---
title: "On David Bowie and Car Crashes"
description: "Did a cocaine-fueled accident really inspire one of The Thin White Duke’s greatest tracks?"
date: "2016-01-11"
modified: "2016-01-11"
authors:
  - name: "Mike Guy"
    job_title: "Editor-at-Large"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/mike-guy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/1608/on-david-bowie-and-car-crashes"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
  - "People"
tags:
  - "David Bowie"
---

# On David Bowie and Car Crashes

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/davidbowiecars_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

David Bowie, who [died this morning](<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/arts/music/david-bowie-dies-at-69.html>) at age 69 after a long battle with cancer, was a pop genius. And as a five-decade, polymorphic superstar, the man spent his share of time in fine limousines with beautiful women and, we presume, oodles of cocaine. Though he referenced the [Ford Mustang, a Cadillac and Chrysler](<https://genius.com/David-bowie-young-americans-lyrics>), Bowie wasn’t a car guy. He was, however, a futurist who appreciated the place of automobiles in the lives of modern humanity. Some of his more notable exchanges with the public took place on [Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/1612/david-bowie-a-chance-encounter-on-a-train>), from Penn Station to Rhinecliff, NY, where Bowie owned a farm.

Then, on *Low*, his eleventh (and perhaps finest) album, the Thin White Duke recorded a spooky atmospheric number called, intriguingly, “Always Crashing the Same Car.”

![davidbowiecars\_art\_1.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/davidbowiecars_art_1.jpg>)
**Brad Elterman/FilmMagic**

The song isn’t about crashing cars, really. It’s about repeating the same mistake over and over again—the very definition of insanity. Bowie sings about a woman named Jasmine looking on while he speeds around a hotel garage at 94 miles an hour.

*Jasmine, I saw you peeping*

As I pushed my foot down to the floor

I was going 'round and 'round the hotel garage.

![davidbowiecars\_art\_2.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/davidbowiecars_art_2.jpg>)
**Dave Benett/Getty Images**

According to modern folklore, the lyrics are a reference to an actual incident in Bowie’s life, at the height of his cocaine addiction. While driving a Mercedes, he spotted a peddler who’d ripped him off—so he rammed the dealer’s car repeatedly, then fled to an underground hotel garage and drove in circles for hours. The classic hit-your-drug-dealer-and-run maneuver.

https://www.instagram.com/p/p

Like the best protean qualities of great David Bowie, it’s hard to tell if this oft-repeated tale is true. But we appreciate it nonetheless. Because rock ‘n’ roll is about mythos, and Bowie’s was second to none. He transcended so many things, fashion and music and surrealism and performance art. Maybe he wrote a fantastic song recalling his cocaine-fueled road rage in Mercedes. Or, maybe, he just conjured it out of thin air and made it *feel* real. Today, when I woke up in a world without David Bowie, I’m not sure it really matters.

https://youtube.com/embed/ST6Ln0SSc2s

## Author
A former editor at *Details* and *Rolling Stone* and the digital director at *Maxim*, Mike Guy is a longtime contributor to *Road & Track*, *Playboy* and *Men's Journal*. His writing on motorsports is collected in the *Best American Sportswriting* anthology.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/mrmikeguy>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/mrmikeguy>)