The Most Touching Celebrity Twitter Tributes to David Bowie

The most heartbreaking tweet of all came from David Bowie’s son, movie director Duncan Jones. With rumors of his famous father’s death flying around the Internet, Jones took to Twitter to inform the world that yes, the news sadly was true – and shared a beautiful photo of dad and son together in the ’70s. In 2021 he also tweeted, “It’s remarkable and delightful that Dad is still so clearly loved by so many.”

Mick Jagger and David Bowie were not only musical collaborators but also good pals. So in honor of their friendship, and in tribute to his dearly departed buddy, the Rolling Stones frontman posted a throwback picture of himself and Bowie in happier times. He informed the world that he “will never forget” his “true original” friend.

Madonna was “devastated” by the death of David Bowie and uploaded several tweets and images paying tribute to him. She also later penned a longer statement on Facebook thanking him for “chang[ing] the course of [her] life.” The singer wrote, “His photographs are hanging all over my house today. He was so chic and beautiful and elegant. So ahead of his time. Thank you, David Bowie. I owe you a lot. The world will miss you.”

Paul McCartney’s sincere message about David Bowie included a snap taken by Linda McCartney of the two music legends together in 1985. It’s clear from McCartney’s words that Bowie meant a lot to him. The full message read: "Very sad news to wake up to on this rainy morning. David was a great star, and I treasure the moments we had together. His music played a very strong part in British musical history, and I’m proud to think of the huge influence he has had on people all around the world."

David Bowie and Ellen DeGeneres had met on her show in 2004, and there was even a running joke about how alike the two looked. But even though the pair weren't close friends or colleagues, DeGeneres still connected with the star in a very meaningful way. On social media, DeGeneres called him a “legend” and said, “He was huge to me.”

David Bowie often appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and on the day he died Conan paid tribute to him with a five-minute clip showing off some wittier Bowie moments. But the talk show host himself also took to Twitter for an even more personal message in which he spoke of Bowie as being “surrealistically talented, funny, and kind.”

Val Kilmer took to Twitter to pay a tribute to Bowie that was sad, heartwarming, and poetic all at once. “Planets will be named after him,” the actor wrote — and it’s hard not to think that that may one day be the case. He also posted a longer message on Facebook, part of which read, "We all wanted to be as cool as David... He was always, always the coolest guy in the room. And he was a master singer-songwriter. God bless, David Bowie."

Oscar-nominated actor Edward Norton is one more creative person who counts David Bowie among his inspirations. On Twitter, the Fight Club star touchingly shared his sorrow over the legend’s death with a snippet of the lyrics to “Lady Stardust,” as well as a memory of how Bowie’s music made his “mind and heart open up” when he was younger.

Iggy Pop and David Bowie’s friendship goes way back to the 1970s and even includes an incident when they both got arrested in Rochester, New York, in 1976. The pair also collaborated to beautiful effect on Iggy Pop's albums The Idiot and Lust for Life and toured together multiple times. Knowing this arguably makes his tweet even more poignant.

“Father of all us freaks” is fitting praise for David Bowie from the man who played the biggest freak of all, the Hulk. Actor Mark Ruffalo continued to retweet similar dedications to the great man as the day went on, but none seemed more heartfelt than his own. Ruffalo called the day of Bowie's passing a "sad, sad day."

David Bowie and Queen, of course, teamed up to write the 1981 epic “Under Pressure.” And underneath Queen guitarist Brian May’s earnest tweet about Bowie's passing, there were many comments suggesting that Bowie and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury were now partying in the afterlife. "[Bowie] was a fearsome talent, and the loss to music and culture from his passing is inestimable," May wrote on his website.

Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe paid tribute to David Bowie with a tweet featuring the cover of Diamond Dogs and a heartfelt message. “You inspired me to be more than a musician,” he wrote. The broken-heart emoji has never been so appropriate. “Bowie had a huge influence on me, not only musically but visually," Sixx told the BBC in 2019.

