One can imagine that if you were arrested in a hotel suite with David Bowie and Iggy Pop for drug possession, you would have a quite a story tell. And, undoubtably, Chi Wah Soo did. But for 40 years she kept it close to her heart – until now.
The story behind one of the most famous mugshots of all time has finally been revealed after 40 years of silence.
Chi Wah Soo – now a 61 year old hair salon owner living in Brighton – was 20 years old when she was arrested for possession of marijuana in David Bowie’s hotel room after a show in 1976. The incident has since become rocklore, but like many infamous rock ‘n’ roll tales, details have always been sketchy about what exactly happened.
Many people initially blamed Soo for blowing the whistle on Bowie. In reports following the incident she vehemently denied all such claims, “Everyone has the wrong idea of what happened,” she told journalists. “They can think what they wish, but I know I’m innocent.”
Despite constant heckling from reporters and shock jocks looking for a scoop, Soo kept her mouth shut after the initial turmoil subsided. For 40 years, she never told a soul what really happened. Then Matt Ehlers came along and the story came pouring out.
Ehlers is a filmmaker from Rochester, New York, and it was during the making of his documentary Bowie Goes To Jail that he hunted down Soo in his quest to find out more about what happened in that hotel suite in 1976.
It took Ehlers a year to gain enough trust from Soo for her to divulge the story – one can imagine it wouldn’t be an easy one to tell.
Chi Wah Soo was born in China. She moved to Rochester, New York with her parents when she was 11. An avid lover of pop music, she quickly learned English by listening to records. David Bowie was one of her favourite artists, and when she was 20 and at college, he finally came to town.
“I was not going to miss it,” Soo said.
At the show she stood near the front, and Bowie, perhaps allured by her long, dark hair, gravitated to her. He handed her a bracelet that had been thrown on stage. Later a man passed her a note. “Meet me at my party. David” was all it said.
At the party, she remembers seeing Bowie enter the room. He seemed to have a “halo around his head,” Soo said.
“Hello, love,” were the first words he said to her.
After the party they went back to Bowie’s hotel suite accompanied by Iggy Pop, a bodyguard and two other women – unbeknown to Bowie’s group, they were undercover police.
In the room adjacent to Davie Bowie’s suite, police listened in with crude surveillance gear – stethoscopes as it were – acting on a tip that he was in possession of cocaine. However, despite his infamous affinity for the drug at the time, Bowie’s entourage only had a small amount of marijuana on them.
The party was soon disrupted by a prank call to Bowie claiming son was in trouble and his wife couldn’t be found.
“I slowly watched a gentle meltdown of David Bowie,” Soo said.
Although Bowie quickly discovered the calls were false, the drama prompted him to ask the two women if they knew where he could get some coke. This was enough for the surveilling police to spur into action.
Soo heard a knock on the door and saw three faces peer into the room when Bowie answered. It slammed him in the face and knocked him backward. “That was the start of the nightmare,” said Soo.
Bowie, Soo, Iggy Pop and Bowie’s bodyguard were all arrested forpossession but charges were soon dropped. Reporters pawed over Soo but she shied away. She saw Bowie once more at their arraignment, where she gave him a traditional Chinese wedding blanket. She believes the very same blanket can be seen in in Bowie’s clip for China Girl – a song ostensibly written about her.
Soo never saw Bowie again.
Now, Chi Wah Soo runs a successful hair salon and after 40 years her story is finally out. “She’s a rock star,” says Ehlers. “The interview lasted more than two hours.”
“She’s a success story. A happy ending.”
Check out the Bowie Goes To Jail documentary website here.
[via USA Today]
