"It's impossible for me to talk about popular music without mentioning probably my greatest mentor, John Lennon. I guess he defined for me how one could twist and turn the fabric of pop and imbue it with elements from other artforms, often producing something extremely beautiful, very powerful and imbued with strangeness. "I just thought he was the very best of what could be done with rock and roll. And ideas — I mean, I felt such kin to him. He would rifle the avant-garde and look for ideas that were so outside, on the periphery of what was the mainstream, and then apply them in a functional manner to something that was considered populist . . . and make it work! He would take the most odd idea and make it work for the masses. And I thought that was just so admirable. That was like making art work for the people, you know, and not sort of having it as an elitist thing. There was just so much about him that I admired. "One thing that I really adored about Lennon’s writing was his use of the pun, which was exceedingly good. I don’t think anyone has ever bettered Lennon’s use of the pun. I played on it more; Lennon would throw it away in one line. "We were talking about writing once — I’ve always admired the way he used to cut through all the bullshit, just come straight to the point with what he wanted to say — and he said it’s very easy, 'All you have to do is say what you mean, make it rhyme and put a backbeat to it.' And I keep coming back to that principle as a writer. "'Fame' happened like that. I mean, it was so easy. John had incredible charisma that made you cut through things. I can see the effect that he must have had on McCartney. "He could capture just what was going on around him, or anybody else, with 5 or 10 words or one sharp line. I once asked him, 'What do you think of what I do? What do you think of glam-rock?' He said, 'Aww now, it’s great you know, but it’s just rock ‘n’ roll with lipstick on.' Nobody has ever said it better. And I was impressed as I was at virtually everything he said. "He was probably one of the brightest, quickest-witted, earnestly socialist men I’ve ever met in my life. Socialist in true definition – not in a fabricated political sense, but a real humanist. And a really spiteful sense of humor, which of course being English I adored. I just thought we’d be buddies forever and get on better and better and all that, you know. Fantasy . . . when he was killed, a whole piece of my life seemed to have been taken away. A whole reason for being a singer and songwriter seemed to be removed from me." --#DavidBowie #OnThisDay #HappyBirthdayJohnLennon #Bowie #ZiggyStardust #ThinWhiteDuke #Chameleon #Grammys #HallOfFame #Influencers #Unicorns #TheBeatles #JohnLennon #Songwriting Sources: Berklee College of Music, Commencement, 1999; Rock Lives, Timothy White; YouTube; Bowie on Bowie, Egan, ed; Interview with Molly Meldrum, 1983; Rolling Stone, 1983