The song Heroes was inspired by an incident when David Bowie was in Berlin and saw Tony Visconti (producer/engineer) kissing Antonia Maaß (backing vocalist) by the Berlin Wall. The Rolling Stone magazine described the song, "Bowie wails with crazed soul about two doomed lovers finding a moment of redemption together — just for one day." Doomed, because Visconti was married.
Bowie was a strange one at times, but he certainly had moments of genius. He gave up his wild days, kicked his drug addiction after a scare, and the thin white duke left his mark in the music world for sure.