80 Facts About David Bowie

1. David Bowie left behind an impressive musical legacy, which included 26 albums.

2. David Bowie released Blackstar, his final album, on January 8, 2016, his 69th birthday.

3. David Bowie issued the bonds in 1997 and earned $55 million from the sale.

4. In 1997 David Bowie made single 'Telling Lies' available for release only on the internet.

5. David Bowie recorded 'China Girl' to pull Iggy Pop from financial ruin.

6. David Bowie was briefly banned from SNL in 1997 for playing a song that reminded Lorne Michaels too much of the time when he was a heavy coke user.

7. David Bowie was the First major artist to release a downloadable single in 1996.

8. David Bowie refused Knighthood in 2003, which would have made him Sir David Bowie.

9. David Bowie once performed at the Berlin Wall, while East Germans gathered to listen behind.

10. David Bowie was trained in mime by Kate Bush's choreographer, Lindsey Kemp.

11. In 1964, David Bowie defended his hairstyle in an interview with the BBC as the 17-year-old founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.

12. David Bowie was offered a knighthood from the Queen in 2003, but turned it down.

13. David Bowie achieved just one qualification at Bromley Technical High School: a single O-level in art.

14. David Bowie appeared in over 25 films throughout his life, including The Last Temptation of Christ as Pontius Pilate, Basquiat as artist Andy Warhol, and The Prestige, as inventor Nikola Tesla.

15. On July 11, 1969, David Bowie released the single "Space Oddity.

16. In 1964, when he was just 17 years old, David Bowie formed The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men, an organization aimed at protesting the treatment that he and other men with long hair received on the streets of London.

17. David Bowie quipped: "In answer to your questions, my real name is David Jones and I don't have to tell you why I changed it.

18. David Bowie was born in London on January 8, 1947 as David Robert Jones.

19. David Bowie was immortalised in stone by artist Ed Chapman, 40, who created a tile mosaic of the Starman to celebrate his 65th birthday.

20. David Bowie wrote the soundtrack for the 1993 dramatisation of Hanish Kureishi's novel Buddha Of Suburbia.

21. David Bowie co-produced some of the best tracks on Lou Reed's legendary album Transformer.

22. David Bowie was 5ft 10in tall, according to most sources.

23. In 1969, David Bowie formed his own mime troupe, Feathers, as well as an experimental art ensemble.

24. David Bowie was hit in the eye by a lollipop while on stage in Oslo, Norway in 2004.

25. David Bowie was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013.

26. David Bowie declined the royal honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, and turned down a knighthood in 2003.

27. David Bowie was an extraordinary man, full of love and life.

28. David Bowie was a pioneer of glam rock, according to music historians Schinder and Schwartz, who credited Marc Bolan and Bowie with creating the genre.

29. David Bowie eventually cast actor and lead singer of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto.

30. David Bowie played the part 157 times between 1980 and 1981.

31. On 27 June, David Bowie performed a concert at BBC Radio Theatre in London, which was released in the compilation album Bowie at the Beeb, which featured BBC recording sessions from 1968 to 1972.

32. In September 1998, David Bowie launched an Internet service provider, BowieNet, developed in conjunction with Robert Goodale and Ron Roy.

33. David Bowie devoted more time to his painting, and produced a number of post-modernist pieces.

34. David Bowie had some very bad experiences with hard drugs.

35. David Bowie commented in 1972 that meeting Kemp was when his interest in image "really blossomed".

36. David Bowie wrote to the newly successful washing-machine entrepreneur John Bloom inviting him to "do for us what Brian Epstein has done for the Beatles—and make another million.

37. David Bowie received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl.

38. David Bowie was receiving lessons from baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross.

39. David Bowie reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance; the album's title track topped both UK and US charts.

40. On 25 March 2018 a statue of David Bowie was unveiled in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the town where he debuted Ziggy Stardust.

41. David Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

42. In 1999, David Bowie was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

43. David Bowie was quoted as saying: "Britain is ready for a fascist leader.

44. In 1993, David Bowie said he had an "undying" belief in the "unquestionable" existence of God.

45. David Bowie declared himself gay in an interview with Michael Watts for a 1972 issue of Melody Maker, coinciding with his campaign for stardom as Ziggy Stardust.

46. On 24 April 1992, David Bowie married Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne.

47. David Bowie married his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett on 19 March 1970 at Bromley Register Office in Bromley, London.

48. David Bowie portrayed physicist Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige, which was about the bitter rivalry between two magicians in the late 19th century.

49. David Bowie had a cameo in Yellowbeard, a 1983 pirate comedy created by Monty Python members, and a small part as Colin, the hitman in the 1985 film Into the Night.

50. David Bowie wrote and recorded the opening title song to the television series The Last Panthers, which aired in November 2015.

51. At the 2014 Brit Awards on 19 February, David Bowie became the oldest recipient of a Brit Award in the ceremony's history when he won the award for Best British Male, which was collected on his behalf by Kate Moss.

52. David Bowie was featured in a cameo vocal in the Arcade Fire song "Reflektor".

53. In late March 2011, Toy, David Bowie's previously unreleased album from 2001, was leaked onto the internet, containing material used for Heathen and most of its single B-sides, as well as unheard new versions of his early back catalogue.

54. David Bowie was chosen to curate the 2007 High Line Festival, selecting musicians and artists for the Manhattan event, including electronic pop duo AIR, surrealist photographer Claude Cahun, and English comedian Ricky Gervais.

55. David Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 February 2006.

56. On 25 June 2000, David Bowie made his second appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in England, playing 30 years after his first.

57. David Bowie used this income to buy songs owned by his former manager.

58. David Bowie reunited with Visconti in 1998 to record Sky Life" for The Rugrats Movie.

59. David Bowie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 12 February 1997.

60. David Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996.

61. David Bowie explored new directions on The Buddha of Suburbia, ostensibly a soundtrack album of his music composed for the BBC television adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's novel.

62. In 1993, David Bowie released his first solo offering since his Tin Machine departure, the soul, jazz, and hip-hop influenced Black Tie White Noise.

63. David Bowie was given a role in the 1986 film Absolute Beginners.

64. David Bowie performed at Wembley Stadium in 1985 for Live Aid, a multi-venue benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief.

65. David Bowie reached his peak of popularity and commercial success in 1983 with Let's Dance.

66. David Bowie was given the lead role in the BBC's 1982 televised adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play Baal.

67. David Bowie paired with Queen in 1981 for a one-off single release, "Under Pressure".

68. David Bowie moved to Switzerland in 1976, purchasing a chalet in the hills to the north of Lake Geneva.

69. David Bowie moved to the US in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles.

70. David Bowie toured and gave press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt on-stage "retirement" at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973.

71. David Bowie contributed backing vocals, keyboards, and guitar to Reed's 1972 solo breakthrough Transformer, co-producing the album with Mick Ronson.

72. David Bowie met dancer Lindsay Kemp in 1967 and enrolled in his dance class at the London Dance Centre.

73. In 1962, David Bowie formed his first band at the age of 15, named the Konrads.

74. David Bowie studied art, music, and design, including layout and typesetting.

75. David Bowie was first impressed with Presley when he saw his cousin dance to "Hound Dog".

76. David Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler.

77. In 2013, David Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with The Next Day.

78. In 1976, David Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth, directed by Nicolas Roeg, and released Station to Station.

79. David Bowie fans rejoice because this Halloween party has your name all over it.

80. David Bowie reinvented himself again and again as a polymorphously androgynous avant-pop star.