Stephen Malkmus Quotes

In my creative life, David Bowie is definitely an enormous influence on me, being one of rock's greatest shapeshifters.

David Bowie, for me, was the butchest guy in town. Jagger was like a truck driver.

I know I express myself best singing love songs, and Jim Steinman gave me my rock style, which I have always wanted. I can express myself best putting a lot of emotion into singing rock songs.

A lot of my male vocal influences are British - people like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.

It's fun to look at people that are so good at acting that aren't actors, like David Bowie creating a mystique about rock n' roll. I've listened to 'Ziggy Stardust' as much as any rock n' roll fan - I don't really know what it's about, but it sure is fun to think about David Bowie as this mad creation.

Somebody had given me a copy of 'Hunky Dory,' which had yet to be a hit, although it was starting to percolate. I'd seen a couple of pictures of David, with his interesting hairdo and outfits, and I decided to seek him out, which wasn't difficult back then, as he was eager to do any kind of publicity.

As a teenager I was crazy about David Bowie. He was a huge inspiration for me. I dressed a little bit crazily in school and dyed my hair every colour under the sun.

We based the look on rock 'n roll right from the beginning.

I have two sons, and at 16, they were into Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and a lot of British rock.

David Bowie - I definitely knew some of his music as a teenager, but I didn't actually listen to his music as much until I was in my 20s.

My aunt made stuff; my mom was creative, so I was surrounded by that. When I moved to England, it was '75, and everything was happening. My whole teenage life is England, glam rock and David Bowie and Sex Pistols and Iggy Pop, all that stuff.

I was really into the music of Cream after I finished composing the music for 'BTTB.'

Any time I'm trying to find that groove on a big tempo song, I go back and listen to some Aerosmith records. 'Love in an Elevator,' 'Rag Doll,' all that stuff was really great music. It's something that I still dig and go back and listen to.

There are a handful of music docs I'd love to do, including David Bowie.

Fans be reflecting the way I be making music.

My first influences for playing were Johnny Ramone and Jimmy Page, the same as everybody else. Joe Perry. The guys in Alice Cooper's band, whatever their names were. Mick Ronson from David Bowie. You know who really influenced me to write songs? Iron Maiden.

Before I met David Bowie, I was very nervous. I thought, 'Here comes the Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust. How will I ever communicate with him?'

We all like all of that, from 'Rubber Soul' to 'The White Album' and all of that, but even before, we were into that theatrical element of things. We didn't want to do a 'Sgt. Pepper's' thing.

I couldn't write an AC/DC song. I don't know how to do that.

If you actually go back and listen to my first album, there are some things on there that are kind of rock 'n' roll.

'Mama I'm Coming Home' is one song that I think is incredible. One of his best songs ever written. Lemmy wrote the lyrics to that.

I like a lot of older rock 'n' roll artists, like legends like Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. They really influenced me to be very, very androgynous and very commanding, and very very - I wouldn't say odd, but I would say eccentric.

I like Dave Davies from the Kinks, before he could play slick.

I think Taylor Swift, in the days when she was kind of doing more country style, definitely was a big inspiration for me.

Kurt Cobain is one of the reasons I started doing music because I just loved to watch them rock out.