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| The Dennis Davis Interview - Part 2 |
| BD: Naturally, I have to ask you how you enjoyed working with David Bowie for all those years. You were there for what he considered Bowie's prime Creative years. In my opinion, it was in no small part due to having a great drummer like you driving the music. DD: Bowie was one of the greatest musical experiences other than George (Benson) and Stevie in my entire life. I had no idea who he was before I took the gig because I came from a real fusion background, but he was wonderful. We still have a great relationship and we stay in touch. In fact, I sat in on a couple of tunes with him at the Roseland Ballroom gig a short while back. Playing with Bowie, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp was just the greatest. Bowie just recently had a baby just like I did. (Dennis has a 6 month old son) You know, a couple of 50 year old guys, it's wild! BD: What was your favorite Bowie album to work on? DD: Station to Station was my favorite since I just came right in and Bowie just cut me loose! Man, TVC15 was great and the title track too. That is a great Album. BD: I really like "Stay" a lot as well. DD: Oh yeah, and "Golden Years" too. BD: Bowie's "Lodger" is personally one of my favorite albums of all time, in any musical genre, and your drumming is the main reason why. You're work on tracks such as "DJ", "Look Back In Anger" and "Red Sails" is phenomenal. There are also unique tracks such as, the bizarre but brilliant "African Night Flight". What do you remember about the making of that album? DD: Gosh, I don't even remember "African Night Flight" I don't remember half of the music people ask me about, from that album! BD: You also worked with Adrian Belew on the Lodger album, right? DD: Man, I'll tell you this. Adrian is the greatest guitar player I have ever heard in my life. Just incredible. Me, Adrian, and Carlos (Alomar) had a great time out there together. BD: I have read interviews where Bowie had a great deal of fondness working with you and said you were always playing 110% and willing to try anything for the music. Did he have much of a say in how the drums should be on his album or did he give you the freedom to do what you wanted? DD: Bowie had so many great ideas for drums. In fact we were even going to construct our own drums in which you could pump air into the heads to make them expand. We were always trying to push the envelope, as far as making drums do different things. That was a large part to Tony Visconti as well, though. Tony always pushed hard for me to be a big part of the Bowie sound. In fact he was pushing for me to do some tracks on the upcoming Bowie album but the scheduling just wasn't working out right. They are here in NY making the album though so I'm going to try to drop by the studio to visit everybody. BD: In an ironic twist, I know that you happened to be an early tutor for Sterling Campbell who today sits firmly in the drum seat for David Bowie. Sterling says that he owes you a great deal of his success. Are there any other of your pupils making waves in the music industry right now? DD: Well, I also helped tutor Zach Alford, who played for Bowie. I also helped Ricky Lawson get one of his first gigs with Roy Ayers. He almost got thrown off the tour because Roy said that Ricky just wasn't really happening for him, but I talked Roy into giving him another shot and Ricky impressed him the second time around. BD: I know that Stevie Wonder is also a brilliant drummer in his own right. Did you guys ever participate in any friendly "drum dueling"? DD: Oh yeah, we did that all the time, but Stevie always got the upper hand on me because he would wait until the last two or three songs of the show to have his drums brought out, and by that time, I was drained from playing a three hour show! Stevie is great but he has slipped off over the last few years. BD: Are you still working much with Roy Ayers? DD: Oh yeah. In fact, we are flying into London next month to do a gig at Ronnie Scott's club, which is one of the oldest jazz clubs in London. There just aren't too many jazz clubs anywhere these days, but Roy always sells out Ronnie Scott's. We will also be going to Japan in April. BD: Dennis, I want to wrap up by asking you what you have in store for all your many fans in the year of 2002 and beyond? DD: Well, besides the European gig with Roy, I'm actually putting in an audition tomorrow night with a Limp Bizkit type band so we'll see how that goes! |
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| Dennis to Billy: Man, you're a drummer. We drummers have to stick together. Think about it. Who has more responsibility than us in the band? We have to worry about moving all of our different limbs at once, plus you have to worry about the music and worry about accomodating the rest of the band members, all the while, you're thinking about paying your rent! |