Musical alter egos: from Sgt. Pepper to Slim Shady to Sasha Fierce

David Bowie, a.k.a. Ziggy Stardust

In the wake of “Space Oddity” and a few other successful early singles, David Bowie decided to mix it up, transforming his mainstream late-‘60s pop star self into the glammy early-‘70s entity Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous alien rock star who preached peace and hope in the face of impending Armageddon, and favored red hair, crazy clothes, promiscuous sex and piles of cocaine. (And this was supposedly somehow different from the real Bowie.)

Stardust would stick around for a while, with Bowie touring and making press appearances as the alter ego for a couple of years before taking a break from the personality to reemerge as his mid-‘70s funky soul alter ego, the Thin White Duke. (An alter ego who, of course, also had a heavy cocaine habit.)