Earl Slick saw David Bowie through some of his biggest successes and most tragic moments, included the onstage heart attack that sidelined his touring career in 2004.
Still, nothing felt as seat of the pants as his first stage appearance alongside the glam icon for the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974, not long after Bowie parted ways with Mick Ronson, the charismatic and musically gifted guitarist from his band the Spiders From Mars.
The Spiders had been part of Bowie’s sonic identity for years, but as he looked to move away from the era and embrace a new character, he needed a new group. The Brooklyn-born Slick, then in his early 20s, got the nod after film score composer Michael Kamen recommended him. He also aced a blinder-than-blind audition.
But all the preparation didn’t relieve his jitters as the tour's first date, at the Montreal Forum on June 14, drew nearer.
“I wasn’t nervous about anything other than the fact I was replacing one hell of a guitar player, who I was a big fan of,” he tells NME. “Mick was a star, man. It felt like replacing Keith [Richards] or something.
“I shat my pants. I thought everyone was going to hate me, the crowd was going to try to kill me, and the press would murder me.
“One thing I’m really lousy at is that I cannot copy other people note for note, so I don’t really do a lot of sessions,” he develops. “I didn’t want him to want me to be Mick.”
Despite being fresh faced, he wasn’t afraid to address his concerns head-on.
“I said, ‘How do you want me to approach this?’ He said, ‘I hired you because I like what you do. Do what you do.’”
— Earl Slick
“I said, ‘How do you want me to approach this?’ He said, ‘I hired you because I like what you do. Do what you do,’” Slick recalls. “Obviously, there are key things that Mick did that I couldn’t do any better, so I did those, but the rest of it I just did like me.
“The next day, we got the reviews and the reaction from the fans,” he says. “I was like, ‘Phew! I did it!’”
Slick’s first tenure saw him involved for two records – Young Americans in 1975, and Station to Station the following year. Their creation processes couldn’t have been more different.
Slick says he wanted to bring a “street sensibility” to Young Americans, but stylistically, they were at odds with one another. Bowie wanted to explore R&B, which Slick took to mean music in the vein of Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and Steve Cropper. When he realized Bowie meant a more pop vein, he wasn't best pleased.
“I really didn’t enjoy making that record very much at all apart from a few of the tunes.”
— Earl Slick
“I really didn’t enjoy making that record very much at all apart from a few of the tunes,” he sighs.
But Station to Station was “a whole new ball game,” he returns. “It was every man for himself with us all coming up with ideas, and it was very spontaneous. Going into the studio, half the shit wasn’t even written, so it gave me the opportunity to just play. Whatever came out, came out. That’s why I loved it so much.”
Although Slick and Bowie parted ways following Station to Station, they teamed up again for the 1983 Serious Moonlight tour, the 2002–’04 Heathen/Reality period, and the 2013 album The Next Day
Slick is currently set to reunite with the band members from Bowie’s 2000 Glastonbury show to mark the 10th anniversary of the performer’s death. The group — which includes keyboardist Mike Garson, bass guitarist Gail Ann Dorsey, rhythm guitarist Mark Plati, and drummer Sterling Campbell — will play in Loch Lomond, in Scotland, this November, to raise funds for Save the Children.
