2024 in Review: Interviews with Bowie Collaborators
The absolute highlight of the year in the blog for me was the opportunity to interview several individuals who worked directly with Bowie. To a person, each of these artists were friendly and had fascinating, compelling stories. But more than that— I don’t just listen to Bowie every day, I listen to those who play with Bowie every day. I have been for years. The opportunity to ask questions about the songs that are so meaningful to me, their creative processes, their memories of working with Bowie and more than that all impressed upon me that the relationship between artist and audience is more interactive than I had assumed.
It probably isn’t a coincidence that most of Bowie’s collaborators I interviewed this year have written books about their experiences. Actually, it was a coincidence in one case—I read Stardust, a Bowie biography co-written by Tony Zanetta, years ago. I still refer to it from time to time for purposes of writing this blog. However, I connected with Tony through a mutual friend, not because I had read his book. In the cases of Earl Slick, Ava Cherry, and Kevin Armstrong, reading their books served the twin purposes of preparing for their interviews and, well, I would have read them anyway. “Having” to read them to prep is akin to finding out I’d need to prep for a marathon by eating ice cream sundaes.
The first interview I conducted with a musician who played with Bowie was a written interview with Ben Monder. Ben is known more in the jazz world than as a rock guitarist, but he was the lead guitarist on Blackstar, Bowie’s final—and in more than one sense of the word—ultimate album. Only later did it occur to me that asking someone to write answers to questions is a bigger commitment than simply recording a conversation, so I am especially grateful to Ben for that. Almost impulsively, I featured some of his songs, both with and without Bowie, on the days leading up to publishing the Monder interview. I revived this practice leading up to the Earl Slick interview and have maintained it ever since. Mark Plati even commented on my posts about his works.
These pre-interview song posts have generated some great responses on the blog and via social media. Ava Cherry told me about her version of “Sweet Thing,” which I hadn’t known existed. It turns out other readers of my blog didn’t know about it either, but were really happy to learn about it. Ava’s “Sweet Thing” has even come up in subsequent interviews. Similarly, I’ve received feedback about Kevin Armstrong’s song “Love Is Essential,” which was the precursor to Bowie’s “Outside.” Kevin asked if I heard the connection—I did because I knew to listen for it, but I wouldn’t have otherwise. Others seemed to enjoy this revelation. The point is that both I and some of this blog’s readership learned from these interviews—and the preparation for them—things that we didn’t know.
It occurs to me that these interviews might have some value as historical documents. I’ve come to learn that somewhere on the planet, a Bowie-related book is published almost every month—sometimes more than one a month. While it’s true that some of the stories in the interviews have been heard before, I’ll give myself some credit for coming up with the occasional insightful question. And I certainly hadn’t heard all the stories before. Ava Cherry and Earl Slick both discussed different details about the making of “Fame.” They were there, man! They are on the song! Ava, at one point, was talking about the “fame, fame, fame” part, and she started doing it in the interview. I don’t know—there’s something about that I found mind-blowing.
Actually, it’s all mind-blowing. Ava Cherry? I interviewed Ava Cherry? She has my number and knows my name? How can that be? And Earl Slick? I’ve often said that Bowie’s is the only human voice I’ve heard (nearly) every day for the past 35 years. It is also true that I’ve heard Earl Slick’s guitar on most of those days. I mean, here’s a guy whose playing is literally part of the soundtrack of my life, and I got to talk to him about playing with Bowie and John Lennon—and where to get good biscotti in New York.
The more people I talk to about Bowie, the more I hear about Mark Plati. Mark, who comes off as a pretty understated guy, was a key collaborator with Bowie during most of the period I was most engaged as a fan in real time—experiencing the release of albums, concerts, new videos, and then anticipating the next one. By coincidence, the person I scheduled to interview after Mark was Nick Smart, for the purpose of discussing his book, David Bowie: The Collector, which has an entire chapter focused on Mark. Then I got to interview him. Actually, I also got to see him play with KillerStar in New York, where I will see him again in a Bowie tribute concert featuring other Bowie alumni.
The most viewed of these interviews has been Tony Zanetta’s. This is in part due to other websites reposting it. The stories Tony tells are the stuff of modern mythology. Tony’s experiences with Bowie stretch back to before Ziggy. Though not a musician himself, Tony played a key role in shaping that mythology during a crucial period in Bowie’s then-nascent career. I asked Tony what he thinks now, when he walks down the street in Manhattan and cannot avoid running into the image of Bowie, as he knew him back then (listen to the interview to hear his answer).
All of these guests told great stories, but Kevin Armstrong was probably the very best storyteller. His book, Absolute Beginner, is at times funny and at others poignant. He’s made a career out of playing the guitar, but he’s also skilled with the language.
Does that make Kevin’s my favorite of these interviews? No—I was thrilled with all of them. I’m hoping to schedule more in 2025, but even if that doesn’t happen, my experience in 2024 interviewing Bowie collaborators has been the most rewarding fruit of this entire project. I am eternally grateful. And if you missed any of them, you’re in luck—click on the names below to link right to the interviews. You’ll be glad you did!
