David Bowie's Scientology Secret Exposed In Tell-All: 'It Genuinely Changed My Life'
Nov. 7 2016, Published 10:03 a.m. ET
David Bowie may have reportedly experimented with Christianity and Buddhism during his life, but the music legend had secret ties to Scientology, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
In his bandmate Woody Woodmansey's upcoming memoir, obtained exclusively by RadarOnline.com, the Spiders of Mars drummer reveals he joined Scientology in the spring of 1973 after struggling with drinking, partying, and a crippling "shyness."
"It has helped me find a life that I'm very happy with," Woodmansey, 65, writes in Spider From Mars: My Life With Bowie, out in January. "I'm not bothered what other people think about it."
The drummer claims he was introduced to the controversial religion by Bowie's pianist, Mike Garson, who recommended he take an introductory course in Los Angeles.
"After a week, it began to make sense to me, and I went from always thinking that life had dealt me a lousy hand, and that I would carry it as long as I lived, to the reverse," he explains in the book. "It was incredible."
"It genuinely changed my life and continues to do so to this day. I am definitely not shy any more!"
Though Woodmansey has remained a Scientologist for more than 40 years, Garson allegedly left the religion in 1982.
According to the book, Bowie unceremoniously dumped Woodmansey from the band the year after the Scientology encounter. The pair made up a few years later, and was on friendly terms until the icon's tragic cancer death at 69 in January.
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