“Herbie Flowers was supposed to do the date, but he couldn't make it. So Bowie said to me, ‘You'll have to play bass’”: Trevor Bolder speaks out on his storied history with David Bowie

Musician David Bowie performs onstage with bass player Trevor Bolder (1950-2013) during his "Ziggy Stardust" era in 1973 in Los Angeles, California.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

With its unique balance of blues roots, pedal to-the-metal hard rock, and vocal pop sensibilities, Trevor Bolder's bass playing was a fascinating contrast of approaches. On Uriah Heep’s acclaimed 2008 release, Wake the Sleeper, Bolder can be found pumping piston-like eighth-notes in a verse, before shifting gears to a soaring counter-melody line in the chorus, via his trademark sliding octaves.

Then again, when your career begins with a visionary like David Bowie, imagination is not a problem. “A lot of the basslines for Bowie had to come off the top of my head,” Bolder told Bass Player back in 2008. “It was an on-the-spot situation. We had some rehearsal time for Ziggy Stardust, but for much of Aladdin Sane we’d get two runthroughs and then do the take.”

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Chris Jisi was Contributing Editor, Senior Contributing Editor, and Editor In Chief on Bass Player 1989-2018. He is the author of Brave New Bass, a compilation of interviews with bass players like Marcus Miller, Flea, Will Lee, Tony Levin, Jeff Berlin, Les Claypool and more, and The Fretless Bass, with insight from over 25 masters including Tony Levin, Marcus Miller, Gary Willis, Richard Bona, Jimmy Haslip, and Percy Jones.