David Bowie says no sir to knighthood
AP, Dec 24, 2003 12:21 pm PSTYou can have Sir Mick, and Sir Elton, and Sir Paul, but you'll won't hear Sir David — as in Bowie. The veteran singer was one of the people The Sunday Times revealed as declining honors from the queen.
Bowie said he'd never accept a knighthood and doesn't even know what it's for.
Sir Mick Jagger was delighted to become a knight earlier this month. But bandmate Keith Richards called the title a disgrace and paltry honor.
The Sunday Times this week published a list of 300 people — including Bowie, comedian John Cleese and actor Kenneth Branagh — who declined honors since 1945.
About 2 percent of the 3,000 people chosen each year decline, according to the government. Most do so quietly, but last month poet Benjamin Zephaniah publicly rejected an OBE — Officer of the Order of the British Empire — because the title reminded him of "thousands of years of brutality."
"Stick it, Mr. Blair and Mrs. Queen, stop going on about empire," he wrote in The Guardian newspaper.
After the list was published, Prime Minister Tony Blair 's government promised to make the system of awarding knighthoods and other honors more open.
Twice a year the government announces recipients of a host of titles, from knighthoods and damehoods to Companions of Honor, for exceptional achievement or service to the nation.
Though the honors are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II , most recipients are chosen by committees of civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public.
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