Q 01/05

Bowie was born with which surname?

A) Underwood

B) Haywood

C) Burns

D) Jones

Answer · why

D) Jones

He was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London, on 8 January 1947, and only adopted the stage name Bowie in September 1965.

Q 02/05

Why did the young singer switch from performing as Davy Jones in the mid-1960s?

A) A Monkee shared it

B) A label demanded it

C) To sound more American

D) A numerologist advised it

Answer · why

A) A Monkee shared it

He took the name from the 19th-century American pioneer James Bowie and the knife he popularised.

Q 03/05

Bowie's permanently dilated pupil was the result of what?

A) A childhood fever

B) A school fight over a girl

C) A stage accident

D) A birth defect

Answer · why

B) A school fight over a girl

His friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye in 1962; Underwood later designed the artwork for Bowie's early albums.

Q 04/05

What is the medical name for Bowie's eye condition, a permanently dilated pupil?

A) Nystagmus

B) Heterochromia

C) Anisocoria

D) Strabismus

Answer · why

C) Anisocoria

Anisocoria means unequal pupil sizes; the 1962 punch paralysed the muscles of his left pupil, leaving it permanently dilated and giving him faulty dep...

Q 05/05

Which of Bowie's older relatives introduced him to modern jazz, Buddhism, Beat poetry and the occult?

A) His half-brother Terry Burns

B) His cousin Kristina

C) His father John

D) His uncle Jimmy

Answer · why

A) His half-brother Terry Burns

Terry had schizophrenia and lived alternately at home and in psychiatric wards.