Ricky Gervais Says That David Bowie Calling Him A ‘Chubby Little Loser’ Was One of the Greatest Moments of His Life
We can be heroes, just for one day — and Ricky Gervais will remember it for the rest of his life.
An inextricable part of the Extras and The Office creator’s legacy in the entertainment business is his brief foray into pop music, starting his career as one half of the short-lived new wave group Seona Dancing in the early 1980s. Like his most famous character David Brent, Gervais thought of himself as a musician first, everything else second. But the world of Brit Pop apparently told him that he has a face for comedy, not Glastonbury. Still, even when he became the U.K.’s most internationally celebrated TV comedy creator, Gervais continued to take inspiration from his earliest musical influences, including from his personal hero, David Bowie.
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Aladdin Sane appeared as himself in a 2006 episode of Extras, and he serenaded Gervais’ character Andy Millman with a bespoke, Hunky Dory-style diss track about a “little fat man who sold his soul.” During a recent appearance on the Stick to Football podcast, Gervais revealed that, while Bowie’s song on Extras may have been brutally insulting towards Gervais and his physique, in real life, Gervais was actually elated because his hero was singing his lyrics.
During the talk, Gervais called the Extras shooting day when Bowie sat down at a piano and sang a song about how Gervais is talentless, fat and deserving of death “one of the best days of my life.” Gervais said of his relationship with Bowie and his work, “He was a hero of mine. He’s properly my hero, I’d say.”
As Gervais explained, when Bowie agreed to do the sitcom, Gervais sent him the lyrics to the song, including lines like, “He’s so depressed at being hated, fatso takes his own life,” and “He’s banal and facile, he’s a fat waste of space.” Using Gervais’ self-slams in verse, Bowie wrote the music for the Extras all-time best original song – with some entirely unwarranted direction from the “fatso” himself.
“I remember I sent him the lyrics, and I called him up and said, ‘Did you get the lyrics?’ And he went, ‘Yeah, yeah,’” Gervais recalled. “And I said, ‘Give me something sort of retro, like “Life On Mars.’” And he went, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll knock off a quick fucking “Life On Mars” for you.’”
“And I realized that was so insulting! He’s doing my little sitcom, and (I’m telling him), ‘Do your opus,’” Gervais admitted.
Thankfully, Bowie didn’t take the slight too personally, and he brought his best to Extras. Said Gervais, “He came, and it was just really funny. He’s really charming. He’s really smart. And he was really funny.”
He’d better be — he’s the best selling show.
