Mike Garson on David Bowie: "Let’s face it, who do you know that writes their own requiem?"

It’s taken five years, but I’m finally able to say “thank you” to Mike Garson for organising the online Just For One Day! celebration of what would have been David Bowie’s 74th  birthday in January 2021.

Featuring just shy of forty reinterpreted Bowie classics, it was the closest I got to a proper gig during lockdown and found all of those ensconced at Stately Clark Mansions donning Ziggy-esque makeup for the occasion.

Yes, there are photos but you’re never going to see them!

“Like everyone who loves him, it was a very hard year for me when David passed,” says Mike, the Brooklyn-born, Los Angeles-domiciled pianist who was Bowie’s ivory tickler of choice for a sizable chunk of his career. “People were saying, ‘Can you do something?’ but I had no momentum or desire – I was just in grief. Subsequently, though, I put together a band of Bowie alumni to celebrate his memory, which going into Covid had played over a hundred gigs with Sting, Duran Duran and Lorde just a few of the artists who got up on stage with us. I realised that I’m a decent MC from the piano, telling stories and bringing it all together, so the online tribute grew out of that.”

As fabulous as Joe Elliott, Adam Lambert, Anna Calvi, Peter Frampton, Boy George, Yungblud, Rick Wakeman et al were, the two Just For One Day! standouts were Perry Farrell who positively made love to ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ and Gary Oldman’s equally remarkable rendition of ‘I Can’t Read’.

“I’m sat here with videos of all of those performances which were shot in different cities and countries and then somehow knitted together,” Garson resumes. “Perry was unbelievable. A few weeks ago I played on his new album and gave his son a piano lesson. We’re old buddies.

“Gary, aside from being one of my favourite actors of all time, has an interesting take on David’s music. First of all, they were best friends and spoke every Sunday. He was also on some island in the Caribbean with David when ‘I Can’t Read’ got written. David’s words having seven thousand interpretations and forty-three layers, I said, ‘What is that all about?’ Gary’s recollection is that they asked this guy for directions – ‘Do you know where Bladdy-Blah Street is?’ – and he went, ‘I don’t know how to read!’ I imagine it’s the bizarreness of that reply which appealed to David.

“I know thousands of musicians and actors but only a handful of them are the real deal, floating around in a lot of mediocrity,” he continues. “David and Gary both fall into that category, as do Bono, Dylan, Jimmy Stewart and Meryl Streep.”

While the Spiders From Mars all got their marching orders in July 1973 when Bowie killed Ziggy off in the Hammersmith Odeon, Garson survived the purge and in August ’74 travelled to Philadelphia where plastic soul history was about to be made.

“When I was hired it was for just eight weeks and I didn’t know I would last that long!” Mike says of those fabled Young Americans sessions. “In between the first American Ziggy Stardust tour we did in ’72 and going to Philly, David fired five different bands, of which I was the sole survivor. His two favourite singers were Scott Walker and Luther Vandross who essentially got his start on Young Americans and is one of the many reasons that record is so special.”

Was Garson in the studio when John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen came a calling?

“Lennon no but Bruce Springsteen and I had dinner that night,” he recalls. “He watched us record two of his songs in Philadelphia. I don’t think him and David connected properly at the time or that we did the best versions of those songs – ‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City’ and something else – but I’m glad I was there to experience it!”

Last month found Garson commemorating his former boss’ birthday and the tenth anniversary of his passing with a three-night run of L.A. shows.

“I had Billy Corgan sit in on ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘All The Young Dudes’,” he enthuses. “Luke Spiller from The Struts, Judith Hill who worked with Prince and Michael Jackson, Andra Day who did the very famous song ‘Rise Up’ and starred in a Billie Holiday movie, Chad Smith and Jimmy Chamberlin were there as well. Beck was supposed to join us but he had some surgery and couldn’t make it. The night was amazing.”

As it will be on Friday February 27 when as part of Dublin Bowie Festival 2026 Mike, Gerry Leonard, Mark Plati and Earl Slick will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Golden Years in Whelan’s.

A fabulous raconteur as well – he was right to give himself that MC job! – the previous night finds him, Gerry, Earl and Mark taking part in a Word On A Wing: Life On The Road With Bowie panel discussion in the Royal College of Surgeons.

“We all love coming over. The venues are great and the fans really knowledgeable about David and his music. Two of my favourite  gigs with him were in Dublin – the 1999 one in a tiny club (the former Hot Press HQ Hall Of Fame) where Placebo were the support and the 2003 A Reality Tour show in The Point, which came out as a DVD. At opposite ends of the spectrum but both brilliant.”

Mike Garson at the 3Arena in 2025

Asked why he thinks his relationship with Bowie endured, Garson says, “David saw that I wasn’t just a rock pianist – I was really serious about the art – which musically opened a lot of doors. When you co-create with someone you’re going to get more bang for your buck because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

“I played probably four hundred shows with David and was on more than twenty of his albums. You know why? It’s because I never played a bad song with David who had the music flowing through him continuously. I’d worked with eight hundred singers before I met him –Mel Tormé, Nancy Wilson and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas among them – and no one came close to David.”

Time for the rapid-fire round. Has there ever been a better rock ‘n’ roll pose than David performing fellatio on Mick Ronson’s guitar during the Ziggy days of yore?

“I was three feet away when they first did that, thought ‘This is iconic’ and, no, it never has been – or never will be – surpassed, right?”

Right! Did David just do something in the studio and expect others to follow or would he sit down and go, “Look Mike, my thinking here is…”

“From my viewpoint, David would be the best casting director of anyone I ever met,” Garson proffers. “What do I mean by that? Well, every musician he ever had was the perfect one at the perfect time. He had an instinct that was uncanny, so when you were in the studio he had a vision for the album, no question about it. He had a vision for the drums, the bass, the guitar… but he never micro-managed that vision. If needed he would give me a big overview but most of the time ‘trust’ was his key word. I’ll never forget him coming to L.A. with the tapes for me to record all my piano parts for Buddha Of Suburbia. In three hours I did the whole record, improvised without music. During that time he said nothing, just smiled. Which is a lot of trust!”

Bowie once again went for a completely new set of musicians on Blackstar. What was Mike’s verdict when, like everybody else, he heard it on the day of release?

“David had wanted me to live in New York for the last ten years of his life,” he reveals. “I should have gone there but having moved my family to Los Angeles, I didn’t want to move them back or spend months and months away from home. When Blackstar came out and two days later he died, I couldn’t listen to it for a year. I’ve since done ‘Blackstar’ and ‘Lazarus’ with Sting and a hundred other singers. Let’s face it, who do you know that writes their own requiem? There are very few artists who can bring such universality to their work. His music isn’t just a love song, which is what you hear these days from all the young artists. They’ve talent, sure, but there’s nothing past them losing their boyfriend or girlfriend. David was telling stories about life and Blackstar truly was one of his greatest records.”

• The Dublin Bowie Festival 2026 takes place from February 24-March 1. dublinbowiefestival.ie