--- title: David Bowie: 10 Things You Never Knew About Him description: David Bowie has died at 69. Here are some fun tidbits about him you may not have known canonical: https://time.com/4174988/david-bowie-surprising-facts/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-11T17:24:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:31.652Z og:title: 10 Things You Never Knew About David Bowie og:description: David Bowie has died at 69. Here are some fun tidbits about him you may not have known og:url: https://time.com/4174988/david-bowie-surprising-facts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccdba966865ace73/6988786e3c1639374845b7f2/gettyimages-147592839.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Larry Busacca Archive og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Things You Never Knew About David Bowie twitter:description: David Bowie has died at 69. Here are some fun tidbits about him you may not have known twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccdba966865ace73/6988786e3c1639374845b7f2/gettyimages-147592839.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 10 Things You Never Knew About David Bowie  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jan 11, 2016 5:24 PM UTC  Musician David Bowie performs in concert circa 1987 in New York City. Musician David Bowie performs in concert circa 1987 in New York City.L. Busacca/WireImage—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jan 11, 2016 5:24 PM UTC Legendary British rock star David Bowie [died Sunday](http://time.com/4174815/david-bowie-death-cancer/) after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69\. While fans probably know him as Ziggy Stardust and the voice of [classic songs](http://time.com/4174940/david-bowie-best-songs/) like “Heroes,” “Let’s Dance” and “Under Pressure,” we’ve rounded up some fun tidbits you might not have known about the singer. **His left eye seemed like a different color because he got punched in the face in a fight over a girl when he was 15.** As Bowie’s biographer, British rock journalist Paul Trynka, [writes](https://books.google.com/books?id=51THbRlGpUQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Paul+Trynka+david+bowie&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlwOzDgqLKAhVHMz4KHTxOBk4Q6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=pupilparalyzed&f=false) in his biography of the musician _David Bowie: Starman,_ his friend George Underwood was supposed to go on a date with Bromley Tech classmate Carol Goldsmith, but Bowie told him she was going to cancel. When Underwood found out his friend lied, he slugged him and accidentally scratched his eyeball. The injury paralyzed the muscles that contracted his left pupil, so it became permanently dilated. “It left me with a wonky sense of perspective,'” Bowie said in the book. “‘When I’m driving, for instance, cars don’t come toward me, they just get bigger.'” When he got hit in that eye with a lollipop during the 2004 Norwegian Wood Festival in Oslo, he [joked](http://www.today.com/id/5269717/ns/today-today%5Fentertainment/t/david-bowie-hit-eye-lollipop-concert/), “Lucky you hit the bad one.” **Little Richard was his role model.** “I always wanted to be Little Richard—he was my idol,” he said in Trynka’s book. **He says John Lennon forced him to eat an egg cooked in urine.** That’s the worst thing he had ever eaten, he said in [an interview](http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/men-of-the-year/home/hall-of-fame/david-bowie-ziggy-stardust-2002-heroes-interview-photos/page/5) for _GQ_‘s 2002 “Men of the Year” issue. He claimed the two musicians were on vacation in Hong Kong in the late 70s, busy “trying to find a place to eat monkeys’ brains,” when two guys who recognized Lennon took him into a back room “and made him drink the blood of a snake.” Then he said the _Beatles_ star came back and “shoved” a “thousand-day-old egg cooked in horse piss” into Bowie’s mouth. **He was afraid of flying.** “I’m coping with it to a certain extent,” he [told](http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/men-of-the-year/home/hall-of-fame/david-bowie-ziggy-stardust-2002-heroes-interview-photos/page/4) _GQ_ in that same interview. “But I just can’t face that transatlantic trip. I don’t want to be on a plane going over the Atlantic. I got my phobia before 11 September — it started when my baby was born.” Instead, he “loved” traveling on the _Queen Elizabeth II_. **He bought a pig fetus for** **_Rolling Stone_** **journalist David Wild.