'I was David Bowie's tour madam and this is what really went down'

David Bowie's former stylist Suzi Ronson, who created the iconic red hairstyle he wore during his Ziggy Stardust era, has revealed what life on the road with the legendary musician was really like. In her book Me and Mr Jones she opened up about her time working and touring with the Life On Mars singer, who would have turned 77 today (January 8) and described herself as the "tour madam" after articulating how she would organise girls to meet the band after shows.

However she was keen to clarify this remark was somewhat tongue-in-cheek when she spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk last June in advance of an appearance at the Belfast Book Festival.

"I christened myself the 'Tour Madam', and in those days, it didn't mean what it means now. Well I suppose it did but it was much more light-hearted," she said, speaking via Zoom from Portugal.

"I christened myself that tongue-in-cheek because there came a point where the band couldn't be like most bands and wait in the dressing room [and then] the girls come back and they sign the photographs. It wasn't like that.

"The band was so well received and [they were] scared [of the fans]. We had to get them off the stage, get them in the car and get them back to the hotel," she explained.

"Well, you do a show like that you need to have a drink with somebody - have a laugh, a bit of praise. That's what it's all about. And what I used to do was I got on the bus with the rest of the band, and there were [fans] hanging around the bus and I'd ask if they wanted to come back. I wasn't bringing them back.... I wasn't procuring girls...I was simply bringing fans back to the hotel.

"And the majority of the time the band - David was quite a naughty boy - but the rest of the band really weren't - they were straight lads from Yorkshire," she claimed.

"They might have worn the make up but they had girlfriends and wives. I don't think... I mean I'm sure they dallied here and there - who wouldn't under those circumstances... But they never did anything terrible," she speculated.

"David never did anything terrible either. But my God he was announcing in the papers he's gay and he's this and he's that so he had to kind of live up to it," she laughed.

Suzi Fussey, as she was then, was only in her early 20s when she met Bowie in 1970 and she was part of his inner circle until he retired the Ziggy Stardust character in 1973. She went on to marry his legendary Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson and have a daughter, Lisa.

Reflecting now with hindsight on how she would have felt if Lisa had been offered a similar invitation, she acknowledges she wouldn't have been happy.

"People have asked me before, 'What if it was your daughter?' And when you put it like that, when my daughter was 16, I wouldn't have liked that at all," she admitted.

She recalled one young girl in particular whose mother came in search of her after she had been granted an audience with the band. "[There was one girl of 16] she was giggling and she was great. She looked super and she looked about 20 and she wanted to come on the bus. Nobody was twisting anybody's arm," Suzi reiterated.

"Where was her mum? I suppose her mum must have been outside waiting for her - poor mum. And then when she didn't show up, she finally decided that she had to come look for her. Well done mother. I take my hat off to her," she praised.

Indeed, Suzi fully relates to the mother's experience, as she recalled having a "bit of a double standard" when Lisa had the opportunity to go backstage at a Guns 'n' Roses concert in Madison Square Garden at a similar age. "I said, 'Darling, I know what goes on there. You're not going,'" she laughed.