Apparently, “Fame” does in fact make a man think things over. In his first-ever U.S. No. 1 hit, David Bowie mused, Fame, not your brain, it’s just the flame / That burns your change to keep you insane. While the glam-rock icon’s career was thriving, he was struggling with c*caine use that often kept him awake for days at a time. On this day (April 12) in 1975, Bowie abruptly announced that he was stepping back from music—again.
“I’ve rocked my roll,” declared the “Ziggy Stardust” singer, according to a September 1976 Playboy piece by Cameron Crowe. “It’s a boring dead end. There will be no more rock-‘n’-roll records or tours from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless f—ing rock singer.”
This Was Actually David Bowie’s Second Retirement Announcement
This bold exclamation wasn’t the first time David Bowie threatened to leave music behind.
Less than two years earlier, on July 3, 1973, the singer wrapped up his Ziggy Stardust tour with a sold-out show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon Theatre. Just a year and a half earlier, Bowie had premiered his alter ego on his fifth studio album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
As Ziggy Stardust, he assumed the persona of an androgynous, intergalactic rock star here to save Earth’s people from certain doom. However, on that summer day in the United Kingdom, Bowie informed the audience, “Of all the shows on the tour this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour, it’s the last show we’ll ever do.”
In hindsight, the five-time Grammy Award winner was simply retiring the character of Ziggy, not his entire career. While his second retirement announcement sounded much less vague and more permanent, Bowie released his 10th studio album, Station to Station, in January 1976. Shortly after, he embarked on a six-month world tour to promote the new record.
When Crowe questioned his public contradictions, Bowie bluntly replied, “I lie. It’s quite easy to do. Nothing matters except whatever it is I’m doing at the moment.”
He continued, “I can’t keep track of everything I say. I don’t give a s—. I can’t even remember how much I believe and how much I don’t believe. The point is to grow into the person you grow into. I haven’t a clue where I’m gonna be in a year. A raving nut, a flower child or a dictator, some kind of reverend–I don’t know. That’s what keeps me from getting bored.”
David Bowie died of liver cancer on Jan. 10, 2016, at age 69. Keeping his promise, he was certainly never boring.
Featured image by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images