Forty years on, is there anything we still don’t know about David Bowie? Chris Moss meets his latest biographer...

Paul Trynka used to edit the UK music magazine Mojo, and is the author of Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed. His latest book, Starman, is a biography of David Bowie which takes the titular jangly pop song as its opening tune before riffing on the usual Bowie themes – with cocaine addiction, his friendship with Mr Pop and Bowie-as-husband and-dad getting more attention than usual – as well as plenty of musical archaeology. The last two decades are chronicled in detail,despite Trynka’s admission that Bowie’s most recent creative high was his rendition of The Little Fat Man (with the Pug-Nosed Face) in Ricky Gervais’ sitcom Extras. We asked him if there was anything new to be discovered about rock’s most famous chameleon.

Did you interview Bowie?
I did ‘hire’ him to guest-edit Mojo. Sadly, we didn’t debate cover shots over the lightbox: it was all done via email, which was efficient, but hardly a meeting of minds.

At least ten Bowie songs are seminal. Why Starman?
Starman has special resonance. The song, and its performance [on 6 July, 1972] on [UK music show] Top of the Pops, is about transcendence – and the book is about how one boy, David Jones, transcended his own limitations. The fact the melody is lifted from Judy Garland also invokes another theme.

Bowie often goes quiet – was there any new material to work with?
I did more than 200 interviews, used maybe 100 new sources. My problem wasn’t so much finding new material as fitting it all in.

But what’s your killer hook?
Plenty of people have written about Bowie – mine’s the first book to track how Bowie became Bowie. Not how he redesigned himself on the outside, but what happened within.

It’s often remarked Bowie peaked for a short period. Is that fair?
I reckon he had 12 years of influential albums, arguably more. Who else has managed that?

Unlike many rock stars, Bowie is discreet. Is he cool, or just old?
He’s old school in many ways, and understands that elusive balance of publicity hound and enigma.

Bowie seems to age gracefully – what’s his trick?
Hang out with older people: it makes you look younger.

You portray Bowie as an astute wheeler-dealer. Was he the Simon Cowell of 1970s rock?
No – he was cut-throat but rarely a control freak. The image of him as considered is wrong – above all, he’s a risk-taker, and maybe a chancer.

You rate highest the albums where Tony Visconti and Brian Eno were at the helm. Did Bowie need controllers?
He’s ‘himself’ the most when he relies more on others. But he can get things out of them that they can’t get on their own.

Your other biographical project was Iggy Pop. At the apocalypse, with just one track before the End, would you choose Iggy or Bowie?
If oblivion awaits, I’d go for Iggy’s Success – a Bowie tune, tee-hee – for its irrational belief that things will turn out okay.