A man on Reddit caused an accidental frenzy when he posted a photo taken in 1988 of his dad and a shirtless David Bowie together on a motorcycle.
The photo, submitted with no explanation other than it was taken in Greece in 1988, received over 4,000 comments and almost 120,000 upvotes.
But it turns out, what the man thought was just a cool picture of his dad with the rock legend, was interpreted by almost everyone else on Reddit as something much different.
“I firmly believe that Bowie was the coolest being to grace this planet,” one person wrote. “And that he and your dad f*cked.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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“Your dad’s hand positioning,” another said. “He’s a power thruster.”
“I had absolutely zero doubts Bowie was a top bloke,” a third person added. “But it’s nice that he touched someone else.”
“I’m jealous,” a fourth person remarked. “I wish Bowie f*cked my dad too!”
Related: That Time David Bowie Performed With Cher And Other Space Oddities From His Incredible Career
Oh, but it didn’t stop there.
“There’s 89.69% chance your dad did the dirty with David Bowie,” someone commented. “Wear it proudly my friend.”
“There is also a 50/50 chance you are David Bowie’s kid,” someone else added.
“How many people in here can say David Bowie f*cked their dad?” yet another person wrote. “Maybe five people in this thread at most.”
“Your dad most definitely gave him a David Blowie,” a fourth person joked.
Luckily, the man was able to see the humor in it all. In a follow up post, he writes about what really happened:
So back in 1988, my dad went with his friends to a vacation in Greece. By extreme luck, somehow, my dad found David Bowie, riding on a rented motorcycle. My dad, who’s a really big fan of him, went to him and asked him if is it cool to take a picture with him. David agreed and even let my dad to seat on the motorcycle behind him for the picture. My dad, overly excited, set down on the motorcycle really close to David, and one of my dad’s friends took the picture for him.
The man goes on to say that he found the whole misinterpretation “really funny” and that when he showed his dad what people were saying about him and his favorite singer online he “laughed his ass off.”
Bowie came out as bisexual in a September 1976 interview with Playboy, saying, “It’s true. I am a bisexual. But I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
In 2002, he told Blender that he had “no problem” with people knowing he was bisexual, but that he did feel coming out so early in his career “stood in the way of so much I wanted to do,” particularly in the United States, where people were less accepting than in Europe.
Related: This just-unearthed demo of David Bowie’s 1983 “Let’s Dance” will give you chills
iminheatlikeacat
Love that photo.
God I miss David Bowie 🙁
HankHarris
yeah, its still hard to believe.
Josh447
Bowie definitely had good taste! Lovely pic.
Den
I think we need to accept what the guy’s father said about the photo, that he was lucky Bowie let him sit on the motorcycle for a picture.
Josh447
Yes I’m sure the guy’s father was elated, we all get that, Den.
We also get, and “accept” that Bowie most likely asked him to hop on back for good reason; bc Bowie liked guys. And most likely would have loved to have taken the hottie for something more serious than just a bike ride’n pic.
barryaksarben
I dont know if they had sex but the guys dad was cute as a button
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
100% co-sign. Perfect blend of twinkish, cute, and handsome..
garybw
Who cares
Donston
It’s just one photo of two dudes on a motorcycle. I’m not gonna make any assumptions based on that. And really, who cares? Bowie never tried to hide that he had some same-sex attractions or that he hooked up with men.
Bowie spent his entire career going back and forth with gay, bi and straight labels. He seemed uncomfortable with all “labels”. He did initially use non gender and hetero normalcy for buzz and character. However, when he wanted more mainstream appeal and wanted to settle down with a female he left most of that public image behind. The last time Bowie spoke about orientation he did say that he exaggerated his “queerness”, exaggerated being into dudes and that he didn’t view himself as “bisexual”. Bowie probably contended with degrees of sexual and gender fluidity throughout his life. And we’ll never really know how homosexual, homo-romantic and homo-philic he was or how much of his life was driven by sociology, hetero expectation or persona. And at this point, it’s not worth caring about.
