Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

was very talented and when he met me, he was
driven. He’s from Yorkshire. They know how to make
money and he had a very weird family life. Most
people who are very successful have suffered. And
he didn’t really suffer but he suffered because he
could never suffer to the extent or have the
experiences that Terry had, and Terry went crazy
because of it. In his heart he always felt guilty and the
self-loathing is what makes him the great artist that
he is. It’s a common motivator for a lot of great
artists. They either get molested when they’re
children, have a terrible experience—they nearly die
falling off a cliff going to see the Grand Canyon—and
you think whatever. Something happens that causes
them to take life and twist it into what it is they think
life should be giving them back for what they
suffered.”
Bowie tried to duck the tabloid scrutiny of his
marriage, using, as always, an imminent project, in
this case, a world tour, as a means to keep himself
focused and sane. The ’78 tour reunited Bowie with
his White Light/Station to Station touring band,
expanded to include synth players Roger Powell and
Sean Mayes—whose tour diaries were
posthumously published as We Can Be Heroes—to
handle Low and “Heroes” material. Electric violinist
Simon House and lead guitarist Adrian Belew,
w h o m Bowie poached from Frank Zappa,
completed the lineup. Zappa, a Bowie hero from the
sixties, was apparently not happy to lose Belew.
“David and Frank tried to talk to each other, or