** [#DavidBowie](https://twitter.com/hashtag/DavidBowie?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) took me to Pinks for a hot dog. He introduced me to Little Richard. He bought me a pig fetus. He was the coolest man ever. — David Wild (@Wildaboutmusic) [January 11, 2016](https://twitter.com/Wildaboutmusic/status/686452866429485057?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) **Susan Sarandon says she had an affair with him.** “That was a really interesting period,” the actress and his co-star in _The Hunger_ (1983) told [_The Daily Beast_](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/24/susan-sarandon-on-woody-allen-s-creepiness-her-love-affair-with-david-bowie-and-psychedelics.html)when asked if she had ever had a [“wild love affair”](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/24/susan-sarandon-on-woody-allen-s-creepiness-her-love-affair-with-david-bowie-and-psychedelics.html) with a big celebrity. “Bowie’s just a really interesting person, and so bright. He’s a talent, and a painter, and… he’s _great_. **He published a list of his 100** [**favorite books**](https://www.facebook.com/davidbowie/photos/a.424610777664.193516.30899502664/10151603205387665/?type=1&link%5Fshare=f8e3a562b6&theater)**.** Some examples of the classic works on it: Homer’s _The Iliad,_ Jack Kerouac’s _On the Road_, Christopher Hitchens’s _The Trial Of Henry Kissinger_, Truman Capote’s _In Cold Blood,_ William Faulkner_‘s_ _As I Lay Dying,_ Gustave Flaubert’s _Madame Bovary,_ George Orwell’s 1984, D.H. Lawrence’s _Lady Chatterly’s Lover_ and Howard Zinn’s _A People’s History Of The United States._ **He painted and collected art.** One biographer, David Buckley, [wrote](https://books.google.com/books?id=vk-I%5FZM%5FPfwC&pg=PA424&dq=%3Ddavid+bowie+Tintoretto+and+Rubens&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqi5zHlqLKAhWDPj4KHZuDCQcQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=%3Ddavid%20bowie%20Tintoretto%20and%20Rubens&f=false) that he had been a “collector for over a quarter of a century.” As Bowie describes his collection in the biography of himself written by [Nicholas Pegg](https://books.google.com/books?id=TEI4CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2061&dq=%3Ddavid+bowie+Tintoretto+and+Rubens&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqi5zHlqLKAhWDPj4KHZuDCQcQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=tintoretto&f=false): --- > “” --- The rock star attended art school and exhibited some of his own paintings. “His pictures suggest, among other things, a fondness for Picabia, Surrealism, Marvel Comics and Egon Schiele,” [The New York _Times_ wrote](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/arts/talking-art-with-david-bowie-a-musician-s-parallel-passion.html?pagewanted=all) in 1998, even adding in parentheses, “(Mr. Bowie even looks a little like Schiele.)” Painting “was about problem solving,” he told the newspaper. “I’d find that if I had some creative obstacle in the music that I was working on, I would often revert to drawing it out or painting it out.” **Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GYBE) and Arcade Fire were two of his favorite bands.** He said that to [_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/jan/24/david-bowie-on-his-ipod)when asked what kind of music is on his iPod. He also said, “I have a thing about Chinese folk music, OK?” referring to why “Embroidering Pouch” by Peng Liyuan was on the device. **He was excited to turn 50.** “I cannot express to younger people how great it is to be this age,” he told [_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/01/11/david-bowie-usa-today-interviews/78617568/). “It’s like describing the taste of a peach. They’ll find out when they get here.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4174988/david-bowie-surprising-facts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4174988/david-bowie-surprising-facts/"},"headline":"10 Things You Never Knew About David Bowie","datePublished":"2016-01-11T17:24:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:31.652Z","description":"Including his travel adventures with John Lennon","url":"https://time.com/4174988/david-bowie-surprising-facts/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccdba966865ace73/6988786e3c1639374845b7f2/gettyimages-147592839.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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