Doug
I don’t believe either Bowie or Prince were bisexual… they used it at the beginning of their careers to get headlines and a lot of publicity (which was shocking at the time). How many guys have ever come forward and said they had any kind of a sexual or romantic relationship with either one of them? Not long before he died Prince denied that he’d ever claimed he was bisexual, had a “come to Jesus” moment and even made a couple of homophobic remarks about it. If you want to be famous and make money as a pop star, it’s become well-known that you make yourself appeal to the gay community. Being “bi” in the music business is very common now.
Donston
We wouldn’t know half of the famous men who’ve messed around with guys did so unless they themselves exposed it. Not everyone is out here airing people’s dirty laundry. And it’s not really anyone’s right to be out here exposing people. Like I said, he probably dealt with different degrees of gender and sexual fluidity throughout his life but wanted persistent female passions, affections, love and commitment. Prince and Bowie aren’t comparable. Prince did hint in a couple of interviews throughout the years that he might not be hetero and “straight” and that he may have messed around with guys, but he was never as direct as Bowie. Furthermore, when has saying homophobic things ever equated to being entirely hetero? There are people who are fully homo and “gay” in every way who say homophobic things. That’s like saying that a dude who says misogynistic things cannot be into women.
Bowie did indeed use “non-conformity” and general lewdness as a way to initially gain attention. That can’t be denied. For example, early in his career he gave an interview where he talked about how he met an ex girlfriend through the dude they were both hooking up with. It was an unnecessarily sensational thing to reveal, and the ex girlfriend later claimed it was a lie. He did seem to over-share, exaggerate and flat-out make up shit early on for the sake of appearing subversive or non-conformist. It’s the same way a lot of people today use bi behaviors or supposed gender abnormalities on social media for attention and to come off “subversive” or “open-minded”. That doesn’t mean that they’re all hetero or homo or don’t have some dimensions in their gender.
Ultimately, Bowie went back and forth with identities throughout the years, and he dismissed a bi identity in his last interview discussing his orientation. But he was always forthright about having some bisexuality/fluidity in his orientation. I hardly think he was persistently lying about it for four decades. He did admit that he used those things to stand out. He seemed very aware of using the “queer community” to set himself up and then abandoning it, and later in his life he seemed regretful towards both those things. I don’t really care about identity, and I’m fine with seeing Bowie as “straight”. Just like I’m fine with seeing a lot of these non homo celebs as “gay”. Identity, sexuality, orientation and people’s general life journeys are too personal and specific for us to be so nit-picky. While a lot of people contend with fluidity, confusions, contradictions throughout their lives. Besides, I see “straight” and “gay” as having more to do with overall preferences, passions, romantic fulfillment, emotional investment and relationship ambitions/contentment than sex or attractions. It’s fine to see Bowie as a “straight” guy but one who had some fluidity and dimensions. And it’s fine to not feel the need to attach an identity to him at all. Yet, it’s apparent that he wasn’t entirely on the hetero end of the orientation spectrum throughout his life. And that’s something he admitted to time and time again throughout the decades, including towards the end of his life.
Donston
Bowie pretty much fit into all the bad stereotypes of “bi guys”: using non heterosexuality and/or non gender normalcy for relevancy and attention and to come off “subversive”. Over-exaggerating how much he’s into a certain type of person in order to make sure he stays separated from the “straight” and “gay” worlds. Taking up a ton of space within the “queer community” and using “gays” to uplift him and sustain his ego until it no longer worked for him. At one point claiming he was willing to date anyone and could love anyone yet knowing he only wanted long-term romantic bonds and relationships with a specific person. Spent years being very vague about his dimensions and ambitions but also playing up those dimensions and ambiguity.
These are things that later in life Bowie seemed to regret indulging. However, damn near half of the internet does these things now. He was however a great musician and was important to pushing “queerness” more into the mainstream.
Chrisk
I don’t know if the guy’s dad and Bowie did it but I do know Bowie more then likely was into his dad. I would’ve been.
wiredpup
As mush as I love Bowie, as for the dad….
WOOF!
Troysky
@Chrisk – oh yeah.
@wiredpup ….agree with you, that Dad is hot! 1000x more
…Boring Bowie….great hair, though, and the picture does look fun. But holy cow….after trying to watch him from his initial flash in the 1970s or 80s….it just emerges that he is boring and stunningly overrated… despite a few good songs, I’ll admit… I’m in the friggin minority, yeah.
Donston
I do feel like his image and influence overshadows his catalog. But he did have some great songs.