Bowie Is No ‘Heathen’ To Fans

For more than 30 years, David Bowie has made major influences in pop music.

His lyrics, his sounds and Bowie's instinct to experiment made it impossible to pigeon hold him into traditional categories. With his new CD entitled "Heathen," The Early Show's Mark McEwen finds that the former "glam-rock" star continues to reinvent himself and his music.

According to Bowie, "Heathen" may be his most intimate album. Since his humble folk beginnings to the glam of his creation, Ziggy Stardust, to the elegant Thin White Duke, the singer/songwriter always had a story to tell.

In his latest CD, he says he hope listeners would receive a list of his concerns and anxieties about living in today's society for not only himself but family and friends.

Bowie explained, "On a more intimate level {Heathen addresses} what it's like to be a concerned father and nothing much more complicated than that, but with some really nice sounds."

Those "nice sounds" is not where Bowie's albums end in its creativity. The music is accompanied by intense lyrics that Bowie takes pride in.

"You know, I can't … I can't stop writing. I mean, I really am a writer," Bowie said. "And I realized the first time that I was really a writer … when I'm actually in the grasp or the embrace of writing something, the rest of my life is secondary and it worried me. My real life is secondary, this is what I live for."

Bowie is not only a very talented artist, but also a very talented visual artist. However, he is not making any music videos for this album. Bowie did make a commercial for "Heathen." In today's visual hungry market, videos help most artists sell records. He says it is not a tactical error for him to avoid the medium.

"I like to believe that I'm a realist. And I don't believe that artists in my age group get either radio play or television," Bowie explained as his blond hair flopped over his forehead. "I thought it rather asinine to spend money in those particular areas when we could probably apply it to a different kind of area."

He says commercials and the Internet are better vehicles for him to sell records and interact with his fans. Bowie's is one of the better known artists that invested in the Internet as a tool for his artistry.

His web site www.davidbowie.com has music, news, and a virtual backstage pass to his world for members. The project, BowieNet, allows members to share their ideas, music, artwork, poetry, writing, and even contribute to cutting edge collaborative projects with Bowie himself, according to the website.

Bowie even said talking to The Early Show is helping him advertise his work. "Got a wonderful new album. Please go out and buy a copy," Bowie joked to McEwen.

It may be hard to believe that the clean cut man in his mid-50s use to shock the media with his antics on and off the stage. His elaborate costumes and makeup could have been a prelude to today's controversial Marilyn Mason. He once boldly claimed to be gay at a press conference, but later was reported to be bisexual. Now, he looks at his early years in amusement.

"It use to be the morning of my life and now it's the afternoon of my life," laughed Bowie. "And I'm gonna think about closing the curtains and putting the lights on soon before evening descends."

Bowie said he had an overwhelming ambition to be recognized as being good at what he did.

"I love it when a kid comes up to me from a younger band or whatever and said, 'Oh, you know, I bought that so-and-so album and it made a big impression on me,'" said Bowie. "That for me is it. That's very, very cool."

Looking at old footage of his "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" days, Bowie said a lot of it just makes him laugh.

"Have you seen those boots?" Bowie asked as he pointed to the platform shoes he wore that must of added 4 inches to his height at one of his early performances. "So I look back and I say, 'Bravo.' Somebody had to do it and I was the one."

Bowie says commercial success does not have the same fulfillment. He likes to sell records, but he explains that is only a material thing.

"It's so much more fulfilling for an artist, especially a creative artist, to have a feeling that you've altered the vocabulary of the thing," said Bowie. "That you've chosen, the field that you've chosen to be in to. Changed the currency a little bit, to widen it or something like that."

This summer, David Bowie will tour with Moby. The tour kicks off on Washington, DC on July 28th and will visit 12 cities in the United States and Canada.

Fast Facts About David Bowie:

• 1947: Born January 8, David Robert Jones in Brixton, London, England
• 1962: Bowie accidentally gets hit in the eye with a compass during an argument. He has an enlarged pupil that remains permanently open, giving the effect of different colored eyes
• 1966: Bowie changed his surname owing to the imminent emergence of Davy Jones of the Monkees. He also changed his manager to Kenneth Pitt, who nurtured his career for the remainder of the decade
• 1969: Bowie breaks out with "Space Oddity"
• 1972: In June the classic album "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" is released
• 1975: A collaboration with John Lennon on "Fame" resulted in Bowie's first ever number one single in the United States. After finishing the album, Bowie moved to Los Angles and made the movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth"
• 1980: In September, Bowie makes his Broadway debut in the part of the "Elephant Man"
• 1982: The dance music album "Let's Dance" is release
• 1992: Bowie marries supermodel Iman Abdul Majid in Switzerland in April 24th and in Florence, Italy on June 6th
• 2001: The singer announces in December the launch of his own independent label, ISO