Cocaine, Bisexuality and Alien Influences — David Bowie's Greatest Secrets Revealed in Resurfaced Interview as Fans Gear Up to Mark 10th Anniversary of Music Icon's Death

David Bowie, whose death from liver cancer at age 69 on January 10, 2016, rocked the music world, is again at the center of intense fascination as a 2002 interview resurfaces, revealing his candid reflections on drugs, sexuality and extraterrestrial inspirations during his most myth-making years.

The conversation, originally published in Mojo as Bowie promoted his then-new album Heathen, has reemerged online as fans prepare for the 10th anniversary of his death.

In the unusually expansive exchange, the singer – then 55 – looked back on the creation of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, his cocaine-ravaged Diamond Dogs era and the dizzying identity shifts that defined his 1970s work.

Music historians say the resurfacing has struck a nerve among fans.

One noted: "People are rediscovering just how fearless David was in talking about the chaos behind the art, and about taboo subjects."

Another added: "These comments show a man completely aware of his demons, even at the height of his legend."

In the interview, Bowie recalled that before Ziggy: "I really wanted to write musicals more than anything else."

He explained the earliest framework for the character was as a musical-theatrical piece before it became "something other than that."

Bowie added he abandoned the idea of later producing a project to add a full narrative for Stardust, remarking: "There was a bit of a narrative, a slight arc, and my intention was to fill it in more later. And I never got round to it because before I knew where I was we'd recorded the d--- thing. There was no time to wait. I couldn't afford to sit around for six months and write up a proper stage piece, I was too impatient. I'm glad in the long run that I left it like that. Because I never drew a template for a storyline too clearly, it left so much room for audience interpretation."

Ziggy's loose storyline, he said, allowed for vast audience projection. Bowie admitted: "A couple of years ago, I was seriously near to putting something together. But every time I got close to defining him more, he seemed to become less than what he was before. And I thought, I should just bloody well let go of this, because it's not right. So I left it. Project abandoned."

He discussed his recurring dystopian themes, joking: "I went to the doctors for it. You always think you've got an ulcer, but it's just heartburn… no, in retrospect, it has been a strong theme in the work that I've done down the years. In fact, I think if there is any consistency to what I do, it's going to be the lyrical content. I'm saying the same thing a lot, which is about this sense of self-destruction."

"I think you can see the apocalyptic thing as the manifestation of an interior problem. There's a real nagging anxiety in there somewhere, and I probably develop those anxieties in a 'faction' (fact/fiction) structure," he continued.

Later, reflecting on his creation of his famous Major Tom character, he said: "The second time around, there were elements of my really wanting to be clean of drugs. I metamorphed all that into the Major Tom character, so it's partially autobiographical. But not completely so – there's a fantasy element in it as well. It probably came from my wanting to be healthy again. Definitely. And the first time around it wasn't. The first time around it was merely about feeling lonely. But then the limpets of time grabbed hold of the hull of my ship; it was de-barnacling by the time I got round to Ashes To Ashes. No leave all this out, actually, the barnacles… Jesus Christ!"

Bowie had always spoke openly about the glam era and his own early declaration of being gay in a 1972 interview.

He said about "outing" himself: "I found I was able to get a lot of tension off my shoulders by almost 'outing' myself in the press in that way, in very early circumstances. So I wasn't going to get people crawling out the woodwork saying, (adopts seedy, muck-raking voice) 'I'll tell you something about David Bowie that you don't know… .' I wasn't going to have any of that. I knew that at some point I was going to have to say something about my life. And, again, Ziggy enabled me to make things more comfortable for myself."

"There was an excitement that the age of exploration was really finally here. It perfectly mirrored my lifestyle at the time. It was exactly what was happening to me. There was nothing that I wasn't willing to try, to explore and see if it was really part of my psyche or my nature. I was terribly exploratory in every way, not just culturally but sexually and… God, there was nothing I would leave alone. Like a – it's a terrible pun, but – like a dog with a bone, I suppose! So I buried it! The (gay) quote has taken on far more in retrospect than actually it was at the time. I'm quite proud that I did it. On the other hand, I didn't want to carry a banner for any group of people, and I was as worried about that as the aftermath. Being approached by organisations. I didn't want that. I didn't feel like part of a group. I didn't like that aspect of it: this is going to start overshadowing my writing and everything else that I do. But there you go," he added.

The interview also charted the beginning of his drug addiction. Bowie said about getting hooked in the mid-1970s: "Then I started getting into a very bad period. I mean, it really developed. My drug addiction really started, I suppose you could pin it down to the very last months of the Ziggy Stardust period."

"Not in a particularly heavy way, but enough to have probably worried some of the people around me. And after that, when we got into Diamond Dogs, that's when it was out of control. From that period onwards, I was a real casualty. I've not met many people that… I was in a very serious state. You just have to look at some of the photographs of me, I cannot believe I actually survived it. You can see me at the Grammys, for instance, with (John) Lennon, it terrifies me. It's a skull. There's not an ounce on me. I'm just a skeleton. I have an addictive personality. I'm quite clear on that now. And it was easily obtainable and it kept me working, 'cos I didn't use it for… I wasn't really a recreational guy, I wasn't really an out-on-the-town guy. I was much more, OK, let's write 10 different projects this week and make four or five sculptures. And I'd just stay up 24 hours a day until most of that was completed. I just liked doing stuff. I loved being involved in that creative moment. And I'd found a soul-mate in this drug, which helped perpetuate that creative moment."

On filming alien drama The Man Who Fell to Earth, he admitted his thinking got blurred, adding: "The frame of mind I was in, there was no real split from one to another. To me, (adopts a yappy, cocaine-paranoid voice) 'It all made sense, man!' Oh boy, what days they were."

With fans preparing memorial events for Bowie's 10th death anniversary, the resurfaced interview has renewed focus on Bowie's brilliance and volatility.

One longtime admirer said: "Reading this again reminds you why he felt not of this world – he was living 10 lives at once."