Scott Walker Talks David Bowie, Early Career Stories in Rare Interview: Listen
Walker tells Jarvis Cocker he once did “the James Dean roll” out of a car that drove off a cliff
As promised, Scott Walker made a very rare appearance on “Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service”—the Pulp frontman’s BBC 6 Music show. In Walker’s first radio interview in four years, he told stories about the beginning of his career as a session musician, his work with the Walker Brothers, and his solo records. He talked about picking up singing techniques from Frank Sinatra, going to Miles Davis and John Coltrane shows, clarified some lyrics that are widely transcribed incorrectly on the internet, and so much more. Hear the full episode here, and find some previously shared clips from the episode here.
Near the end of the episode, Cocker asked about Walker’s relationship with David Bowie, who famously described Walker as his idol.
“We spoke several times on the phone about various things. He wanted at one stage to do an interview with me. This was 10 years ago, maybe, something like that. I didn’t do it and I can’t remember why I didn’t do it. Every time I spoke to him he was very nice to me. He always was on my side. He would recommend people to listen to my records. He was really generous when it came to me and always was interested in what I was doing. It’s funny, every time I spoke to him on the phone, he’d say, ‘Here I…