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David Bowie swapped booze for biscuits to continue late-night studio sessions

05 June 2024 , 18:48
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Earl Slick has recalled the process of recording David Bowie
Earl Slick has recalled the process of recording David Bowie's final studio album (Image: WireImage)

David Bowie ditched his drug addiction but got hooked on coffee, biscuits and pastries instead, his former guitarist has revealed.

In a new book, Earl Slick reveals they munched biscotti and cakes, washed back with espressos in order to stay up all night in the studio working on songs. The pair indulged while working on The Next Day, Bowie’s 25th studio album released in March 2013.

Earl, who first worked with Bowie in 1974, said: “During those sessions for The Next Day, we were older, obviously, and there was no dope. None. By 2012 we had long-time sobriety. It wasn’t even a part of our lives any more. But what we were doing then was hammering espresso.”

Slick, 71, said the habit formed in the early 2000s when they were recording and rehearsing in New York, near Little Italy. He said: “At a great bakery that’s been there forever called Bella Ferrara, a little, old-school place, I’d pick up biscotti, which are insanely good, and bring them to the rehearsals.

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“David would smash a whole box of them. He’d kill them. Along with his espresso, of course. When we got to The Next Day, on my first day I stopped at the bakery and picked up biscotti. David picked up pastries from Dean & DeLuca, and we had an espresso machine in the studio, and we just hammered the sh** out of all of it.

Lavish hotel once a hit with David Bowie and Boy George now on worst-rated listsLavish hotel once a hit with David Bowie and Boy George now on worst-rated lists

“We had a very big control room, and we made ourselves at home and were like pigs in sh**. In the old days, we would have done the same thing, only with different substances. We’d sit in the control room and blow our brains out and not start working till hours later. Sometimes days later.”

Slick, born Frank Madeloni in Brooklyn in 1951, also played with John Lennon. He made the revelations in his new book Guitar.

Mark Jefferies

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