David Bowie

T. Rex's iconic frontman and principal songwriter Marc Bolan first met David Bowie in 1964, a time when the pair were budding hopefuls in London's folk ...

Thankfully, Bowie and Bolan buried the hatchet, and all jealousy seemed to have abated when Bowie appeared as a guest on Bolan’s TV show, Marc, just nine days before the latter’s death on September 16th, 1977. As Bowie struggled through his numerous formative bands and the underwhelming reception of his 1967 debut album, Bolan appeared to storm ahead, initially with John’s Children and then fronting the initially psychedelic T. In a letter penned to John Peel in 1999, Bowie remembered his short stint opening for T. Although Bowie was an experienced mime artist who had trained with choreographer Lindsay Kemp, his performances were met with derision from the audience at most of the gigs. As his theatrical debut album of 1967 and his subsequent chameleonic persona sequence attest, Bowie was a thespian portraying the role of a musician. [Bowie and Bolan first met](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-and-marc-bolan-the-pre-fame-years/) through their manager after he offered the teenagers cash in hand to paint his office in London.