It is already clear that the connection between David Bowie and Bryan Slade is something that Haynes has never denied. In the November 1998 issue of American Cinematographer, Chris Pizzelo states that "although Haynes stresses his film is not a note-by-note retelling of Bowie's early Seventies golden years, he admits that it is loosely inspired by the curious friendship that was struck between Britain's Bowie, the consummate stylistic chameleon, and American wild-man Iggy Pop, the rocker's rocker."

From the opening of the film, Haynes identifies the film with Bowie. The moment Haynes plunges into the Citizen Kane structure and shows the shooting-stunt, Slade and Bowie are linked. These opening shots are lifted directly from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars--ironically sharing the same executive producers as VG, the Weinstein brothers. From the shaky hand-held camera work, to the mise-en-scene, to the slaughter of the alter ego. Truly, Slade actually staged a fake assassination to put Maxwell Demon behind him. In Stardust, Bowie did not fake his death, but made the devastating announcement that it was the last show he would ever do, killing Ziggy.