Classic Rock
Producer recalls how David Bowie evolved as a person
Born in New York City in 1944, the producer Tony Visconti first became famous for his work with T. Rex and Marc Bolan and then had a lot of success working with David Bowie. In an interview with Mojo Magazine, the producer recalled how Bowie evolved as person over the decades with all the success he had, that gave him the opportunity to meet a lot of important people from all over the world.
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Visconti producer most part of the albums released by Bowie. Some of the most important are: “The Man Who Sold the World” (1970), “Young Americans” (1975), “Heroes” (1977), “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (1980).
Producer recalls how David Bowie evolved as a person
“When I met him, David was an eager young guy, very enthusiastic, he’d hardly met an American, so he was all over me,” Visconti recalls. “Once we started talking, we found out that we liked the same things. Before we had any success, for about two or three years we were just friends. We furthered our friendship by living under the same roof. We’d always have visitors over, Haddon Hall was practically an open house.
“I remember once we had some guy with an amazing quiff there and David was staring at him intensely all through this visit. And as soon as he left, David ran to the bathroom and combed his hair into that quiff. He was always open to any kind of influence. His antennae were always up.”
He continued:
“In later years, wealth and fame introduced him to a whole circle of people who were out of my realm: very famous actors, gazillionaires and all that,” says Visconti. “He moved in the art world. He could speak eloquently on any subject and fit in anywhere. If [he was with] a bunch of Londoners he would go back to speaking like he came from Bromley.
“There was a lot of gravity about him in his final years, he was a deep thinker. But when he recorded Blackstar, when he knew that his time could be limited, it didn’t stop his sense of humour in any way. He was still very open and friendly. He told everyone, “I can’t come to the studio every day for medical reasons.” But he was still happy as anything to be in the studio,” Tony Visconti said.
