Celebrities who are virtual prey today might envy David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who escaped their ’70s fame simply by moving to Germany. “Bowie in Berlin” author Thomas Jerome Seabrook says the pair had other reasons for leaving L.A., where the glam-rock progenitor allegedly brought cocaine to Iggy while he was in rehab.
“The official line is that they went to Berlin to clean up,” Seabrook tells us. “But they’d probably both agree that they didn’t really. With Bowie, it was mostly cocaine, and I know Iggy was using heroin on and off, certainly before Berlin and probably when he was there, too. They both spent a lot of their time drinking, for days at a time.”
Iggy’s star power in the ’70s had faded to the point that he considered auditioning for Kiss. Bowie had his own problems, rushing to close the curtains during a Cameron Crowe interview because he “saw a body drop out of the sky.”
The two rock stars rented a small apartment in a dicey neighborhood in West Berlin and lived unrecognized for years, drinking themselves “into oblivion in working men’s clubs and transvestite cabaret bars.” It was one of Bowie’s most fertile periods, in which he created his albums “Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger.”
What about the rumors that the two were lovers – despite Bowie’s wife, Angie, still being around?
“I don’t think so, no,” says Seabrook. “Bowie was with Romy Haag, a nightclub owner, and Iggy had a lot of girlfriends, including the daughter of a diplomat. I’m pretty sure they weren’t.”
Iggy [aka Jim Osterberg] wasn’t faring as well as his friend, but a loyal Bowie wasn’t about to leave him behind.
“Bowie was paying for everything,” Seabrook tells us. “Bowie eventually got Iggy a record deal with RCA. Iggy was able to buy his own flat. Bowie gave Iggy an allowance almost. He was very much under his wing.”
It was obviously worth it. Anybody who has seen Jim Jarmusch‘s “Coffee and Cigarettes” can see in the scene with Tom Waits what a shy, sweet person the former leader of the Stooges is. And at the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, a totally buff Iggy blew ’em off the stage.
