A chance conversation over a Lamborghini led to the dissolution of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars, according to drummer Woody Woodmansey.
In an interview with the BBC for the Jarvis Cocker-narrated TV special David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust, Woodmansey says an offhand comment over a magazine advertisement for the sports car led to a discussion with Spiders keyboard player Mike Garson about wages, and uncovered a startling discrepancy between pay packets.
“…Mike said, ‘Well, why don’t you buy one?’ I said, ‘I wish,’” Woodmansey recalled. The two then discussed their earnings: “I went, ‘What do you think I get?’ He went, ‘Well, I know what I get,’ and he told me – and it was three times what I got.”
Garson added, “I was getting a salary that seemed fair, and I just assumed the other guys were getting more because they’d been there several years.”
Eventually guitarist Mick Ronson and bass player Trevor Bolder confronted Bowie and manager Tony DeFries, leading to a strained relationship for the remainder of the tour despite a newly negotiated deal.