According to Chuck Palahniuk, the world might not have Fight Club if it weren't for David Bowie's music.
In an essay for Rolling Stone, Palahniuk shares how a Bowie song helped him sell the violent novel to Gerald Howard, a famous editor.
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The aspiring author was trying to get Howard's attention at a bar, but the editor was surrounded by other novelists. Palahniuk devised a strategy -- play Bowie's "Young Americans," a song he "could listen to forever on a desert island," on the jukebox on repeat until people left.
"Most people were ticked off," Palahniuk writes. "Soon everyone left, and I had Gerry to myself. Eventually I sold him Fight Club and 15 more books. To this day, he doesn't remember that song, playing over and over and the haters hating me as they abandoned the bar."
Palahniuk also wrote about living on a "steady diet" of Bowie in college, watching music videos for "China Girl" and "Let's Dance." He also told a story about watching Bowie from his home window as the singer did a sound check for a concert at Portland's Civic Stadium, a block away from Palahniuk's house.
"He'd sing most of 'Young Americans' and stop. Then begin from the beginning. Over and over," he writes. "All afternoon, my friends and I were in a music video, dancing on our perfect Hollywood backlot street, drinking beer and enjoying a concert none of us could afford to attend. The repetition of the song, the beer and the sunshine were hypnotic."
BONUS: 10 unforgettable David Bowie film appearances
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