Guitarist Earl Slick on the Sigma Kids, Working with Bowie, Lennon, and Staying Young

Sidemen in music are often an underappreciated, faceless lot. You either have to make some serious noise in your career or work with some major names to get any sort of recognition. Earl Slick has done both.

The guitarist is best known for performing alongside David Bowie beginning in the early-70s live and on landmark albums like Station to Station and Young Americans. He’s also played with everyone from John Lennon to Mick Jagger to Doro Pesch to David Coverdale.

As a Philadelphia native and music obsessive, Bowie’s Young Americans LP has long been a part of our not-so-humble brag. “You know he recorded that in Philly, right?” Intentionally ignoring the fact that a good chunk – including the collaborations with Lennon on “Fame” and a cover of The Beatles‘ “Across the Universe” – was done in New York at The Record Plant and Electric Lady. There were also the so-called “Sigma Kids,” a collective of fans who basically lived outside the Sigma Sound recording studio, whom Bowie took a shine to, even allowing them to hang out in the studio.

Suffice it to say, when I got the opportunity to sit down with Slick for a Vanyaland 617 Q&A, it was a no-brainer to jump at it. The occasion came ahead of his stop today at the Berklee College of Music, where he’d be interacting with students and then appearing as the featured performer during the concert Music and Meaning in the Works of David Bowie.

Check out the interview, and below is a performance of “Golden Years” from one of the Bowie gigs Slick took part in, Glastonbury 2000.