Biography
Earl Slick earned his foremost reputation through guitar duties alongside David Bowie amid the latter’s peak commercial phase in the mid-1970s, yet he subsequently contributed to numerous other ventures before rejoining Bowie at the start of the twenty-first century. At the age of twenty-two, Slick emerged without prior notice to fill the slot left by Mick Ronson once the Spiders from Mars had disbanded. Although Bowie handled the bulk of the guitar parts himself on the 1974 hit album Diamond Dogs, he recruited the then-unknown Slick to recreate those earlier parts during live performances; Slick not only reproduced them but also broadened their scope and infused his personal approach, yielding the widely overlooked yet landmark concert recording David Live, captured at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater. He stayed with Bowie for the two ensuing studio projects that documented the singer’s shift into the “Thin White Duke” character and an embrace of funk textures, namely the 1975 classic Young Americans and the more exploratory Station to Station from 1976, along with the chart successes “Fame” and “Golden Years.”
Slick parted ways with Bowie just as the singer prepared to move to Germany, then functioned as a dependable session musician on Leo Sayer’s Top Ten 1976 album Endless Flight, which generated the sentimental smashes “When I Need You” and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” as well as on Ian Hunter’s 1977 solo effort Overnight Angels and releases by the lesser-known hard-rock acts Bad Boy and Tonio K. During the same stretch Slick briefly pursued his own frontman path, issuing Razor Sharp and Earl Slick Band. A career pinnacle followed when he collaborated with John Lennon on the final collection of new material Lennon would complete, the 1980 number-one album Double Fantasy. After Lennon’s death that year, Slick recorded with Yoko Ono on her most commercially successful solo outing, the stark 1981 release Season of Glass; his playing also surfaced on the posthumous Lennon compilation Milk and Honey in 1984 and on the retrospective box sets Onobox (1992) and Anthology (1998).
In the early-to-mid-1980s Slick rejoined Bowie’s lineup for the sold-out Serious Moonlight world tour supporting 1983’s Let’s Dance and essentially stepped into Brian Setzer’s role within the Stray Cats framework by forming the trio Phantom, Rocker & Slick alongside ex-Cats Lee Rocker on bass and Slim Jim Phantom on drums. The short-lived group produced two modestly successful albums, 1985’s Phantom, Rocker & Slick and 1986’s Cover Girl, before dissolving. Slick continued appearing on other artists’ recordings through the late 1980s and early 1990s, though he stepped away from the industry for a time to address personal matters, reportedly overcoming a severe drug dependency. He resurfaced with renewed focus by establishing his own imprint, Slick Music Inc., which issued his solo album Lost and Found in 2000 and archival projects by artists including Fanny and Kasim Sulton. In 2000 he accepted an invitation to return to Bowie’s band full-time, touring extensively and performing on the 2002 studio album Heathen. David Bowie, the Cure’s Robert Smith, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, and additional guests appeared on Zig Zag, released by Sanctuary in fall 2003.
Slick parted ways with Bowie just as the singer prepared to move to Germany, then functioned as a dependable session musician on Leo Sayer’s Top Ten 1976 album Endless Flight, which generated the sentimental smashes “When I Need You” and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” as well as on Ian Hunter’s 1977 solo effort Overnight Angels and releases by the lesser-known hard-rock acts Bad Boy and Tonio K. During the same stretch Slick briefly pursued his own frontman path, issuing Razor Sharp and Earl Slick Band. A career pinnacle followed when he collaborated with John Lennon on the final collection of new material Lennon would complete, the 1980 number-one album Double Fantasy. After Lennon’s death that year, Slick recorded with Yoko Ono on her most commercially successful solo outing, the stark 1981 release Season of Glass; his playing also surfaced on the posthumous Lennon compilation Milk and Honey in 1984 and on the retrospective box sets Onobox (1992) and Anthology (1998).
In the early-to-mid-1980s Slick rejoined Bowie’s lineup for the sold-out Serious Moonlight world tour supporting 1983’s Let’s Dance and essentially stepped into Brian Setzer’s role within the Stray Cats framework by forming the trio Phantom, Rocker & Slick alongside ex-Cats Lee Rocker on bass and Slim Jim Phantom on drums. The short-lived group produced two modestly successful albums, 1985’s Phantom, Rocker & Slick and 1986’s Cover Girl, before dissolving. Slick continued appearing on other artists’ recordings through the late 1980s and early 1990s, though he stepped away from the industry for a time to address personal matters, reportedly overcoming a severe drug dependency. He resurfaced with renewed focus by establishing his own imprint, Slick Music Inc., which issued his solo album Lost and Found in 2000 and archival projects by artists including Fanny and Kasim Sulton. In 2000 he accepted an invitation to return to Bowie’s band full-time, touring extensively and performing on the 2002 studio album Heathen. David Bowie, the Cure’s Robert Smith, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, and additional guests appeared on Zig Zag, released by Sanctuary in fall 2003.
Albums
Singles
