I was (am) a kid who didn't easily fit into a boxes. I was a boy who wanted to do and wear girl things and thought the boy things that were expected of me were stupid. I knew I was attracted to girls and that was normal, but also sometimes I wasn't, and that was weird. I liked music and art that wasn't cool but I liked it a lot. When everyone I knew was scrambling to find the box they fit in, I looked and didn't find a box that looked like me. But there was Bowie. His music made me feel like I wasn't alone and that the things I liked and did were ok. In the dark confusing place that was my adolescence, Bowie was the North Star that I followed to adulthood.
I grew up and found out that maybe he wasn't perfect. His Nazi phase stands out (which as a practicing Jew has always made my fanship a little complicated). There are tons of stories of times he did things that were hurtful and abusive to others. And he was all of those things. He was a man who made some of the best art ever in the history of humanity. He was a man who sometimes hurt people and held some xenophobic views. He wasn't perfect, but I wouldn't be here and relatively well-adjusted were it not for him.
This is a demo for a new song I wrote about all of this which will appear on my next album. We are all very complicated. I memorialize Bowie not to pretend that he was flawless, but because I wouldn't be who I am today were it not for the influence he had on my life.