Blog Post: David Bowie R.I.P.

David Bowie

8 January 1947 - 10 January 2016

I interviewed Bowie on the morning of March 17, 1987, in a Toronto hotel room. He was the most extraordinarily controlled and self-contained subject I'd ever faced, immaculately dressed and absolutely oozing confidence. I remember wondering if he was really that self-assured or simply an extremely good actor (which of course he was). He later performed at a mid-afternoon press conference at the oldDiamond Club on Sherbourne Street, which I was lucky enough to attend, with a five-piece band that included Peter Frampton (see photo above). In looking back at my transcript, Bowie's intelligence and self-awareness leaps off the page. When I asked if he ever felt trapped by his past, he shook his perfectly coiffed blonde hair and said: "The only person I'm really typecast as is David Bowie. I can do what I want because I still feel completely open-ended. I'm not tied to any one thing." That willingness to keep changing was one of the things that made him such a great artist.