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Gigs & Festivals
Chance of David Bowie tour 50/50, says guitarist
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 22 February 2013
David Bowie guitarist Gerry Leonard has said that he thinks the chances of David Bowie touring in support of his new album, ‘The Next Day’, are currently “50/50”. Which isn’t really very useful, but never mind. Bowie hasn’t toured since 2004, and hasn’t played live since 2007.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Slick said: “I would say that it’s 50/50. A couple of times, when we played back one of the more kick-ass tunes from the new record, he’d be like, ‘This would be great live!’ Of course, everyone was like, ‘What? Did he just say that?’ But other times he’d just roll his eyes if someone brought up playing live. If he gets the bug in him to do it, it’ll happen. His voice is sounding great and he’s looking great, too. He could totally do it. You never know with David, though. I feel he might want to make another record before he plays shows. He’s being really prolific right now”.
Speaking about working on the new album, Leonard explained that he was first contacted about it in late 2010. Shortly afterward he found himself in the studio. He explained: “It was myself, [producer] Tony Visconti, [drummer] Sterling Campbell and David. We went into this tiny, tiny little rehearsal room downstairs in the East Village … It was really exciting, but it was totally under wraps. We just went there, put our heads down and worked on the new music. I was really thankful he was writing again, and he was in great form. He was really excited as we brought all these songs to life”.
They then had another studio session in May 2011 and he and Bowie worked on further demos in September the same year. He then did nothing until March 2012. Asked if he had been worried the project would end up being shelved, Leonard said: “Absolutely. All the time. When I went back in 2012 they played me some partially mixed stuff. I’m always the one who fears the worst, but at that point I realised it was actually going to happen. Before that I was thinking, ‘Maybe he’s going to scrap it, or maybe he’s going down to Zimbabwe and make a record with people down there'”.
Read the full interview here.
