David Bowie’s former hairdresser has spoken out about her excruciating encounter with the mother of a teenager whom the star took to his hotel room after a concert in the 1970s.
Suzi Ronson, 74, from Beckenham, began working for the late singer after her mother Margaret became one of his clients at a local salon.
In her new book Me and Mr Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars, the stylist explains how she became friends with Bowie’s first wife, Angie, after she came into the salon for a perm in 1971.
An excerpt from the book, which has appeared in Sunday weatherdetails how Suzi then traveled to the couple’s mansion, Haddon Hall, where she was introduced to David, later that night.
Although Angie changed her mind about the perm, Suzi ended up transforming David’s shoulder-length blonde hair into a spiky red style, which later appeared on the cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Bowie dressed by Angie Bowie and Suzi Ronson in 1973. Bowie last performed as Ziggy Stardust at the Marquee club during a three-night filming session for ‘The 1980 Floor Show’.
Pictured: Suzi Ronson attending a private tour of the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A in March 2013.
After befriending the couple, who were in an open marriage, Angie was asked to help Bowie and the band on tour in June 1972.
The following May, Angie detailed how the band was performing in Birmingham when David saw a “beautiful girl” with “long blonde hair and dark eyes” in the crowd.
Describing how her role also involved playing ‘tour lady’, Suzi arranged for the fan to meet the band at their hotel, as she claims to have done on several other occasions.
She wrote: ‘At the hotel, David slipped an arm around her shoulder and I walked away to join the team ordering drinks. But soon a very pale roadie came looking for me.
The fan informed Suzi that the girl’s mother had arrived at the reception and was refusing to leave without her daughter, who was only 16 years old.
Suzi then remembers running to David’s hotel room and knocking on his door until he finally told her to “fuck off.”
The hairdresser then informed David of the girl’s age and how her mother was “making a big fuss.”
Suzi described how the girl was “instantly deposited outside the door” and David assured her that she would attend another concert next year.
In the photo: David Bowie and Trevor Bolder playing Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972.
Pictured: David Bowie was seen signing autographs for his fans in 1973 while on stage as Ziggy Stardust.
Suzi, who married Mott the Hoople’s Mick Ronson, later says she promised the girl tickets to any Bowie concert she wanted to calm her down.
“It was close,” he wrote. “I was wondering if I should start asking for proof of age before they got on the bus.”
On the other hand, Suzi claims that David picked out an “adorable looking guy with an angelic face and long dark curly hair” at a concert, but she didn’t specify which one.
During a costume change, Suzi claims that David told her to put the fan in the car when the show was over.
Once the performance was over, Suzi noticed how all of David’s bandmates sat in the front of the limo with the driver, leaving her in the back seat with the child.
She wrote: ‘The boy next to me was shaking. He could feel it. David threw himself into the car and without saying a word pounced on the boy.
‘I could see David pushing his tongue down the boy’s throat and his hand trying to open his pants, as he told him what they would do at the hotel. He was speechless.’
David Bowie and his first wife Angie photographed in January 1974. The couple divorced in 1974 and share a son.
Suzi Ronson photographed with her late husband Mick Ronson, who was the guitarist for Mott the Hoople
When they arrived at the hotel, Suzi was told to take the boy to David’s hotel room while he greeted the fans.
Before taking him to the hotel room, Suzi says she asked the boy how he was feeling and he insisted he was “fine.”
He then details that he was handed a costume by David, who then “pushed the boy into the room.”
In June 2017, Suzi Ronson detailed her first meeting with David’s mother in The Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine.
She wrote: ‘Mrs Jones was my quarter to three shampoo and I made it on a Thursday afternoon. From time to time there was a cut and, from time to time, a chocolate rinse. While she was combing her hair she was telling me about her son, David, about her.
‘She said: “He was a very artistic child” and “He’s a singer in a band.”
“I was so proud of him. I was nodding and smiling and listening, like you do, but it wasn’t until she mentioned Space Oddity that my ears perked up.
I said, ‘Space Oddity, I heard that song on the radio.’ It was a success. ‘Are we talking about David Bowie?’
Pictured: Undated photo of the late singer and actor David Bowie and his mother Margaret in London.
“Yes,” she said, “I’m his mother.”
‘There were rumors about David at Beckenham. He played in the local pub, the Three Tuns, although it was folk music, but he had had a top five song on ‘Space Oddity’. It had been a while ago though, so I thought he might have been a one-hit wonder.
“The first time I saw David, he was walking down Beckenham High Street in a dress with a girl wearing tight black trousers. I met her and Mrs Jones took her into the lounge. It turned out it was David’s wife Angie.
‘I liked it immediately. She was so calm and confident, and she looked great; she certainly she didn’t buy in Beckenham. She told me a little about her life. She did the lighting for David’s shows and they would spend all night in the clubs in London and have a great time. “It all sounded so glamorous.”