Becoming Ziggy Stardust
“If it’s wearing a pink hat and a red nose, and it plays a guitar upside down, I will go and look at it. I love to see people being dangerous.” Those were Bowie’s words as he set out to create the greatest alter ego the pop world has ever seen: Ziggy Stardust. At the beginning of 1972, Bowie was struggling to get rid of his label as a one-hit-wonder (Space Oddity).
Photo by Mediapunch / Shutterstock
By the end of that year, he was a star. Within months, he transitioned from a merely acceptable pop singer to a cultural phenomenon in a new form – Ziggy Stardust. “I never really felt like a rock singer or rock star or whatever,” Bowie said. “I always felt a little out of my element, which is a ridiculously [grandiose] way of looking at it. Now, when I look back, I realize that from ‘72 through to about ‘76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.”