Janelle Monáe Says She Time-Travelled to the 1970s to See David Bowie Live: “It Was Incredible”

Janelle Monáe recently stunned viewers during a sit-down with Lucy Dacus when she described an experience she framed as a brief journey to the 1970s to witness David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust-era performance. The anecdote came up while the two artists were trading stories about Halloween costumes and stage personas.

Monáe said the encounter left a lasting impression: seeing Bowie inspired her to embrace theatricality, music-theatre ideas and the creation of inclusive artistic communities. She explained that the experience crystallized her ambitions to blend narrative, performance and music into a single, transformative project.

“Seeing that performance showed me the shape of what I wanted to do — to build music, story and a community around transformation and queerness,” Monáe said.

Lucy Dacus, visibly surprised, asked for clarification when Monáe described the time‑tripping moment; the exchange quickly became a highlight of the conversation and provoked lively reactions from viewers online. Fans flooded social posts with playful disbelief, with many celebrating Monáe’s vivid storytelling and charismatic delivery.

The discussion was part of Rolling Stone’s “Musicians on Musicians” series. For context, Dacus most recently released Forever Is a Feeling, following the success of Boygenius’s Grammy-winning debut, The Record. Monáe’s last full-length album, The Age of Pleasure, arrived in 2023.

Beyond the Bowie anecdote, Monáe revealed she’s channeling her creative energy into film: she’s developing a screenplay she plans to write, star in and score. Describing the project’s scope, she acknowledged how much coordination and persistence it takes to realize such an ambitious vision, but affirmed she won’t relent until the idea is fully realized.

Watch the full conversation in the embedded video above to see Monáe and Dacus explore performance, identity and the collaborative impulses that shape their work.

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