Janelle Monáe has claimed she "travelled back" in time to meet a young David Bowie.

The Pynk singer insisted she met the singer backstage in the 1970s and was left inspired by his gender-bending performance to make her own queer-positive art.

"I think when I saw David Bowie, I travelled back into the 1970s and I saw him do Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it was incredible," Janelle, who was born in 1985, told fellow singer Lucy Dacus in a new video shot for Rolling Stone Magazine.

Incredulous, Lucy, 30, replied, "You... travelled back?"

"Yes," Janelle, 39, insisted. "I was backstage and I was like, 'This is what I want to do.' And so I jetted back to the 2000s and I was like, 'I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics,' and create a community around transformation and being queer and, not even in sexuality but just in how we see the world."

Fans were quick to express their confusion over Janelle's bold claim, with several querying Lucy's lack of follow-up questions.

"Are we not gonna talk about Janelle travelling back in time?" one commented on Rolling Stone's YouTube channel.

"lucy's face as janelle's comes out as a time traveler is priceless," added another.