TONY VISCONTI
The master producer on Bowie, Buddha and brutal karate blows. “MAYBE NOW I FEEL LIKE AN ARTIST.”
In his tailored black suit, box-fresh shirt, Apple iWatch and chunky black specs, the silver-haired sophisticate in the bar of this posh west London hotel could be some trendy TED-talk guru. Only the too-loud music that bursts sporadically from his phone – turning blue-rinsed heads – suggests otherwise. Since MOJO last spoke to Tony Visconti – tragically, in the week of the death of his friend and collaborator David Bowie – he has kept busy: remixing the sound on T.Rex’s epochal Born To Boogie movie; helping shape the forthcoming David Bowie box set – including the virtual recreation of 1974’s unreleased The Gouster album [see page 56]; and judging Sky Arts’ six-string TV talent trawl, Guitar Star, which concluded with the winner taking the stage at the recent Latitude Festival. The last is today’s excuse for a chinwag but, as ever, the Brooklyn boy’s mind wanders far, across the vista of music he’s helped create with Bowie, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed and even – whisper it – on his own…
What were you looking for in your Guitar Star prospects? Virtuosity. And passion. Those two things. I like guitarists who play flawlessly, but these days you can see kids on YouTube who can shred, but they don’t have the passion. Someone like Mick Ronson exemplifies what I’m talking about. He could shred. But he came up with the sweetest, most beautiful guitar parts.
You’re a trained musician, and you made records yourself in the ’60s. When did you say to yourself, “I’m a record producer”? Not immediately. My first year at it I was very clumsy. I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was working in the shadow of Denny Cordell. Denny threw me in the deep end. But the first day I think I was justified in calling myself a record producer was with The Man Who Sold The World. My Space Oddity attempts were still not really up to par. Although when we re-recorded Memory Of A Free Festival, that was a turning point. I felt like a record producer, and we felt like a band and then we went in and did TMWSTW.
You’ve been touring that album all around the world, with Holy Holy. Of all the records you made with Bowie, why that one?
It was actually [Bowie drummer] Woody [Woodmansey]’s idea. He contacted me about two years ago and asked me if I wanted to play it live and I said, “Why would you want to do that?” And he said, “Because we never did.” Making that album, it felt like we shone through the whole thing. We felt
like heroes. Then we were sacked at the end of it. You couldn’t imagine a more deflating experience.
That group, “The Hype” and TMWSTW seem a lot more significant now.
It was the precursor to Ziggy. The birth of it. I could’ve been a Spider! But to be a Spider… Woody once sat next to [Bowie pianist] Mike Garson on a plane and Garson revealed what he was making and it was 10 times what Woody and Mick and Trevor were making. So maybe it was good that I wasn’t a Spider – it would have been further animosity. Besides, the Spiders were perfect without me.
Bowie got you back to mix Diamond Dogs. What was that phone conversation like?
David had made overtures about trying to resume our friendship about six months earlier, when he phoned me up to say he had tickets to a Peter Cook and Dudley Moore show. Him and Angie came round to pick me and [then-wife] Mary [Hopkin] up. He walked in with his orange hair and our babysitter dropped the milk bottle.
Since Bowie’s death a broader light has been shone on his back catalogue. What do you think deserves more attention?
I think Black Tie White Noise is a great album. That should be re-examined. Also, sometimes he left the best tracks off his albums and they would appear later on as bonus tracks. There’s a song called Wood Jackson – that should have been on Heathen, I would have swopped it for A Better Future.
Your solo records – from Long Hair in 1966 to the Visconti’s Inventory album (1977) have a lot of humour. Are you proud of them?
Oh! You’ve thrown me. On the Inventory album, I like Speak To Me Of Love. It’s a very serious song – not jocular for once. And the one I sing with Mary: Middle Of Your Heart. But I didn’t think I was an artist, really, back then, and it took me a while to recover from Inventory. Some of it embarrassed me. But I’m writing now – I’m writing a new album. Maybe now I feel like an artist. It took a while!
Are you still a practising Buddhist?
I practise the philosophy. Buddhist meditation and t’ai chi have made me a better person, and I will continue to do these two things ’til I die.
Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.
About me? OK… I’ve studied martial arts since I was 17. I’ve done karate and Tae Kwon Do and the Bruce Lee Wing Chun style. I watch kung fu movies all the time! I really love UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] and Mixed Martial Arts. I’m bloodthirsty!