British singer David Bowie, London 1992. Photo / Getty
British singer David Bowie, London 1992. Photo / Getty
By Caroline Howe
Rock legend David Bowie was consumed by his sex addiction which drove him to sleep with 13-year-old girls, engage in wild orgies, and declare his bisexuality with a 'permanent erection', a new book claims.
The British rock star's reputation of rampant sexual consumption inspired an offering of a warm dead body to sleep with when he was on tour in Philadelphia - an offer he later declined according to DailyMail.
He was fixated on Hitler and watched Nazi movies while high on cocaine - a vice that nearly killed him.
Rock and roll musician David Bowie poses for a portrait dressed as 'Ziggy Stardust' in a hotel room in 1973 in New York City, New York. Photo / Getty
Bowie snorted so much coke for years he had to have cartilage removed from his body and put in his nose. He never had a cigarette out of his hand and he weighed 95lbs.
'David Bowie was his very own creation, his very own work of art. This was the boy from postwar Brixton [a district of south London] with his sights set on the world,' writes author and British GQ editor Dylan Jones in his exhaustive and fascinating new biography, David Bowie: A Life, to be published by Crown Archetype on September 7.
'His entire professional career was one of myth, legend and invention.'
Bowie broke out of the monochrome world of his upbringing in southeast England in the 70s dressed like a pansexual spaceman in a Day-Glo jumpsuit, sashaying across the screen like a 1920s film star, with dyed flame-red hair.
Behind the curve in the 60s, the 70s clicked for the singer musically and 'he exploited what he had in a way that was all-consuming,' writes the author.
The son of a cinema usherette and a promotions officer for Bernardo's, a children's charity, Bowie, born David Jones, stated it was a happy childhood but also a lonely one.
9th July 1973: Pop singer David Bowie is seen off at the station by his wife Angie. Photo / Getty
'I saw people deprived around me and kids going to school with their shoes falling apart and kids looking like urchins. It left an impression on me that I never ever wanted to be hungry, or at the wrong end of society', he once told the author.
The impression was strong enough to inspire him to be a star rather than a great musician or artist.
But there was a dark cloud over his mother's side of the family that was riddled with mental instability.
Two or three of his aunts committed suicide; three of his mother's sisters were described as nuts, and one even had a lobotomy because of 'bad nerves'.
His mother had had two previous children, one a girl, the other, Terry, a half-brother to Bowie and eleven years older.
Bowie's father didn't want Terry in the house and made Bowie the chosen one. Their mother, Margaret was good with babies, but then abandoned them after that.
David was nurtured; Terry was not. He had introduced Bowie to American culture, jazz, the Beats, dive bars and flesh-pots of London's West End.
David Bowie poses for a portrait in 1976.Photo / Getty
Terry was later institutionalized for schizophrenia and David obsessed that he might have that gene and go off the rails just like Terry - or simply go mad from his mother's side of the family.
But he went through life looking for his brother and missed him.
Throughout the mid-1960s, Bowie struggled to find the right music group, the right image, reinventing himself every 18 months to get attention.
He changed his name to David Bowie when British mag New Musical Express started calling Mick Jagger 'Jagger Dagger.'
Consumed with his image, he'd go down to Carnaby Street, the fashion center of London and pick up garbage bags of clothing behind the shops since he couldn't afford high-priced duds.
Author Jones describes 70s British singer Dana Gillespie describing being his girlfriend when she was only 13 or 14. He arrived at her house dressed like Robin Hood from a gig and her father initially thought he was a girl because of his long hair.
Everyone thought he was gay and 'a bit theatrical for everyday guys,' she said. At 18, he was wearing a blue dressing gown and full makeup.
To escape south east London, he became a lodger with journalist Mary Finnigan before becoming her lover.
David Bowie performs live on stage at Earls Court Arena on May 12 1973. Photo / Getty
She later learned that he had been bisexually multi-timing her the entire time as well as sleeping with his stagecraft guru and Angie in London who became his first wife.
Mime artist Lindsay Kemp remembered he was sleeping with many women at the same time they were having an affair. Once she woke up and heard noises in the next room. He was in bed with her best friend and the walls were shaking.
In the age of psychedelic drugs, while others were dropping acid, Bowie was afraid to indulge in it because to of his brother's schizophrenia.
