Willow

David Bowie sold over 140 million records. He invented three different musical personas that each defined an entire era. Rolling Stone called him the most influential artist of the 20th century. He turned down a knighthood from the Queen of England because he didn't think he deserved it. In the mid-1970s he was also consuming so much cocaine that he later said he remembers almost nothing from that entire period. Not the albums. Not the tours. Not the interviews. This is one of those interviews. In the video below, the most creative mind in rock history sits across from a journalist and explains, completely unprompted, how to destroy a city. Black noise, he says. A specific frequency that shatters everything it hits. Available in the French Patent Office until recently for about three or four dollars. A small device could kill four people in a room. A large one could level an entire city. The interviewer stares at him. Bowie moves on to Machiavelli. Then Diane Arbus. Then Frank Zappa naming his son Moon Unit. Then his own son Zowie. Then his wife Angela's thesis on everything. Then a book about the Trans-Siberian Express he may or may not be writing. At one point he offers the interviewer a part in his next show. This is the same man who wrote Heroes in a single afternoon. Who created Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke from scratch. Who produced Iggy Pop's two greatest albums while barely sleeping. He survived the decade. Cleaned up. Made ten more classic records. The cocaine almost took all of it. The talent was just bigger than the damage. Was he a genius who almost destroyed himself, or did the destruction make him the genius he became?