Back in 2002, Bowie and Moby covered EW’s summer music preview issue with a candid conversation.
Bowie was that rare superstar who appeared to enjoy the periods of random conversation that bookended the interview itself.
He appeared to have a bottomless curiosity and a wide range of cultural interests.
I remember asking Bowie whether there was anything I ought to be listening to.
Yes, he said.
The Four Last Songs by Strauss.
He does this all the time, says a member of Mobys posse.
Moby has been known to vanish from a room, only to materialize on a ledge outside the window.
Today the spider is facing off with the lizard, or at least thats how David Bowie comes across.
Bowie is 55; Moby, 36. : I am a D.J./I am what I play/Ive got believers/Believing me.
As my album comes out, quips Bowie, an omnivore, Im opening a brothel.
Its a vegan brothel.
No meat in my brothel.
No sex, either.
(Put it this way: Moby gave Bowie a summer job.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ziggy Stardust and the Spider from Mars…
MOBY:I have a question.
I was listening toHeathenyesterday.
The song Sundayto what extent is it based on living in New York after September 11?
BOWIE:It was all written before.
MOBY:Thats so bizarre.
The lyrics on that?
BOWIE:Ah, tell me about it.
EW:Nothing remains is the first line….
MOBY:Listen to it even closer.
We could run when the rain slows.
Look for the cars or signs of life.
Your birthday is September 11.
MOBY:Ive been asked whether certain songs might allude to September 11, but they were written before.
I think were like farm animals before an earthquake.
They snuffle these things.
It wasnt that localizedbang!thing that happened in September.
We both live in New York.
MOBY:New York has inspired more remarkable music than any other city I can think of.
I mean, youve had a couple.
I always write well in New York.
Parts ofAladdin Sane…
MOBY:What?
BOWIE:Theres my first New York song.
Ill tell you who it was written for as wellCyrinda Fox.
You know Cyrinda Fox?
She was the girl in the Jean Genie commercial.
I wrote it for her amusement in her apartment.
MOBY:Sexy song.
BOWIE:Sexy girl.
MOBY:Can I confess something?
I hope this isnt disconcerting to you, David.
BOWIE:[Sounding genuinely worried] You dont have to.
I forced you into work?
EW:What kind of job was it?
MOBY:I was a caddy [at the Woodway Country Club in Darien, Conn.].
I carried golf clubs for two weeks just to make enough money to go buy Lodger.
EW:David, what was your first impression of Mobys music?
BOWIE:Well, Id heard that he did, like, techno.
I went to see him at some club and he was fing playing punk!
EW:So this was Mobys Animal Rights phase, around 1997.
BOWIE:I thought, What the f is this?
I expected to walk into an evening of Berlin, and instead Im getting New Jersey!
EW:Did you like it?
[Hearty laughter] Then he got better.
I knew what he was going through, because I do it myself all the time.
EW:Which is?
BOWIE:Which is, Try anything to see where it takes you.
And bless anybody whos got the vision to actually do that.
MOBY:Or stupidity.
EW:Both of you are associated with extraterrestrial imagery.
MOBY:Itll all be revealed in good time.
EW:Tell me about Area 2.
Whats going to happen?
MOBY:I have no idea.
We recognize that youre a half-wit, and we shouldnt have let you put this together.
EW:Why are you doing it?
You could just roll out on the nostalgia gravy train….
BOWIE:Oh, God!
I couldnt do that.
It bores the shhhit out of me.
Im not a natural performer, you know.
I dont like performing very much.
MOBY:You did the coolest thing Ive ever seen a musician do on stage.
It was at Giants Stadium and it was during Young Americans.
It got to the part where you said, Aint there one damn song that can make me…
The audience goes crazy.
You sing it again.
The audience goes nuts.
Aint there one damn song that can make me… And you fell down onto the stage.
BOWIE:And I just stayed there, right?
MOBY:You stayed there for about 10 minutes.
BOWIE:I know.
MOBY:For the first minute, everyone was going nuts, but then you didnt get up.
People were getting uncomfortable.
EW:What were you doing down there?
BOWIE:Just seeing how far I could take it.
EW:And what was going through your head?
BOWIE:Uh, am I going to get bottled for this?
MOBY:Its bizarre, and it never shouldve happened.
Especially if you look at the pop climate.
EW:Playwas ubiquitouson car radios, in TV commercials, in coffee shops.
