In the ’70s, it is known to everyone that David Bowie He consumed many and most varied narcotic substances.
This is what guitarist Earl Skick, who worked for many years with the White Duke, tells it in a new excerpt from his book ‘Guitar’ (via Ultimate Classic Rock): “We would sit in the control room, wrack our brains, and not start working until hours later. sometimes days later“he admits.
Slick began working with Bowie on ‘David Live‘ (1974) and the years kept them together, long enough to see each other give up drugs. For decades later when David recorded ‘The Next Day‘ (2013), things had changed.
“We were older, obviously, and there were no drugs, no“writes Slick. “In 2012, we had been sober for a long time. It wasn’t even a part of our lives anymore. But what we did then was drink espresso“.
And of course, the espresso had to come accompanied by another vice… a very sweet one.
“In a traditional bakery called Bella Ferrara, a small old-school establishment, I bought biscuits [de almendra tostada]which are great, and I took them to rehearsals“adds Slick, 71, whose real name is Frank Madeloni.
“David would drink a whole box. He would put them in along with his espresso, of course.“, writes. “When we got to ‘The Next Day’ sessions, on my first day I stopped at the bakery and got biscotti. “David bought cakes from Dean + DeLuca, and we had an espresso machine in the studio, and we just drank it all.”
The coffee and sugar had their effect… and a great record came out!
‘The Next Day’ would become Bowie’s first album in a decade to reach No. 1 in the United Kingdom and No. 2 on the American Billboard 200.. This project was secretly recorded between May 2011 and October 2012.”We had a very big control room, we felt at home and we were like pigs in shit“says Slick.”In the old days, we would have done the same thing, just with different substances.”
Bowie would end up working with other musicians on ‘blackstar‘ (2016), which he released just a few days before dying from cancer at the age of 69.