Yoko Ono knows all about loss, and her words about Bowie are all the more moving for it. “John [Lennon] and David [Bowie] respected each other,” Ono wrote. “They were well matched in intellect and talent. As John and I had very few friends, we felt David was as close as family.” She added, “We have some sweet memories which will stay with us forever.”

Some of David Bowie’s last album, Blackstar, was actually inspired by the music of Kendrick Lamar. It’s touching, then, that the rapper repaid the compliment by posting an emotional tribute to the late icon on Twitter: “What an honor, what a soul. David Bowie, Spirit of Gold.” He added, “No lens could ever capture your point of view.”

Flea posted many tweets about the loss of his “hero,” but arguably the most heartfelt is the one in which he recounts a meeting with Bowie. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist named Bowie as “warm and generous… a great intellectual, a great artist.” In tribute, Flea also added a tattoo of the late star’s name to his collection of ink.

“Weird” Al Yankovic stopped being funny for a moment to poignantly sum up exactly what everyone the world over was thinking upon the news of Bowie’s passing. No one was ready. He even later told The New York Times that Bowie was a huge influence on him — but that now he would never do a parody of his music.

After the revelation of Bowie’s death broke, long-time friend and collaborator Brian Eno revealed that they had been thinking about working on a new project together. He said in a statement to the BBC, "I received an email from [Bowie] seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: ‘Thank you for our good times, Brian. They will never rot.’ And it was signed ‘Dawn.’ I realize now he was saying goodbye."

Musician and actor Carrie Brownstein may not have known David Bowie, but her poetic tribute to him clearly showed how much he meant to her. It’s a simple statement, but it lingers in the mind long after reading it. Her band Sleater-Kinney paid further tribute to Bowie by covering his track "Rebel Rebel" at a New Year's Eve gig in 2016.

Comedian Will Arnett tweeted, “We’re all Aladdin Sane,” a reference to a David Bowie alter ego that came about for Bowie’s 1976 album of the same name. The album cover for Aladdin Sane features Bowie with his iconic lightning bolt make-up etched across his face. Arnett was clearly still feeling it the day after Bowie's death, as he tweet out some lyrics from Bowie's "Quicksand."

Kanye West has all the flamboyance of a David Bowie character so it’s not surprising that “Yeezy” counted Bowie among his influences. West had it right when he said Bowie “gave us magic for a lifetime.” There was even an incredibly strange internet theory that Bowie somehow predicted the birth and stardom of Kanye West. Yet while that might be nonsense, there's no denying that Bowie was a remarkable predictor of the future.

Obviously, while occupying a position at the forefront of popular culture for more than five decades, Bowie gave plenty of interviews. And it’s certainly worth looking at something he had a habit of doing anytime someone put a microphone in front of him. Bowie, for some reason, would start predicting the future.

Perhaps the best example came in a 1999 interview that saw Bowie give his thoughts on a fairly new-fangled invention known as the internet. The star said, “I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society — for good and bad — is unimaginable.” And he went into more detail.

“The actual context and the state of content is going to be so different to anything we can envisage at the moment,” Bowie continued. “The interplay between the user and the provider will be so in simpatico it’s going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about.” He also felt that the internet would break down barriers between musicians and the public. Pretty on the money, huh?

Fascinatingly, Bowie was also speaking about diversity in the entertainment business almost 40 years ago. Way back in 1983, he questioned an MTV interviewer about why more black artists weren’t spotlighted on the channel. When an excuse was made, which involved appealing to Middle America, Bowie countered, “Should it not be a challenge to try to make the media far more integrated?”

This brings us nicely to the star’s TV debut, long before he was known as David Bowie or Ziggy Stardust or any of his other alter-egos. In 1964 he appeared on a show called BBC Tonight, on which he and some friends spoke to host Cliff Michelmore. Davy Jones, who was just 17 at the time, had formed a special group, you see.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men had come together to combat society’s rejection of young guys growing their locks out. Bowie wasn’t happy at all, telling Michelmore, “I think we’re all fairly tolerant. But for the last two years, we’ve had comments like, ‘Darling!’ and ‘Can I carry your handbag?’ thrown at us, and I think it just has to stop now.”

