Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

spirituality with him. Garson was, at the time, a
devout Scientologist. After the shows, when stuck in
a less cosmopolitan city, Garson and Bowie, in full
Ziggy makeup, would invade the cocktail lounge of
whatever Ramada Inn they were lodging in and
shock the other guests with impromptu concerts of
Sinatra.
“He would sing ‘My Funny Valentine’ and I would
back him up on the piano just for fun in a bar,”
Garson says. “And he sounded like his version of
Sinatra. Mouths would drop. I wish I had a video; it
would be on YouTube now.”
Attendance picked up significantly as U.S. tour
number one hit the West Coast. They had dates in
Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
and in San Francisco at Winterland, where future
disco sensation Sylvester (who would record the
indelible dance singles “You Make Me Feel (Mighty
Real)” and “Do Ya Wanna Funk” before becoming
one of pop’s early AIDS casualties in 1988)
provided support. Defries clashed with notoriously
tough promoter Bill Graham after insisting that a wall
be constructed from the load-in area to the dressing
room so that David and his entourage could enter
the venue in private. The trek was also yielding major
creative dividends, with a whole album nearly
complete by the time they reached the Pacific. The
notion of seeing America, the whole country and not
just the major cities, comes up in those songs and
brings Bowie back to his boyhood and the Beat
literature that his half brother Terry encouraged him