David Bowie once thought Satan was living in his indoor swimming pool. He also cohabited with Iggy Pop in West Berlin in 1976, during which time he became consumed with Third Reich history and Nazi mythology. Bowie, like many rock stars before and many more to come, struggled with drugs and faced somewhat of an identity crisis in attempts to reinvent his sound and eclipse the popularity of his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.
But there was a light at the end of his tunnel, and Bowie created “a new language of music from fragments, accidents and dreamed-up textures,” that sparked a comeback and influenced a future generation of musicians.
For an excerpt of our latest cover story, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust”, check out RollingStone.com.
— Parry Ernsberger
From Ziggy Stardust to Let’s Dance, David Bowie has made rock and roll history time and again. But at 64, the king of glam’s greatest work of art is still himself.
In these exclusive photos on Rollingstone.com, Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita captures some of Bowie’s signature looks and a few that we’ve never seen before (the Bowie clock?)
Bowie and Sukita’s collaboration has spanned 40 years resulting in thousands of previously unreleased candids, outtakes, and iconic portraits, the most recent of which were taken in 2009. Their upcoming book Speed of Life contains never before seen photographs from Sukita’s archive, presented along with David Bowie’s commentary.