MOBY:When its on an abstract demographic level, I cant comprehend it.
If Im walking down the street and someone stops me and says, Oh!
BOWIE:See, I have a problem with that.
Maybe its because Ive got too many songs, and I wait for them to pick the right ones.
That was a good song, and Im glad you got married to that song!
EW:Give me an example.
[Laughing]
MOBY:…wasOutside.Outsideis a really sexy record.
BOWIE:Its a good album.
It was too long.
MOBY:I was dating someone, and we were listening to that record.
As a soundtrack for being naked and sexy with someone you like…
BOWIE:Being conjugal.
For the conjugal bed.
EW:Yeah, that serial-killer stuff is always really sexy.
BOWIE:[Laughing] It gets you every time.
BOWIE:…I dont hear.
MOBY:The only thing is the guitar part, which certainly wasnt intentional.
But on a subconscious level.
At least thats what my lawyer told me to say.
David, youre responsible for landmark videos like 1980s Ashes to Ashes.
BOWIE:I did enjoy making them at one time.
[Wistfully]
EW:But for Heathen, youre not making one?
I wouldnt be played anyway.
EW:The guy who made the seminal Ashes to Ashes video is not making a video?
BOWIE:Im pretty much a realist.
Theres a certain age you get to when youre not really going to be shown anymore.
The young have to kill the old.
Thats how life works.
MOBY:See, in most cases, I would agree.
But with you, thats not the case at all.
EW:We dont want to kill you.
BOWIE:Well, you do, in a way.
Its how culture works.
EW:Does that bother you?
BOWIE:Ive had a great life.
It doesnt bother me at all.
Ill go and live in the East, because they revere their elders there.
EW:Moby, we always see you in theNew York Postat parties.
BOWIE:Hes a party animal, this little field mouse!
EW:David, youre not immune.
Youve got the celebrity plumage, the beautiful wife, the home in Tuscany.
I have no home in Tuscany.
MOBY:For me, its when comfort compromises my pathological low self-esteem.
EW:When you start feeling good?
Once the pathological low self-esteem goes, thats when things go downhill.
EW:So what do you do?
MOBY:Look in the mirror every day.
BOWIE:Im exactly the same.
I think looking in the mirror is fine.
Hey, he doesnt live in the lap of luxury!
Have you seen his fing place?
The guys a fin monk.
I mean, its like this.
But not as well furnished.
MOBY:A monk with a taste for hookers.
BOWIE:Moby lives the simplest of any person I think I know.
EW:Let me ask both of you about the state of the music business.
BOWIE:Well, hes having one.
[Nods toward Moby] Hes already thought of as somebody who doesnt stay in his proper place.
MOBY:But Im a fluke.
MOBY:Now what do you really mean to say?
EW:Whats the state of the music business, generally?
BOWIE:It sucks.
MOBY:The only good thing is that its in such a state of flux.
The last eight years in the music business have been disastrous.
But now every aspect of the music business is about to change.
MOBY:The way records are made.
The way theyre distributed.
BOWIE:I agree with him here.
But Im not sure its for our benefit, the change.
For instance, I personally dont think the copyright will exist in the next 10 years.
Well lose all authorship whatsoever.
EW:So, Life on Mars?
I can say I wrote it?
Plus the corporate companies will come to an end.
EW:Theyll come to an end?
BOWIE:I guarantee that.
Theyre sitting on the beach asking the seas to go back.
And I will, for a brief minute, fit into that tradition.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
EW:Does anything make you feel old, these days?
BOWIE:Oh, man, if only you knew.
Thats the least of your concerns.
EW:Do you feel old?
The idea of feeling old is much more the worry of a slightly younger person.
When you are getting old, that becomespssshcompletely secondary to the absolute understanding of how short your life is.
Thats the one thing you wake up with every day: How long have I got left?
Even the thought of that breaks my heart.
MOBY:I got so disturbingly drunk.
Suddenly its three in the morning and Im at Julian Schnabels house at this birthday party.
I caused so much trouble.
I was such a bad drunk that night.
EW:What did you do?
I was setting up these chairs and walking over them.
This big, burly guy with a beard came over and said, Could you hey not do that?
I thought he was a security guard.
It turns out he was Julian Schnabel.
EW:Does Bowie remember that?
MOBY:No, no.
He was the center of attention.
I was just some drunk idiot in the corner.
