Former Stone Roses manager pays tribute to David Bowie

3 February 2016

Former Stone Roses manager Garry Johnson has paid tribute to his hero the late David Bowie.

David Bowie

Gary claims the music legend "changed" his life and was the reason he started up a punk band, The Buzz Kids, because he thought he was like the 'Space Oddity' hitmaker's alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.

In his autobiography 'Punk Rock Stories And Tabloid Tales', which he penned before Bowie's death at the age of 69 in January, he said: "I gave up being naughty, threw away my football boots and bought a guitar. Bowie changed my life. I formed a band but couldn't sing, my punk band was called The Buzz Kids. I thought I was Ziggy Stardust meets Johnny Rotten nobody else did. But people loved my lyrics so I become a Punk Poet and did stand-up ranting supporting punk bands all over the UK. "

However, Johnson soon gave up being a musician and became manager of The Stone Roses.

The 'I Wanna Be Adored' hitmaker's frontman Ian Brown says Johnson is the reason the rockers made it as a band.

He said: "Garry predicted we'd be massive and started a one-man campaign to get us noticed. He launched our career and as they say the rest is history."

Johnson says without Bowie - who he met several times over the years - he'd probably just be a "waste of space" rather than "a rebel with a cause".

He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I blagged my way into all the best parties in London and got to meet David Bowie.

"Seeing Bowie and then The Sex Pistols transformed me into wanting to be a rebel with a cause, with a purpose rather than some waste of space."