Gary Numan’s reality check – ‘I’m essentially a guy who wears make-up for a living’

Gary Numan’s reality check – ‘I’m essentially a guy who wears make-up for a living’

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold June 26, 2026 Duration: 39:08

Seven hundred fans have contributed to ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’, a lavishly published compendium of memories of discovering, hearing and watching him over the 50 years he’s been making music. As you might imagine, he’s immensely touched, not least because – in this honest and extremely modest conversation – he feels his roller-coaster career was down to “perseverance not God-given talent” and that if he hadn’t come along, that devotional space in his fans’ lives would have been filled by someone else. He talks to us here from his home in Los Angeles and touches on …

 

… the extent of what music can mean to people

 

… how careers pan out – “huge highs then you fall off a cliff for a while”

 

… ‘I made though perseverance more than God-given talent’

 

… meetings with upstarts and superstars

 

… why he doesn’t listen to new music

 

… ‘Don’t call me, the Gothfather!’

 

… the press he got in the early ‘80s “that made fans hide their Gary Numan albums”

 

… how hip-hop and Afrika Bambaataa absorbed his music

 

… ‘I’m not unique, I simply supply a service”

 

... and having your Gary Numan tattoo sketched for you … by Gary Numan!

 

Order copies of ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/richard-bowes_gary-numan-a-peoples-history_book

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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