Janelle Monae Reveals They Once Time Traveled to Meet David Bowie in the 1970s

Mankind has been fascinated by the idea of time travel for as long as the concept of time has been understood. In Hindu mythology, there is a king who visits heaven where he meets the god Brahma. Upon returning to Earth, the king realizes more than 100 years have passed. There are similar stories like the one about Rip Van Winkle, who fell asleep for 20 years, thus missing the American Revolution. He woke up to a changed world.

The traditional idea of time travel as we know it today first appeared in H.G. Wells' 1895 book The Time Machine. In it, a scientist in Victorian England builds a contraption that enables him to travel hundreds of years into the future. To no one's surprise, things are quite dystopian. As far as we know, no one has ever actually traveled through time. That is, until musician Janelle Monae revealed in an interview that they have, and boy did they have a great ... time.

While chatting with Lucy Dacus for Rolling Stone's "Musician on Musician" series, Janelle told a story that clearly shocked the boygenius guitarist. While discussing Halloween costumes and how much joy Janelle finds in transformations, they mentioned seeing David Bowie. "You saw him," asked Lucy. "I did," replied Janelle. "I traveled back into the 1970s and I saw him do Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible."

Naturally this reveal was met with a look of shock from Lucy who once again repeated what she heard. "You traveled back," she said pausing carefully over each word. Janelle confirmed, saying they went backstage where they realized this was what they wanted to do. "I jetted back to the 2000s and I was like, I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics, and create community around transformation and being queer."

Janelle brought the conversation back to Halloween, noting that there is a synergy in the holiday. "I feel like people give themselves permission to be on my frequency. We're on the same frequency." It doesn't feel like the rest of us mere mortals can get on Janelle Monae's frequency, but it doesn't hurt to try.

At some point, the conversation turned to fear, love, and loss. Lucy described being in love as a kind of preemptive loss, and that the more you care, the more you can lose, which is terrifying. Janelle agreed, adding that one of their biggest fears is witnessing the deaths of those they love. They are more at peace with the idea of their own death.

Janelle shared that they are working through the painful feelings they have associated with the loss of loved ones. "It's just something that I don't think anybody gets used to," said Janelle. "You never really get over it. You learn how to cope."