This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, editor Andy Greene gets the skinny on David Bowie's first LP in years, "The Next Day."
Greene sat down with Bowie's longtime producer (since "Space Oddity" in 1969) Tony Visconti about the pair's secret sessions, how medieval English history inspired some of the songs and why it's unlikely that Bowie will tour – though a single show remains possible.
As the producer noted, his other longtime collaborator, Morrissey, has the opposite plan. . . but he'll get to that. You can read the full Q&A here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/david-bowies-the-next-day-album-a-track-by-track-preview-20130115
Here are a few gems for the session: "I think it's great! It gives him a nice space to sign his autograph in the middle of it." –Visconti on the interesting album cover. "And he made that very clear to the label that he wasn't going to tour or do any kind of ridiculously long album promotion. It was his idea to just drop it at midnight on his birthday and just let things avalanche." –Visconti on whether Bowie plans to tour. "It's possible, if he feels like it. I don't know. I spoke to him two days ago and he said, "I'm really adamant I'm not gonna do a tour." And he said, "If I might, I might do one show."" –Visconti on the possibility of just one show. "He's singing in his handsomest voice, a very deep, very sonorous voice. And I can't give too much away about it because honestly, I don't know exactly what it's about, if it's about being in a real prison or being imprisoned in your mind." –Visconti discussing 'Heat,' the closing song of the album.
As for Morrissey (in Utah soon), here is an excerpt:
Do you think that you and Morrissey will ever work together again?Hopefully we will. I'm going to see him Friday night in Brooklyn. We email a lot. We talk a lot. He's very reluctant to have a deal with anybody. 'Cause nowadays, the problem is, when a label signs you – right now, he has no label – so if I sign a new label deal, he has to sign a 360 deal. They want a piece of everything. If you write a book, if you write a song, if you're in a movie, they want part of your fee for all these things. So that's the deal that the big labels are offering now and that's because sales are so low and they have to make up their money some way. He's totally against that. He's old-school. I actually I don't blame him. He could pull a Radiohead and post it online for a fee.I know. He's also old school about paying for it himself. Traditionally, the label's gotta pay for him. I understand that, and there's an old saying in show business that you never invest your own money in a show. It kinda follows onto recording to some extent, but that attitude has changed. He could also sign to an indie label that wouldn't make him sign a 360. . . But beyond that, he has enough fans that he'd make a killing charging $10 for an album online?Yeah, he'll make his money back, yeah. He's playing his new songs onstage, they're being recorded on cell phones every night of the week and they're wonderful songs.