(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

The late David Bowie could be a notoriously difficult customer at times. After all, he didn’t become one of music’s most pioneering figures without adopting a critical take on the world. While he was typically harder on himself than others, he strived to create genuine and unique art. More often than not, Bowie produced works that surprised the world, taking his fans with him on a nearly 50-year odyssey of innovation and boundary-pushing behaviour.

Bowie’s oeuvre is kaleidoscopic, touching on many different and often antithetical genres, with his love for music undying since childhood. Duly, his record collection was also extensive, and it featured almost every genre under the sun, except for country music, which he truly loathed.

He once said of the musical area: “I think the only music I didn’t listen to was country and western, and that holds to this day. It’s much easier for me to say that the kind of music I didn’t listen to was pretty much that.”

Bowie elaborated on his expansive taste: “I mean everything, from jazz to classical to popular. And Tibetan horns were a great part of it in 1966, ’67.”

Despite Bowie claiming to love everything apart from country music, the statement simply isn’t factual. Throughout his wild career, he vented his frustration at a series of prominent acts whose work didn’t resonate with his tastes.

This criticism came in many forms, attacking those from the mainstream and the niche. Over his life, the Bromely native made it clear when he didn’t have time for someone else’s work. Often, as was customary for a man who naturally veered off the beaten path, his takes were as revolutionary as his art.

Fuelled by musical and personal reasons, look below at five artists Bowie couldn’t abide by.

Five artists David Bowie didn’t like:

Gary Numan

Despite Gary Numan being a lifelong fan of Bowie, the feelings were not reciprocated. Notoriously, the older statesman had Numan kicked off The Kenny Everett Christmas Show in 1980 for what he perceived as Numan copying his act. This petulant event reflects Bowie poorly; he could have taken Numan’s inspiration as a positive sign, but instead, the musician tried to bring down the new kid on the block.

Speaking to NME in 2021, Numan reflected on the crushing incident. “It bothered me at the time because I was a massive fan, and he’d been such a big part of my life for so many years, so I was pretty disappointed – and the fact I got taken off the show afterwards,” he said.

However, as the years passed, Numan could see it from Bowie’s perspective, noting: “But I later came to realise we all go through periods when we’re more fragile or paranoid and not sure how we fit into all of this.”

Furthermore, Numan believes “there was an element of” jealousy on Bowie’s behalf. At the time, he was a few years away from his ‘Let’s Dance’ inspired pop resurgence. Meanwhile, Numan was on the receiving end of the attention from the mainstream.

Sadly, the pair didn’t have the opportunity to patch things up, with Numan revealing: “I never got to meet him afterwards and ask, but my feeling was at that moment, I was the current big thing in weird make-up, and I don’t think that period was the best for him. I know many people that met him and he was lovely, and I wish I’d met that version.”

Bowie had such a problem with Numan that he even took shots at him in ‘Teenage Wildlife’ from 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). On the track, Bowie sings: “A broken-nosed mogul are you, One of the new wave boys, Same old thing in brand new drag, Comes sweeping into view, As ugly as a teenage millionaire, Pretending it’s a whiz-kid world.”

He later said of his young disciple: “What Numan did, he did excellently but in repetition, in the same information coming over again and again, once you’ve heard one piece”.

Axl Rose

While his issues with Numan were purely artistic, the same can’t be said for Axl Rose. During the late 1980s, when rockstars were exaggerated caricatures, Bowie found himself in a physical altercation with Rose, the frontman of the world’s then-biggest band, Guns N’ Roses. Guitarist Slash revealed this in his autobiography. He recalled Bowie and Rose fighting over the daughter of an Everly Brother, Rose’s then-girlfriend, Erin Everly. 

One night in 1989, Bowie went to watch Guns N’ Roses support The Rolling Stones at The Cathouse venue. He was in attendance alongside Ola Hudson, Slash’s mother, whom he had known and worked with for many years. 

Rose started sneering and throwing rather choice insults in his direction at one point during the show. Disgusted at Rose, Bowie stood up and left during Guns N’ Roses’ set. For many years, no one understood what had happened until Slash divulged that Rose was furious at Bowie for allegedly hitting on Erin.

