Guitar

A rock 'n' roll tell all from David Bowie's sideman Earl Slick

You might not have heard of Earl Slick, but you've heard him play guitar.

In 1974 I got a call from a British guy called David Bowie. I wasn't really that familiar with his work, but I thought, what the hell?

I'm sitting like a jerk for a couple minutes and then in walks this spooky-ass looking guy with bright red hair and no eyebrows. He was dressed the way an English rock star might think a Harlem pimp would dress. Whoa. David was definitely the strangest cat I'd ever seen, and I'd been around some off-the-wall characters. He had his guitar with him and I had a jacket with a bottle of brandy inside one pocket and my vial in the other. We drank, played for a while...and that's where it all started.

That fateful day launched Earl Slick's career as rock and roll's gun for hire. Most famous for being Bowie's sideman, Slick has played with everyone from John Lennon to Eric Clapton, and with bands from The Cure to the New York Dolls.

A fly on the wall for the last 50 years of rock and roll history, Earl Slick is the most famous guitarist you've never heard of. And he's got the stories to prove it.

'Mean ass blues for a skinny ass white guy' - Buddy Guy