“It’s not a Bowie tribute, though it’s hard for people not to think of us as that, because look who we have”: How David Bowie's longest-serving guitarist became the hero in his own story

Earl Slick sits on the floor and plays his Telecaster through a Fender combo.

Over the past decade, Earl Slick has been approached to play on numerous David Bowie-related projects, and he’s turned down most of them.

He did take part in a Station to Station tour in 2016, during which he and Rolling Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler performed the singer’s epochal album to celebrate its 40th anniversary, but he agreed to it before Bowie’s death. And even then, he checked in with the man he called “boss.”