Dexys’ Kevin Rowland regrets calling David Bowie “a pale imitation” of Bryan Ferry
Dexys singer Kevin Rowland has explained why he regrets saying David Bowie was a “pale imitation” of Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry.
During an on-stage rant in 1983 when Dexys Midnight Runners were supporting Bowie, Rowland told the French audience that the headliner was “full of shit” and a “bad copy of Bryan Ferry”. Looking back at the incident with NME, Rowland explained how he was on “strong sleeping tablets” at the time and the comments were in response to a section of rude Bowie fans who were chanting over their performance.
Rowland revealed: “So I went up to them and said something along the lines of: ‘You’re sitting in a fucking field all day in a load of mud waiting for fucking David Bowie! He’s just a pale imitation of Bryan Ferry!’ As we went to start the next song, the plugs were pulled. Bowie had been at the back of the stage and heard it. We were supposed to do two nights, but they didn’t want us back for the second.”
The Dexys frontman explained how they weren’t even halfway through their set when Bowie pulled the plug on the rest of the performance, which put a premature end to the show. Years later, Rowland attempted to amend his relationship with Bowie, but didn’t receive any correspondence back.
He concluded: “Apparently Bowie was really upset about it. Many years later when I got into recovery from cocaine addiction, I wrote him a letter apologising, to make amends, and said if he ever wanted to talk about it, please contact me. I know he got the letter, but I didn’t hear back. But that’s OK.”
Listen to Dexys’ new single below.
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