Copyright HuffPost
LOADINGERROR LOADING Janelle Monáe just made a far-out claim, insisting she had the privilege of seeing David Bowie in concert over a decade before she was even born. While speaking with singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus for Rolling Stone’s “Musicians on Musicians” series, the Grammy winner talked about being inspired by Bowie’s knack for transformation, a skill she said she witnessed firsthand. Advertisement “I traveled back into the 1970s and I saw him do Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible,” said a straight-faced Monáe, who was born in 1985. “You traveled back?” the very puzzled Boygenius rocker Dacus asked. Monáe seemed serious, telling Dacus, “Yes. I was backstage and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And so I jetted back to the 2000s and I was like, ‘I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics,’ and create a community around transformation and being queer and, not even in sexuality but just in how we see the world.” Advertisement Though the “Make Me Feel” singer’s time travel tale certainly seems like something out of a “Moonage Daydream,” she has long cited Bowie as one of her biggest creative influences and has covered many of his hits over the course of her career. In a 2018 interview, she said, “Bowie has been a huge inspiration to me with regard to creating concept albums, new worlds and alter egos. When I heard this song for the first time, it took my music tastes to another level; I wanted my own writing to be just as interesting and clever.”
