David Bowie Gets Philosophical in This Obscure Interview
As the world remembers David Bowie, this interview takes us to the heart of his art.
In this candid interview with Guillaume Durand for French television, David Bowie introduces his 2002 album, Heathen, which was considered a comeback album in the States and garnered some of his best reviews since the 1983 release Let’s Dance. Worldwide, it sold more than 2 million copies and enjoyed a four-month run on the U.K. charts.
The album’s themes tend toward the darker side, but as Bowie notes, alienation and isolation are themes that have appeared throughout his work. Considering the current climate in America and around the world, this interview is notably fitting in its discussion of life, death, and the anxiety of the human condition.
Check it out:
Around 3:13, Bowie uses Nietzsche as a springboard to discuss how to live an evolved life:
“We may in fact not have a purpose. Are we big enough or mature enough to accept that there’s no ‘plan’, there’s no ‘going somewhere,’ there’s no gift of immortality at the end of this if we evolve far enough? … Well, maybe we can’t live like that. Maybe we have to exist and live on the idea that we have one day at a time to live—and can we do that? Because if we could do that, we may be serving some really great thing.”