Ziggy and Buddhism have something to do with it. «He was a barometer of the mood of the times and a pop icon of the consumer era despite not being attached to material goods. Death was the last of his transformations".
«In 1972 David Bowie talked about Mars, not the Moon like everyone else. He was eons ahead of his contemporaries. This avant-garde aspect fascinated me. There was never anything obvious about Bowie. He didn't belong to this planet, he was in constant metamorphosis and when you thought you had captured his essence he was already elsewhere. He was never trapped by his character, especially because he was not a slave to his ego."
For Ian Astbury, David Bowie was the legend, the one who struck him with his performance on Top of the Pops in 1972, leading him to make music. Not only that: the two shared an interest in Buddhism and spirituality. «When I began to delve into the culture of American Indians and Buddhism, I understood that Bowie lived in two dimensions, one earthly and the other supernatural. He almost became a monk, but he then chose the path of transcendence through art and was able to express it in a pop, non-initiatory language."
Astbury met Bowie in 1987. The Cult were his supporters and the two had the opportunity to converse amiably in the dressing rooms, almost like friends. It wasn't obvious. Born in 1962, Astbury was the singer of a band that came from post punk and veered towards hard rock, while Bowie, born in 1947, had already been everything: restless researcher, creator of hitherto unexplored artistic mixes, subverter of rules morals and customs. «It was a barometer of the mood of the times». Later, in the late 2000s, they happened to live in the same New York neighborhood and it was common to meet Bowie in the bagel shop or while walking down the street.
