American guitarist Earl Slick played with David Bowie from 1974 to 1983 and returned to the band from 2000 to 2004, when Bowie stopped touring. That year, during shows in Prague, Czech Republic and at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany, Bowie experienced chest pain. He was later diagnosed with an acutely blocked coronary artery and underwent emergency angioplasty in Hamburg. In an interview with Guitar Player, Slick recalled that frightening moment.
Earl Slick recalls David Bowie’s heart attack during show
“It was the best touring band I ever played in with David. The combination of people – it was absolutely drama free, and I’ve never seen him that relaxed and happy on a tour, ever. It was a really weird gig. At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was hotter than hell in the place, and I could see he was having a hard time hitting some notes. I thought he was just baked. We were all baked. I think we were doing ‘The Jean Genie,’ and he goes to me, ‘Keep vamping, just jam – while he’s having a heart attack.”
“Then he started grabbing his chest and the tour managers came over and dragged him off. A few minutes later, he comes back and joins us. He lasted about a measure or two and then he walked off. They said that he had a blocked nerve, whatever that is; and that diagnosis was wrong. I went over to talk to him, and he was feeling horrible. We did the whole show and then we got a phone call saying, ‘Sit tight for a couple of days. David needs to rest. We’re gonna take a few days off.’”
He continued:
“So we just hung out in Hamburg. Nobody’s saying anything to us. And then we get phone calls saying, ‘Guys, we’re done. You gotta go home.’ We didn’t get an explanation; we all knew he was probably getting some kind of surgery, but we weren’t getting any details about it. When we did ‘Heroes’ at the Festival, I swear to God it’s one of the best vocal performances he ever did of it. Two hours later, probably, he was in the hospital. I got a lot of free rein from David.”
“I could literally change up bits and bobs during a show; and he liked it, actually. If you look through the concert videos, you’ll see really weird arrangements of songs and stuff. You get bored if it’s the same song every night, so sometimes you change things up, and he liked that I did that. I had a lot of freedom to just ad lib everywhere.” David Bowie died of liver cancer on January 10, 2016 at the age of 69. From 2004 on he performed on special occasions as a guest mainly and released two studio albums “The Next Day” (2013) and “Blackstar” (2016). In 2021 the posthumous record “Toy” was released.