up." These comments, along with Eric Clapton's comments in support of Enoch Powell at the time, have been cited as an inspiration for the formation of the Rock Against Racism movement. Enoch Powell (1912–1998) was a prominent and controversial British politician, academic, author, and linguist. He is best known for his political career and, in particular, for his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in 1968, which criticized immigration to the United Kingdom and generated enormous public debate. Bowie retracted his comments in an interview with Melody Maker in October 1977, attributing them to mental instability caused by his drug problems, saying: "I was "Out of my mind, totally, completely crazy." In the same interview, Bowie described himself as "apolitical," stating: "The more I travel, the less certain I am about which political philosophies are really recommendable. The more systems of government I see, the less inclined I am to pledge allegiance to any group of people, so it would be disastrous for me to adopt a definite point of view or adopt a political party and say 'this is my party'." In the 1980s and 1990s, Bowie's public statements shifted dramatically toward anti-racism and anti-fascism. In a 1983 interview with MTV host Mark Goodman, Bowie criticized the channel for not giving enough coverage to Black musicians, becoming visibly uncomfortable when Goodman suggested that the channel's fear of retaliation from the American Midwest was one reason for this lack of coverage. The music videos for "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" were described by Bowie as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism. The album Tin Machine adopted a more direct stance against fascism and neo-Nazism, criticized for being too moralistic. In 1993, he released the single "Black Tie White Noise," which addressed the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In 2007, Bowie donated $10,000 to the Jena Six defense fund, saying, "There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process underway in the city of Jena." The Jena Six were six Black teenagers from Jena, Louisiana, convicted in 2006 for assaulting Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School, which they also attended. Barker was injured on December 4, 2006, by members of the group and received treatment at an emergency room. While the case was ongoing, it was frequently cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States. Some commentators believed the defendants had initially been charged with very serious crimes and therefore treated unfairly. When Bowie won the British Male Solo Artist award at the 2014 Brit Awards, he referenced the upcoming Scottish independence referendum, saying, "Scotland, stand with us." This generated a significant reaction across the UK on social media. The referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on September 18, 2014. The referendum question was "Should Scotland be an independent country?", to which voters responded with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side won with 2,001,926 votes (55.3%) against independence and 1,617,989 votes (44.7%) in favor. Alex