I seem to recall Clapton tried to blame booze for his racism, and to be fair he was pretyy hammered most of the time then, but in vino veritas and all that.
Morrissey is another who tended to be forgiven when it was pretty much in plain sight. It was always one excuse or another, particularly after the Finsbury Park butcher's apron stunt; that time it was that he was being ironic or something. "National Front Disco" and some of the lyrics in "Bengali in Platforms" were similarly excused but he's clearly gone full arm twitcher now. I loved The Smiths and Marr is a guitar god but I've got no time for Stephen Patrick anymore.
Cocaine and Nietzsche is a hell of a mix mind you, so Bowie has some excuse