Chris Stein recently spoke about Blondie’s 1977 tour as Iggy Pop and David Bowie’s opening act with Q1043 New York. The guitarist recalled how Pop and Bowie flirted with his then-girlfriend Debbie Harry during the trek and commented:
“I think they felt obligated to hit on Debbie. I mean, Iggy had his girlfriend with him, but it was still professional. It was not personal.”
Bowie Flashed The Blondie Frontwoman
David Bowie reportedly asked Debbie Harry if he could ‘f*ck her,’ and the Blondie vocalist jokingly replied with ‘I don’t know, can you?’ She rebuffed Iggy Pop in a similar way as well.
In addition to that, Bowie once flashed Harry backstage after she gave him drugs. Harry said of the incident in her memoir, ‘Face It,’ as follows:
“It was very funny. I didn’t touch it. But I did think, well – very nice. I don’t know, it’s too bad you can’t ask him. I guess I was sort of flattered, you know? He’s one of the great men that I admire in the music world, clearly a genius.”
Harry And Stein Learned A Lot From The 1977 Tour
Blondie was just starting out with their newly released debut album at that time. But the band was welcomed by Bowie and Pop, according to Harry and Stein.
The vocalist shared with Entertainment Weekly in 2016:
“They were really just concerned with putting on a great show and not about competing with the opening band. This was a new idea for us, but it’s something I tried to carry through all these years when putting on shows — give the band as much tech support as possible. We’ve always done that.”
The guitarist agreed that ‘being nice to everybody around was something I picked up on from Bowie.’