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THE TRUTH ABOUT: Earl slick | History Defined

“Mick was a star. It felt like replacing Keith Richards. I shat my pants”: Earl Slick on the fear he felt replacing David Bowie’s most iconic guitar player – and how Bowie calmed him down

Slick stepped into fill the spot in the mid 1970s, and thought he'd have a hard time winning over the fans and the media

Guitar World

David Bowie's band to reunite in Scotland for epic charity weekender

A star-studded Bowie celebration is heading to Loch Lomond as his original bandmates reunite for a blockbuster charity weekend in 2026.

BANG Premier

David Bowie’s Glastonbury band to recreate his golden years for charity weekend

The event in November will raise money for Save the Children.

Evening Standard

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

“It’s not a Bowie tribute, though it’s hard for people not to think of us as that, because look who we have”: How David Bowie's longest-serving guitarist became the hero in his own story

KillerStar might be populated by Bowie alumni, but with guitarist-vocalist Rob Fleming fronting, The Afterglow is a record with its own unique flavor, says Earl Slick

Guitar World

‘He seemed creatively unstoppable’: A new Bowie documentary reassesses one of his most maligned periods

IN FOCUS: A new Channel 4 documentary aims to provide a fresh perspective on the most critically and commercially tumultuous period of Bowie’s career, and reflect on how this led to his swansong, ‘Blackstar’. Roisin O’Connor speaks with director Jonathan Stiasny

The Independent UK

“I have only flashes of making it. I was personally going through a very bad time”: How a disillusioned and drug-addicted David Bowie reinvented his music with a groundbreaking song he could barely remember recording

A dazzling epic that ushered in Bowie’s new persona, the Thin White Duke

MusicRadar

Lennon was clutching the tape of the final mix from this session as he and Yoko left for the Dakota: The story of John Lennon’s final creative act

The lyrics to this left-field song would prove tragically prophetic

MusicRadar

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“I’ve rocked my roll. It’s a boring dead end. The last thing I want to be is some useless rock singer”: How a disillusioned and drug-addicted David Bowie reinvented his music with a groundbreaking song he could barely remember recording

A dazzling epic that ushered in Bowie’s new persona, the Thin White Duke

MusicRadar

“I hadn’t stopped from ’62 till ’73 – on demand continuously. And walking away was hard… because I don’t exist if I don’t have a record in the charts”: The cosmic inspiration and bitter irony in one of John Lennon’s last and most poignant songs

After the turbulence and emotional trauma of his past, the song had a sense of reflection and calm

MusicRadar

“I woke up in the morning and found John watching the sunrise and still listening to the song. It was as if we were both haunted by it”: How Yoko Ono’s disco-infused classic Walking On Thin Ice captivated John Lennon in their final, poignant collaboration

MusicRadar

“David said, ‘Slicky, you don’t have Les Pauls anymore.’ I said, ‘I haven’t been playing them.’ He said, ‘You need to get a couple’”: The one time David Bowie ordered Earl Slick to swap his Fenders for Gibsons

Slick went into the recording of 2003's Reality armed with a Telecaster, but his guitar of choice didn't cut it with Bowie

Guitar World

“Gibson had lost the recipe, not only for guitar building but for pickup making based on their original designs. What I was after was making a rock ’n’ roll pickup”: How Larry DiMarzio changed the sound of rock guitar – and redesigned the Strat bridge

The master pickup maker tells us how his problem-solving mindset took him from repair shop to working with the biggest names in the biz and changing the face of rock guitar

Guitar World

“Edgar Winter invited me to jam. From the stage, you could see the door, and in walks Buddy. And I said, ‘He showed up!’” Earl Slick on the time he jammed in front of Buddy Guy at the blues great’s club – and won his heart

Guy would later invite Slick to jam with him, and it was a night that blew the Bowie guitarist’s mind

Guitar World

“When I asked him what he thought of what I was doing, glam rock, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s great, but it’s just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on!’”: How David Bowie and John Lennon bonded to create a funky No.1 hit that slammed celebrity culture

“We spent hours and hours discussing fame," Bowie said

MusicRadar

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Louder

"I wasn’t fired, they just didn’t call me back. I didn’t even get a note from David saying it’s time to move on": The unlikely story of George Murray, the David Bowie bassist who became a school superintendent

Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie’s band, then unceremoniously dumped five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke

Guitar World

“David Bowie asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with John Lennon! I had a big ‘dilemma’ moment; I was hearing certain musical things in my head. I didn’t wanna go out and lose myself”: Carlos Alomar on making Fame, Heroes – and Bowie’s Berlin era

The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) Fame with John Lennon

Guitar World

“It’s amazing to see Adrian Belew and Steve Vai playing together. My temptation is to pick up the camera! I have to remind myself to stick to my job playing bass”: For the King Crimson-channeling Beat tour, Tony Levin is a virtuoso among virtuosos

The bass icon on how he’s being challenged by parts he wrote, changing classic tracks –and when his Funk Fingers will make their next appearance

Guitar World

“When David Bowie and John Lennon came in, the whole place stopped. I stopped recording – and then it was just us”: Carlos Alomar recalls playing guitar on Fame with two rock icons – and why he turned down dinner with a Beatle

The long-term Bowie collaborator says he had to put his guitar ideas first

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Guitar World

“I knew I’d have to address that situation with Earl Slick and his Marshall stacks”: Carlos Alomar on how David Bowie financed one of the first-ever rack-mounted amplifiers

What began as a friendly competition with Bowie lead guitarist Earl Slick eventually inspired Alomar to develop an innovative new amp setup

Salon

Earl Slick memoir recalls Bowie, Lennon

The legendary guitarist reveals life in many of rock’s fastest lanes, working with John Lennon, Bowie and more

Guitar World

“Once in a while, we would start playing a Beatles song, and John would go, ‘Cut that out!’” Session guitar legend Earl Slick on fast times with John Lennon and David Bowie – and saying no to Whitesnake

The venerable session ace has lived a life less ordinary and has the discography to show for it. Earl Slick tells us what it was like to share the stage and studio with music legends

Guitar World

“I thought, ‘Oh, God, this could go really bad…’ I’m telling him that I can’t remember playing with him on a No. 1 record”: Earl Slick says he was too high to remember meeting John Lennon during David Bowie’s Fame recording session

The guitarist and session man met The Beatle while recording David Bowie’s Young Americans and was invited to play on Double Fantasy

Guitar World

Van Halen, Metallica, SRV, Iron Maiden, Rush, Dio, Yngwie, Vai and the greatest guitar albums of 1984 – only in the new Guitar World

Featuring new interviews with Ace Frehley, Alex Lifeson, Adrian Smith, Adrian Belew, Earl Slick, Mike Ness, Steve Vai, Vicki Peterson, Vivian Campbell, Yngwie Malmsteen and more

Louder

David Bowie: curator, mentor, nurturer, counter-intuitive collaborator, hard rock lover, surfer of the zeitgeist, Tin Machine genius

The death of David Bowie in 2016 sent a seismic shock through the music world, but his chameleon career colours a legacy that endures far beyond his passing

Guitar World

John Lennon: “Willie Weeks was supposed to do it, but he was doing a George Harrison session”: In August 1980 John Lennon could have called just about any bass player on Earth. He went with Tony Levin

The King Crimson bassist recalls the making of Double Fantasy and why he laughed at The Beatle’s first ever words to him

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