Nile Rodgers and David Bowie made beautiful music together – but as Rodgers admits in a new interview, their first meeting in 1982 was a messy encounter.
Speaking to Ruthie Rogers on the Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast, Rodgers discusses his life in music, his leadership of legendary disco group Chic and his work as producer with stars such as Bowie, Madonna and Michael Jackson.
Rodgers served as producer and rhythm guitarist on Bowie’s 1983 album Let’s Dance, which became the biggest seller of the singer’s whole career.
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“David was one of the most interesting people I have ever met in my life,” Rodgers says. “Because of his vision of art. He just respected every style and every discipline.”
However, Rodgers admits that he and Bowie might not have hit it off following an awkward first meeting when one of Rodgers’ rock star friends made a complete fool of himself.
He recalls: “The first night we met, I was going to an after hours club, and that was the thing in New York. We all got high and we’d stay up all night and everything. And I walked into this club, and I was with Billy Idol. Billy Idol was coming in, and I just happened to pull up at the same time.
“Now, it’s hard for people to think this way, but I was so popular because I was a local hero in New York. And they would let me park in front of all the clubs, so I just pull my cars up… So anyway, I pull up to this club, and it was their opening night of a brand new after-hours club. So I’m pulling up at like six o’clock in the morning, and I see Billy Idol walking in.
“People don’t know that Billy and I were like absolute best friends. We’d go out together almost every night, but this particular night I wasn’t with him. But our paths crossed at the exact same time, so we laughed and joked, hugged and whatever.”
He continues: “We walked into the club and we look in the back and we see David Bowie sitting all by himself. Nobody is talking to him. Nobody is doing anything. And he’s drinking a glass of orange juice at this bar way in the back, whereas everybody else is in the club partying and they’re all club kids and having wild hairdos and the whole bit.
“So we see David Bowie dressed in a suit, and we’re like, ‘What’s going on here?’ So as Billy and I approached David, we both had been drinking like fish, and Billy Idol went, ‘Bloody hell, that’s David fucking Bowie!’ And as he says ‘Bowie’, he barfs. He vomits all over the place. And then he does the coolest thing in the world. He take takes the sleeve of his shirt and goes, ‘Hello, mate.’ And Bowie shakes his hand.”
Rodgers explains: “At that time, David was living in the same building as Luther Vandross and Carlos Alomar and all the people who were [on Bowie’s 1975 album] Young Americans. Remember, this is 1982, so we hadn’t done Let’s Dance yet or any of that stuff.
“So we meet each other for the first time ever, and all we talk about is modern jazz. I grew up with bebop, so now he and I are trying to outdo each other. We were we were going at it like, ‘I know more than you!’”
