Janelle Monáe just made a wild claim, insisting that she had the privilege of seeing David Bowie in concert more than a decade before she was born.

While speaking with singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus for Rolling Stone’s “Musicians on Musicians” series, the Grammy winner spoke about how she was inspired by Bowie’s knack for transformation, an ability she said she witnessed firsthand.

“I traveled back to the 1970s and saw him do Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible,” Monáe, born in 1985, said, her face serious.

“Did you travel back?” asked the very bemused Boygenius rocker Dacus.

Janelle Monáe, here at the 2025 Met Gala in May, spoke about her time travel experience during a Rolling Stone interview with rocker Lucy Dacus.
Janelle Monáe, here at the 2025 Met Gala in May, spoke about her time travel experience during a Rolling Stone interview with rocker Lucy Dacus.

Savion Washington via Getty Images

Monáe seemed serious, telling Dacus, “Yeah. I was backstage and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And then I went back to the 2000s and I was like, ‘I can have the musical, do the music, create the lyrics,’ and create a community around transformation and being queer and, not even sexuality, but just how we see the world.”

Although the “Make Me Feel” singer’s time-travel story certainly sounds like something out of “Moonage Daydream,” she has long cited Bowie as one of her biggest creative influences and has covered many of his hits throughout her career.

In a 2018 interview, he said: “Bowie has been a huge inspiration to me regarding creating concept albums, new worlds and alter egos. When I heard this song for the first time, it took my musical tastes to another level; I wanted my own writing to be just as interesting and intelligent.”