Blondie’s Debbie Harry defends David Bowie flashing his penis at her

Blondie‘s Debbie Harry has defended an incident in which David Bowie showed her his penis.

The frontwoman originally shared the story in her 2019 memoir FACE IT.

In an extract published by The Sunday Times at the time Harry recalled the moment, writing: “One time David and Iggy [Pop] were looking for some blow. Their connection in New York had suddenly died and they were out.

“A friend had given me a gram, but I had barely touched it. I didn’t care for coke too much – it made me jittery and wired and it affected my throat. So I went upstairs with my vast quantity of cocaine and they just sucked it right up in one swoop.

“After they did the blow, David pulled out his cock – as if I were the official cock checker or something. Since I was in an all-male band, maybe they figured I really was the cock-check lady.”

In a separate interview with NME at the time she also said of the incident: “Well, I was surprised and flattered actually and sort of ‘Oh!’. I mean, who wouldn’t? This is like the perfect rock’n’roll story really. And if it’s David Bowie, what could be better? I thought it was a very gentlemanly gesture in a way. It wasn’t like he was jumping all over me. He was just like: ‘This is my penis’. Very nice!”

Now in a new interview with The Times, Harry has defended Bowie and said that she was a “consenting adult” in that moment.

When asked whether some women may have felt uncomfortable by Bowie’s forwardness, Harry responded: “I think you should rethink that. Most women would really die to be in that room … You have to consider the context – I was a consenting adult, shall we say. I believe that that is really the borderline.”

Meanwhile, Blondie recently teamed up with Nile Rodgers at Coachella 2023 for two songs: their 1980 hit ‘Rapture’, and Harry’s 1981 solo track ‘Backfired’.