To be fair, as the resolutely short-haired Michelmore admitted, the longer-haired gentleman in British society had been enduring some tough times. “They’re tired of persecution, they’re tired of taunts, they’re tired of losing their jobs,” the host explains. “They’re tired of being sent home from college, they’re tired of being sent home from school.” It didn’t paint a pretty picture.

As he struggles to find out what inspired Bowie and his friends to grow their hair to levels previously believed the exclusive domain of females, Michelmore asks, “Did you get this off the Rolling Stones?” This line of inquiry was quickly shot down in flames, though. All the young men claimed they were doing it long before Mick Jagger strutted onto the scene.

The young Bowie then delivers his bottom-line verdict with trademark gusto. He says, “I think we all like long hair, and we don’t see why other people should persecute us because of this.” The show created a significant buzz, and Bowie subsequently chatted to the London Evening News. It was here that he elaborated further on his society’s aims.

“It’s really for the protection of pop musicians and those who wear their hair long,” the future pop icon stated. “Anyone who has the courage to wear their hair down to his shoulders has to go through hell. It’s time we were united and stood up for our curls!”

This amusing response should clue you in that everything was not as it appeared with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. As it turned out, Bowie’s organization wasn’t really about spurned young men standing up for the rights of the persecuted long-haired masses. You see, the guys seen behind Bowie in the BBC Tonight interview were his group the Manish Boys — and their manager Les Conn!

In truth, the whole thing was actually a beautifully orchestrated publicity ploy spearheaded by Conn. It was born out of a situation that occurred when the band was supposed to perform on BBC series Gadzooks! It’s All Happening. Before cameras rolled, executives tried to get the band members to cut their long manes — and they weren’t happy about it.

The band rejected the idea but were only allowed to perform if they agreed to a strange proviso. It was that, if any complaints were raised about their unruly hairstyles, their performance payment would be donated to charity. Bowie and his band-mates begrudgingly agreed, but the front-man reportedly made sure to tell a producer, “I wouldn’t have my hair cut for the prime minister, let alone the BBC!”

Even though everyone was annoyed about the situation, Conn realized there was an opportunity for raising the band’s profile. A demonstration by the BBC’s headquarters was organized, with fans enlisted to hold wave placards that extolled the virtues of long hair. This then led to the appearance on BBC Tonight and a young Bowie getting his first taste of the limelight!

All in all, the stunt would prove to be indicative of something Bowie would then do throughout his career. Even though he wasn’t fighting for the rights of long-haired boys in any serious sense, he still resolutely stuck to his ideals of personal non-conformity. As a by-product, though, it helped many other young men of the era feel comfortable with wearing their hair long.

Throughout his years as a persona-inventing pop star, Bowie would again and again refuse to conform to society’s norms. He often did it with his tongue firmly in cheek and a mischievousness that was intoxicating. Again and again, though, his boundary-pushing would help countless people in society who previously felt like they existed on the fringes.

For example, Bowie’s gender-bending characters challenged the world’s idea of what was male or female, as well as what was gay or straight. After all, here was a man who wore make-up, dresses, and high heels. He wound up becoming an important figure in LGBTQ culture, despite flip-flopping numerous times on the status of his own sexuality.

During a 1972 Melody Maker magazine interview, Bowie said that he was gay. But, four years later, he told Playboy, “It’s true — I am a bisexual.” He again changed his stance in 1983, informing Rolling Stone that it was a big mistake to say he was bisexual, as he “was always a closet heterosexual.”

