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Actor and singer Janelle Monáe sat down with Boygenius' Lucy Dacus for a Rolling Stone interview that led up to a wild bit where the former convincingly claimed she traveled back in time to meet the legendary David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust era -- and the whole exchange was captured on video!
Janelle Monáe is known for her futuristic, boundary-pushing style and music, but she just dropped a claim so wild, you might just believe that she owns a Hot Tub Time Machine or Doc Brown’s DeLorean. Well, it seems Lucy Dacus most certainly did.
The “Make Me Feel” singer recently sat down with the Boygenius vocalist for Rolling Stone's annual “Musicians on Musicians” feature, and the whole conversation took a left turn into the twilight zone when Monáe casually (and convincingly) mentioned seeing the late, great rock legend David Bowie perform -- during his Ziggy Stardust-era back in the 1970s!
You heard that right. Forget about a meet-and-greet; Monáe -- who was born in 1985 -- apparently saw the icon's legendary '70s show in person thanks to her mysterious inter-dimensional travels. For the record, Bowie died on January 10, 2016 at the age of 69 after a secret battle with cancer.
While discussing the late Starman’s influence on her own art and her affinity for Halloween, Monáe just blurted out the absolute shocker.
"I’ve always loved transforming, and I think that’s what I love about Halloween, and that’s what I love about world building through music," she said. "I think when I saw David Bowie..."
"You saw him?" questioned a puzzled Dacus.
"I did," replied Monáe with a total poker face. "I traveled back into the 1970s, and I saw him do [The Rise and Fall of] Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible."
"You traveled back,” said Dacus.
"Yeah, I was backstage," Monáe claimed. "I was like, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and so I jetted back to the 2000s, and I was like, ‘I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics and create community around transformation and being queer' — and not even in sexuality, but just in how we see the world."
Dacus, bless her heart, didn’t seem to pry or question Monae any further about her time-travel adventures and just seemed to accept the wild claims and carried on with the interview.
We wish we could have been a fly on the wall for Dacus’ reaction, but thankfully, the interview was filmed and captured the entire exchange for our viewing pleasure.
