EXCLUSIVE Bowie met his match after a party with John & Yoko
A FORMER back-up singer and girlfriend of David Bowie has revealed how the rock star once got put in his place by his pal John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono.
Ava Cherry was just a 19-year-old aspiring model when she met Bowie in 1972 at a Stevie Wonder after-party.
The pair soon hit it off and ended up having a five-year relationship which saw Cherry working on the British rock stars soul album Young Americans.
Speaking to the Irish Sunday Mirror from her home in Chicago, Ava, who will be one of the many guests at this year’s Dublin Bowie Festival, recalled the funny incident involving Bowie, the Beatles singer and his wife Yoko Ono.
Cherry said that David, John and herself had spent the day in the studio recording Fame for the album before heading to Lennon and Ono’s apartment for dinner.
She said: “John was so wonderful. Yoko came in while we were recording and brought us a big tray of sushi and said ‘OK, have a great session’ and then left.
“John loved her so much, oh my God. And I understand why they say some of the Beatles didn’t like her because she was a woman’s woman, a feminist.
“After that we went back to their apartment and we had dinner and we were up all night partying and then at about six in the morning we were sitting in the kitchen and David said ‘Ava could you make us some breakfast, toast and coffee?’ and Yoko jumped up and said ‘No, no, no, it’s not fair for her to have to make breakfast. Why should she have to cook breakfast when she has been up late like the rest of us?’.
“David’s mouth was wide open and John was in the corner rolling around laughing so hard. She was a bad b **** . John respected her totally and he just let her do her thing. He embraced her a lot around us and kissed her, he loved her.”
Cherry, who also worked as a model and in the Playboy Mansion, said that at one stage Bowie suggested the couple should have a baby. She went on: “There was a point where he said to me one day, ‘What about if we had a little Ava, like a baby?’
“I said it was a good idea but I didn’t think I was ready for that.
“He wanted to let me know that he was open to that but he was still married to Angie.
“I never meant to hurt Angie or anything like that but when I met him (David) he didn’t tell me he was married. The day after I was with him I said ‘David why didn’t you say you were married? I wouldn’t have spent the night with you had I known that and he said ‘We have an open marriage, and it’s been going on for a while so don’t worry about it’.”
The 69-year-old, who rocked a striking platinum hair-do at the time, recalled how the couple first met and how they hit it off straight away.
Cherry said: “I had just moved to New York and dyed my hair platinum blonde and my manager at the time said ‘You have to listen to this record, it’s this new guy called David Bowie from England. He’s coming here next month to play Radio City and he’s going to be huge.’ “I was looking at the album and I’m saying to myself ‘Oh he’s really cute’. I took the album home and listened to it and I fell in love with him from the record alone.
“I’m friends with Stevie Wonder and he was performing the same week at Carnegie Hall and Stevie said to me ‘I want to do a party afterwards’ and I told him he could do it at this high-end club called Genesis where I worked.
“On the night of the party everybody was there, Aretha, Gladys, there were a lot of black entertainers there.
“Stevie was playing the piano and I was singing and my manager came over to me and said ‘Ava, you are not going to believe this but that guy David Bowie is here at this party’. He said ‘I’m going to go get him and introduce him to you.’”
Cherry said Bowie was extremely charming and she fell for him instantly.
She continued: “It was love at first sight, I mean that. He came over to me,
It was love at first sight when I met David, I turned to jelly AVA CHERRY IN CHICAGO THIS WEEK
he had a beautiful suit on and his hair was red and he kissed my hand and said ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you’ and I turned to jelly, I was like Bambi.
“He was such a gentleman and so sweet. He said to me ‘I love your hair’ and I said back ‘I love your hair’ and then I started singing out loud, and he heard me and asked ‘Are you a singer?’
“I said I wasn’t a professional singer yet but I sang. He said he was getting ready to go and tour in Japan and he said he loved my image and said he wanted me to be part of the project.
“He said ‘Would you be interested?’ and I said ‘Yeah’. So he said he was going to call me the next day and took my number.
“I went to audition for his band and manager and at the end he went ‘She’ll work out great’ and I got the job.”
She added: “He said he was going to send me some records and I had to learn them and that he would see me in Japan.
“I quit my good job and got rid of my great apartment and five days after I arrived in Chicago to say goodbye to my parents I got a telegram saying David had got ill and he couldn’t do the tour but they would reach out to me. I was devastated.”
But the two met some time later by chance in a bar and became a couple instantly. Cherry said it was as if the stars had all aligned for them to meet.
“I’m in this bar having a drink by myself and all of a sudden I hear this guy speaking French and at the end of the sentence he said David Bowie.
“I ran down to the end of the bar and asked him and he said he was across the street. I went over and saw David’s bodyguard and he said ‘Ava, what are you doing here?’ and I said ‘I came to see David’ and he said ‘The guvnor is not going to believe this’. He called him the guvnor.
“He took my hand and when I walked towards him (David) he looked up and said ‘Ava, how did you get here?’ and I said ‘I came to find you David’ and he said ‘You came all the way from America just to find me?’ and I said ‘Yeah, I wanted to see you again’.
“He turned around and said ‘Let’s go’ and we got up and got in a limousine and we drove to the Chateau de Ville and that’s where we spent about five days. It was so incredible. The most beautiful, romantic time. I was so in love.
“He looked after me and mentored me. When I first met David he didn’t do drugs, he smoked maybe a spliff and drank red wine, his personality was sweet and settled.”
Cherry, who will be performing with the I Heart Bowie band and also doing a Q&A at the Dublin Bowie Festival, said she can’t wait to visit Ireland and celebrate David’s life.
She concluded: “I can’t wait to rock for David. I think he would be smiling at us. David would want me to honour him.”
news@irishmirror.ie Dublin Bowie Festival runs from April 13 to April 24. For further information and tickets go to www. dublinbowiefestival. ie