Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

of nights of him putting his arm around me like I’m
his brother, giving me some advice. I think later we
talked and he said, ‘I saw a lot of myself in where you
were at the time,’ which is bad things about to
happen. He had been there himself. And I knew he’d
been through a lot of bad shit. And somehow I was in
the midst of this bad shit with a lot more bad shit to
come, and it made me feel like, all right, someone
can come out the other end and still be cool. I was
jealous when I saw him, because I was like, ‘Fuck,
man, my life feels like it’s spinning out of control, and
it’s not spinning upward.’”
Like Cobain, Reznor saw Bowie as a sort of older
brother figure, a survivor who used his pain to make
beautiful art but realized that he did not have to linger
in a stale and nihilistic energy field, that age and
wisdom were possible, as well as a better
navigation system through the obstacles of extreme
psychic pain and megafame. Cobain never got
there. Happily, Reznor seems to have found his way.
Bowie rehearsed with his new band, anchored by
new drummer Zachary Alford and bassist Gail Anne
Dorsey, whose extreme-looking crew cut perfectly fit
with this gleefully assaulting new aesthetic. “Aside
from her magnificent voice, she played only the
fattest, most tasteful bass lines,” says Alford of
Dorsey. “She is a knight in shining armor. That’s why
we call her ‘Dame’ Dorsey. She has a sense of style
and poise. She’s just breathtaking. A powerhouse.
She adds a smoothness to the music that just glues
the whole thing together.” Gabrels and keyboardist