This incident allegedly occurred earlier in the day at the venue when Guns N’ Roses were shooting their video for ‘It’s So Easy’. The alleged story goes that Bowie was drunk and playful, and as Erin was starring in the video wearing leather bondage gear, the temperature rose. In 1990, the owner of The Cathouse claimed that Axl caught Bowie pursuing Everly and lost it, with the two getting into a physical altercation. It concluded with Rose chasing Bowie, screaming at him, “I’m gonna kill you, TIN MAN”.

Elton John

Elton John was another notable figure that Bowie wasn’t particularly fond of. Although in their younger years, along with T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan, the duo regularly frequented gay clubs. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1976, Bowie harshly labelled ‘The Rocket Man’ as “the Liberace, the token queen of rock”.

Unsurprisingly, this cutting remark hurt Elton, who later commented: “We started out being really good friends. We used to hang out together with Marc Bolan, going to gay clubs, but I think we just drifted apart.”

He added, “David and I were not the best of friends towards the end.”

Bowie’s insults at Elton didn’t end there, with the icon later commenting: “I consider myself responsible for a whole new school of pretensions — they know who they are. Don’t you, Elton?”

Thankfully, the singer eventually forgave Bowie, although they never personally reconciled. At the time of Bowie’s comments, John was in the midst of his cocaine addiction, which was reaching its worst point in 1976 and hearing one of his heroes speak ill about him added fuel to the flames.

Following Bowie’s death in 2016, John drew a line under the historical remarks: “I thought it was a bit snooty. He wasn’t my cup of tea. No, I wasn’t his cup of tea”.

Paul McCartney

At his core, Bowie was a realist. In 1996, when discussing the impact of The Beatles and by proxy, Paul McCartney, he fought against the mainstream belief that the Liverpool band remained essential, which was an unpopular take considering Oasis were the biggest act in Britain. 

He controversially remarked: “Bands like the Beatles (who) were so extremely large in terms of what they sold and the influence they had” clearly had an impact back in the 1960s, but “very little of their influence is actually felt now.”

Although he was a revisionist, Bowie still greatly respected The Beatles. In 1995, when discussing their late frontman and his ‘Fame’ collaborator, John Lennon, he said: “I just thought we’d be buddies forever and get on better and better, and all that fantasy, I know which Beatle I always liked.”

However, he did not feel the same way about McCartney. In response to a question about “contemporaries” such as The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, Bowie explained that whilst he liked “some of” the former’s work, he wasn’t keen on McCartney’s. He said: “I don’t like much of Paul’s. He’s a nice guy, I’ve met him a couple of times.”

In the mind of Bowie, Lennon was the creative at the beating heart of The Fab Four. When he was inducted into the Berklee College of Music in 1999, he paid his respects to the late Beatle, who he referred to as his “greatest mentor”. Heaping praise further, Bowie added, “I guess he defined for me, at any rate, how one could twist and turn the fabric of pop and imbue it with elements from other art forms, often producing something extremely beautiful, very powerful and imbued with strangeness.”

The Jesus and Mary Chain

At face value, Bowie seemed like he would have been a fan of Scottish alt-rock heroes The Jesus and Mary Chain. They were authentic pioneers when they broke through in 1985 with their debut Psychocandy, just like Bowie was years earlier. 

The Reid brothers perfectly blended noise rock with bubblegum pop on their debut. With their next album, 1987’s Darklands, the band refined their sound, moving into anthemic territory that produced moments such as ‘April Skies’ and ‘Happy When It Rains’. Despite this more accessible sound, Bowie tore into the band during an interview with Musician during the same year, saying The Jesus and Mary Chain “awful” and “sophomoric—like the Velvets without Lou.”

Nevertheless, despite Bowie’s dislike for the Scottish rockers, singer Jim Reid grew up idolising the musician. During an interview with Thrasher in 2016, he explained how watching Bowie on Top of the Pops as a child was transformative for him. While it would have undoubtedly hurt to hear his hero say such strong words about his band, the impact of Bowie on their sound was immeasurable.