In his book Strange Fascination — David Bowie: The Definitive Story, biographer David Buckley stated that the star “mined sexual intrigue for its ability to shock.” He was of the opinion Bowie was “never gay, nor even consistently actively bisexual.” Buckley felt that, at the most, Bowie experimented with his sexuality “out of a sense of curiosity and a genuine allegiance with the ‘transgressional.’”

At the core of the matter, Bowie loved pushing people’s buttons and embodying the “other.” He was his own man and would do exactly what he wanted with his music, his image, and his personal life. This fierce adherence to non-conformity therefore meant that he was never viewed as someone who “used” queerness in a calculating way. Instead, he was vital to the enrichment of LGBTQ culture.

Angela Mazaris, the director of the LGBTQ Center at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University, spoke to the LiveScience website in the wake of Bowie’s 2016 death. She tried her best to explain why the man was so beloved. In her opinion, “He was so important for all the people who felt different, who felt like outsiders, who felt like their identities, for whatever reason, weren’t recognized and loved.”

Mazaris added, “When you read accounts of people who remember seeing David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust for the first time, they talk about this sort of awakening. The rocker’s bisexual alien alter-ego portrayed androgyny and non-heterosexual sexuality as beautiful and worth celebrating. I think it’s about being able to imagine possibilities for yourself and your identity.”

Elizabeth Coffey Williams, a transgender actress who starred in John Waters’ Pink Flamingos in 1972, spoke to the Daily Dot about Bowie’s legacy. She said, “There were people who were horrified by his presentation. He was genuinely pushing the boundaries. Make no mistake, it was a theatrical decision.”

Williams believes that the effects of Bowie declaring himself bisexual were seismic, though. “It had an impact on people who were never exposed to any such notion,” she explained. “Yet they were so impacted by his music and presentation.” In the end, Williams added, Bowie’s pioneering attitude toward fluid gender identity was a factor in taking the idea “into the mainstream.”

“He broadened the visibility,” Williams continued. “There was no word for this stuff. There was no transgender.” Yet even back in the 1970s, people like Williams and Bowie “recognized gender fluidity, and viscerally we understood gender as being more non-binary. And I think that David expressed that non-binary construct even before it had an official word.” In the end, though, Bowie’s true love ended up being the gorgeous model Iman Abdulmajid. And she’s the only one who can say she really knew what he was like. Since his death, Iman has given a few candid interviews, opening up about both their relationship and how she’s fared without him by her side.

One of Iman’s most candid interviews came three years after Bowie’s passing, when she bared her soul to magazine Essence. The confessional chat is proof just how much the celebrity couple truly loved each other. In it, she mentions a heartbreaking vow that she made after losing her husband.

Surprisingly, Iman once claimed that she initially had little interest in pursuing a romance with one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. She told The Guardian, “I was not ready for a relationship. Definitely I didn’t want to get into a relationship with somebody like him.”

That soon changed, though. And in 2010 Iman told Harper’s Bazaar that she was just as smitten with Bowie as she’d ever been. She said, “He always makes me laugh. It’s like cabaret. I keep him entertained, too. I still fancy him – totally! – after all these years.” The star’s passing was, as you can imagine, devastating for the Iman.

Following her husband’s untimely passing, Iman took to Instagram to reflect on their enduring 26-year relationship. In one particularly emotive post, the former model shared the unattributed quote, “The struggle is real, but so is God.” She also took to Twitter, where she offered the simple message, “Love & Gratitude.”

What’s more, Iman has seemingly since made it her mission to keep the memories of her relationship with Bowie alive. In any case, she regularly takes to social media to upload throwback images of the pair in happier times alongside the #BowieForever hashtag. And perhaps one of the most touching of these snaps is a picture of the couple locked in a beachside embrace, with the model captioning the shot, “The best part of me is you.”

It’s true, too, that Iman has spoken about her loss in public. In September 2016 she was briefly interviewed at New York Fashion Week, where she was attending a show staged by designer Tom Ford. And after a TV reporter described her as a survivor, the model responded, “Not as much as you think. It’s just been a tough year, but I’m holding up.”

