He might be one of the biggest stars in the world but it seems that the late David Bowie wasn’t aware of who he was when they first met. In a television interview with The Project Gervais spoke about his first meeting with the star who died of cancer at the age of 69 earlier this year.
Ricky said ‘the first time I met him, I was sort of newly famous.’ This was just before he went on to gain world-wide acclaim for his series The Office and also in Extras. He went on to reveal how he was introduced to the Life on Mars singer by a former director general of the BBC. He added ‘It was just after The Office had break and I was invited to one of those VIP things at the BBC where Bowie played a few songs and then director general Greg Dyke bounced over to me and said, ‘You are a huge Bowie fan, aren’t you?’ ‘Yeah, yeah.’ ‘You want to meet him?’
It seems that despite not knowing who he was, Bowie took a liking to the British comedian as he agreed to appear in the series Extras and the two went on to have a ten year friendship which continued until the singer’s death.