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Jan 27, 2016 Bono By Christopher Roberts Photography by Jimmy King

Both Bono and Trent Reznor have shared their memories of David Bowie in the new issue of Rolling Stone, which has a big tribute to Bowie in there.

“I’ve played at being a rock & roll star, but I’m really not one. David Bowie is my idea of a rock star,” begins Bono’s tribute. The U2 frontman goes on to write about how he first discovered Bowie on the British music show Top of the Pops in 1972 singing “Starman.” “We had one of the first color TVs on our street, and David Bowie was the reason to have a color TV.” Bono says that through Bowie he discovered Bertolt Brecht, William S. Burroughs, Bruce Springsteen, and Brian Eno.

Bono then describes some of his more personal interactions with Bowie (“I’d like to consider myself David’s friend, but I’m more of a fan”). Bowie visited U2 in the studio in Berlin when they were making Achtung Baby. Later Bowie took his daughter to see the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Bono and The Edge did the music and lyrics for it), but he didn’t care for it and let Bono know why. “He sent me the reasons he didn’t like it. And everything he said was really helpful, because it was in the early days of the show.” Read Bono’s full tribute here.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails also spoke to Rolling Stone, describing how Bowie helped him get sober (“it feels like the loss of a mentor”). Read his tribute here (and Rolling Stone also spoke to Mick Jagger about Bowie here).

As we previously reported, Bowie passed away on January 10 after an 18-month battle with cancer. His death came as something of a shock, as his cancer diagnosis was not made public and he had just released his final album, Blackstar (styled as ★) two days before his passing.