Front end of ship that is for rock star (5)
I believe the answer is:
bowie
'for rock star' is the definition.
(David Bowie)
'front end of ship that is' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'front' could be 'bow' (the bow is the front of a ship) and 'bow' is located in the answer.
'that is' could be 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is') and 'ie' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bowie that I've seen before include "American frontiersman, killed at the Alamo, 1836" , "Rock-based chameleon" , "Art rocker David" , "David --, rock singer/songwriter" , "Dagger-knife" .)