Question 1

True or false: Bowie had heterochromia, meaning his eyes were two different colors.

Accepted Answer

False. A teen fight left his left pupil permanently dilated, making it appear a different color—a condition called anisocoria, not true heterochromia.

Question 2

True or false: Bowie’s hit 'Space Oddity' was inspired by the 2001: A Space Odyssey film.

Accepted Answer

True. David Bowie said he wrote 'Space Oddity' after being inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The song's astronaut protagonist Major Tom reflects the film's themes of space and isolation.

Question 3

True or false: Bowie played a cameo as himself in the movie 'Zoolander'.

Accepted Answer

True. David Bowie appears as himself in the 2001 film 'Zoolander', serving as a judge during the iconic walk-off scene.

Question 4

True or false: David Bowie’s real name was David Robert Jones.

Accepted Answer

True. He was born David Robert Jones but changed his surname to Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees.

Question 5

True or false: Bowie was offered a knighthood but turned it down twice.

Accepted Answer

True. He declined a CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003, saying he wasn’t interested in such honors.

Question 6

True or false: Bowie’s album 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust' was originally a Broadway musical.

Accepted Answer

False. It was a concept album and rock opera, not a Broadway musical. A stage adaptation was announced decades later, in 2023, but the original was never a Broadway production.

Question 7

True or false: Bowie once recorded a song entirely in Japanese for a concept album.

Accepted Answer

False. Bowie recorded songs in German, French, and Italian, but never a full song in Japanese. He used a Japanese spoken-word intro in 'It's No Game (Part 1)' but no entirely Japanese track.

Question 8

True or false: Bowie invented the term 'glam rock' to describe his own music.

Accepted Answer

False. The term 'glam rock' was coined by music journalists in the early 1970s, not by Bowie himself.

David Bowie Trivia Questions