Famed Photographer Says He Was ‘Shocked’ by David Bowie’s Habits Off the Stage (Unique)

Denis O’Regan had an unlikely highway to his place as one among rock’s most iconic photographers.

In his new e-book David Bowie by Denis O’Regan, the famed photographer takes a heartfelt and meticulous look again at touring with the enduring singer over three a long time — within the Seventies, on the finish of his Isolar II World Tour; within the Nineteen Eighties, on the Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider world excursions; and within the Nineteen Nineties, throughout the Tin Man and Outside excursions.

Speaking with PEOPLE in regards to the assortment of photographs and tales that comprise the e-book, O’Regan opens up about what it was like attending to know Bowie.

“When I got there, I thought David would be seen in these different guises, and no one had ever really seen him offstage that much. I thought, ‘Well, he’s going to keep us [at] arm’s length. He won’t let me do this. He’ll be demanding about that,'” he recollects. “And of course, that wasn’t the case.”

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O’Regan was shocked by the “Rebel Rebel” singer’s comfortability giving him “unfettered access to everything, everywhere and anywhere.”

“I just did what I did and captured it all, and we got along,” he shares. “That really helped. I was fairly lazy, so that also helped because I wasn’t constantly hassling him or anyone I worked with to take pictures.”

Getting to know Bowie was an expertise in itself. O’Regan discovered himself “surprised” by “how pleasant he was and unprepossessing.”

“He was very normal and that’s not what I expected from the person I’d seen on stage. He was still this English lad who hid a cigarette in his hand behind his back like he was a naughty schoolboy,” he recollects.

“He was also very funny. He loved to imitate people and he laughed continually. And that I didn’t expect. So I didn’t expect him to be so friendly and accommodating really is what it was, and so enthusiastic about what I was there to do.”

The photographer got here to understand Bowie’s character, on and off stage.

“From David being around all the time, he had gone from this person who was an enigma for me and this hero, to there I was, with him all day, every day. Sometimes I did wonder how I’d managed it.”

O’Regan additionally received used to seeing different stars, from those that labored with Bowie to those that had been merely followers of the musician and would come to his exhibits. On one event, the photographer was making ready to shoot a present at Wembley Stadium when he discovered that Princess Diana was coming and keen to satisfy Bowie.

“I thought, ‘Well, Princess Diana, that’s fun.’ But there was no communication. I was out in the audience at Wembley Stadium, and I took my father and my brother out there to get them a good place, and we were gone for quite a while,” he recollects. “Then I came back and David and his PA just said, ‘Diana’s on her way.’ “

O’Regan says Diana was with “a friend,” who would later be revealed to be Army Major James Hewitt, although, on the time, nobody had any suspicions the 2 had been romantically concerned.

“On that day, she was just with a friend. And it was only when that was reported over the next couple of days that we really knew what was going on,” he provides. “It didn’t make any difference to our day, but that’s what happened.”

When Diana arrived, O’Regan requested promoter Harvey Goldsmith if he may {photograph} her. Goldsmith then instructed him to “ask her yourself.”

The photographer remembered feeling like “protocol went out the window.”

“I thought, ‘Okay, wasn’t quite sure that’s how it’s done.’ So I did and I said, ‘Would you like a picture taken with David?'” he recollects.

“And she said, ‘Do you think you’d really want one taken with me?’ And I went, ‘I think he would actually,’ so then we did it. But it was lovely, and she was lovely, and it was great to have done it.”

Another unforgettable celeb sighting was when Michael Jackson frolicked backstage with Bowie — narrowly lacking Prince, who “scuttled off just before” his fellow pop star arrived.

“With Michael Jackson, everybody was simply milling round within the inexperienced room, and Michael did not need any photos taken,” he recollects. “So I said, ‘Well, it’s either pictures with David or it isn’t,’ so he agreed, and that was the first time I met.”

“I think the thing that surprised me about Michael Jackson was he was quite tall, and that threw me,” O’Regan shares. “He was coming across as this little boy. If you look at the piece, he’s as tall or taller than David.”

It wasn’t uncommon to see the celebs displaying as much as greet Bowie at any gig. Noting there have been “always people milling about,” O’Regan noticed well-known faces together with Andy Warhol, Duran Duran, and Gary Oldman.

“I’d wonder if they were fans or if they just wanted to meet him or get their picture taken with him,” he admits.

“Mick Jagger was an old friend, so I photographed them together more than once during those tours. And one picture of David and Mick, it’s in the book, but I took it at a club after a Wembley Stadium show, and it’s Mick and David sitting at the table. And when David passed away, Mick tweeted that picture as his tribute.”

Similarly, Madonna used a photograph taken by O’Regan to commemorate Bowie’s death in January 2016.

“She simply cropped herself and David out, however to the left, there was Sam Kinison, the comic, and subsequent to him was Billy Idol. I do know David was a hero to Madonna as a result of Sean Penn instructed David that Madonna primarily based her complete profession on David, and the change of look and issues like that, in order that should’ve been fairly a second for her,” O’Regan says.

The photographer discovered that, like himself, “loads of people, from all different walks of life” adored Bowie.

David Bowie by Denis O’Regan is obtainable wherever books are bought starting on Tuesday, August 5.

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