Kaiser Chiefs claim they turned down David Bowie lyric
Kaiser Chiefs have confirmed that they once turned down lyrics provided by David Bowie because they “didn’t really go with the song.”
The Leeds band have previously spoken about the dismissed lyrics before. Back in 2011, former drummer Nick Hodgson claimed they made contact with Bowie while recording their last album via a mutual colleague, Tony Visconti.
Visconti was partly responsible for co-producing Kaiser Chiefs 2011 album The Future is Medieval and made his name many decades prior due to his close relationship with Bowie, intermittently working with the musician from 1968 until his final album, 2016’s Blackstar.
In the 2011 interview with News of the World, Hodgson said, “Tony texted David asking for his suggestions to finish off a verse [on ‘Man On Mars’], and he came up with a couple of lines. I’m such a big Bowie fan I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they just weren’t right, so I’ve missed out on a Hodgson/Bowie writing credit. Gutted!”
Later, in an interview with NME, Visconti denied the claims, saying, “I have never asked David Bowie to write lyrics for the Kaiser Chiefs. I was hired for the production job because of Nick’s obsession with Bowie and T. Rex, and I freely shared some of my production secrets with them, but that did not include getting Bowie to write lyrics for them. That is absurd.”
Now, in a recent interview on Virgin Radio UK, singer Ricky Wilson and guitarist Andrew White have again discussed the failed Bowie collaboration.
Wilson asked his bandmate, “Remember when we didn’t put in a lyric by David Bowie?” In response, To White replied, “I remember we texted him.”
The frontman elaborated: “Yeah, well Tony Visconti, the producer, we were missing a lyric, this was an album a long time ago. And we asked, ‘Can David Bowie think of one?’ And he sent one through, but it didn’t really go with the song.”
He then claimed Bowie offered the lyric, “Waters aren’t going to muddy themselves”, which was labelled “terrible” by White.
The news comes following the release of Kaiser Chiefs’ new album, Kaiser Chiefs Easy Eighth Album, on March 1st.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.