Kate Moss said David Bowie gave her the nickname "Smasher" as she reflected on their friendship while hosting a new BBC podcast about the late musician.
Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling, an eight-part series for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 6 Music presented by Moss, examines a five-year chapter in Bowie’s career when he reinvented himself into a rock icon. Moss, 51, said Bowie began "phoning me on my birthday. I didn't need any other presents after that," and recalled accepting his 2014 Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement on his behalf while wearing one of his stage costumes.
Moss said she agreed to present the series because Bowie "was a very special person. Someone who was much more than a friend — he was an enigma." At the 2014 Brit Awards she said she would accept the honour only if she could wear an item from his archive and wore the original Kansai Yamamoto bodysuit he wore during his 1972 Rainbow Theatre shows.
The podcast features contributions from musicians and cultural figures who knew or were inspired by Bowie, including Boy George, Iggy Pop, Robbie Williams and Twiggy, as well as archive material from artists such as Lady Gaga, Sinéad O’Connor, Lou Reed and Tracey Emin. Producers say the series includes previously unheard interview footage from Bowie himself and an exclusive 2001 interview with podcast creator Des Shaw.
One newly released Bowie clip heard on the show finds the singer describing his creative impulses in the 1960s and 1970s: "I think that throughout the 60s and most of the 70s I was driven by lust, as much as anything. It's a great creative force. That in turn is replaced by anger, when you ask where the money is. And then you get depression, and then you go to Berlin and write really moody instrumental stuff. It's the triptych of the 70s. Lust, anger, moody."
Episodes trace Bowie’s early work with The Hype, his relationship with artist Andy Warhol, and the making and legacy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, including the development of his Ziggy Stardust persona.
Moss and Bowie were close friends for roughly a decade before his death. She has previously recounted the model-and-musician collaborations, fashion shoots and the occasional ribbing: in 2016 she said Bowie teased her after she could not get into some of his clothes.
Bowie died in 2016 at age 69. Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling is available on BBC Sounds. Moss is scheduled to discuss the series and her friendship with Bowie on Nick Grimshaw's 6 Music Breakfast Show on Sept. 22.