Yet while Iman may have put a brave face on things, she was still struggling to cope with the loss of her husband two years after his passing. While talking to Porter, she explained, “Sometimes, I don’t want people to know how sad I am. People say to me, ‘Oh, you’re so strong.’ I’m not strong – I am just trying to keep it together.”

The model also went on to discuss how the public have reacted to her since Bowie’s death. She said, “People take pictures of me in the street and say [while touching my arm], ‘I am so sorry for your loss.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t touch me. You just took pictures of me. How can you be sorry?’”

Iman continued, “I get the fans’ grief, but it’s not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we have lost a husband and a father.” She also insisted that she has no plans to look for a new love any time soon, adding, “I will never remarry. I do feel very lonely. But do I want a relationship? I can’t say never, but, no, not now.”

Then, in July 2019 Iman graced the front cover of Essence magazine’s summer issue. Not only did this appearance coincide with the 25th anniversary of the ESSENCE Festival, but it also neatly tied into the 25th anniversary of Iman Cosmetics. And the star herself told the publication that she was hugely proud of what she had achieved in the industry.

Iman explained, “When I came on the scene, I was catering to women of all skin colors. Regardless of what hue you are, as long as you are a woman with skin of color – whether you are Asian, Latina or African – I opened that gate.” It appeared, too, that her late husband had been key to her company’s success.

At the very least, Iman Cosmetics may have stayed nothing but a pipe dream had Bowie not encouraged his wife. Yes, while the model admitted that she was initially reluctant to pursue her business ambitions, she also claimed that Bowie had given her both the confidence and the impetus to move forward with her idea.

Speaking about how much of a personal champion her husband was, Iman told the magazine, “[Bowie] literally did not understand fear. He was in my corner cheering me on every step of the way. If it wasn’t for him, I would never have done it.”

And Iman also had no qualms about further opening up on the subject of her late spouse. More than three years on from his passing, she told Essence exactly what she missed the most about Bowie. “His sense of humor – he made me laugh every day,” she revealed.

Iman also credits Bowie for inspiring her and anyone who knew him to learn more about the world. She added to Essence, “He was a very curious person, so he made all of us very curious about everything in life.” However, anyone who’s particularly curious about Iman’s private life may be left wanting.

You see, when Iman was asked about the possibility of a future autobiography, she answered, “I have nothing to hide, but I’m not telling it. I’m still old-fashioned. I still find that I like to keep my privacy.” She claimed, too, that she has no desire “to tell everything.”

Yet even though Iman may not be recounting her life story in print any time soon, she is apparently still focusing on leaving the kind of legacy of which she can be proud. She told Essence, “Whether it’s in my business or in my charities, I stood up. I did not stay on the side, and I did not waste what was given to me.”

And while Iman also claimed that she “stumbled into life,” adding, “I was not looking to be a model. I was not looking to be in America,” she nevertheless worked with what she had. “And so that will be my legacy: I stood up,” the star concluded.

Iman also spoke about her legacy when she took to the Essence Festival’s Beauty Carnival stage that same month. There, she said, “I knew from day one that there wasn’t a lot of make-up for me. I wanted to change the language of beauty. It wasn’t about black women. It was about women with skin of color, which means the whole world.”

“I wanted to really change the language [that was used to describe ethnic brands],” Iman continued. “It’s not an ethnic brand. These are consumers. Don’t pigeonhole us, because we have the buying power. Whether it’s through Iman Cosmetics, creating a service for black women [or] standing for my daughters and daughters of many – that’s what I want to be remembered for.”

And it seems that Iman is far from ready to rest on her considerable laurels. Today, she may be seen gracing fashion industry conference panels such as the Apple Awards and Vogue Forces of Fashion. She also has plans to travel across the globe with friend and fellow model and activist Bethann Hardison – yet another achievement, perhaps, in a career that is already full of accomplishments.