“It was an amazing thing that happened in my career, meeting David and then starting to work for him. Initially, I was hired because they needed an outside of the box guitar player to do the Heathen and Low records live. It felt really good to be validated by someone like David; he is someone who is very aware of people’s spirit and he puts a lot of thought into who he hires.”
Today I’m joined by the legendary guitarist Gerry Leonard. With a career spanning almost forty years, Gerry has been the go to guitarist for numerous rock artists, including being a member of David Bowie’s band for almost ten years, and as a musical partner to Suzanne Vega. Gerry also has incredible solo work under the guise Spooky Ghost with two albums published. I was very excited to chat with Gerry about his career in music and I wasn’t disappointed as he is a great conversationalist, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.
Our conversation began with us discussing the standard of Irish acts in the 1990s, before moving on to how Gerry fell in love with music (04:25), the story of Hinterland (12:55), and his decision to move to New York (23:00). We then talked about his guitar style 26:20), his work with Suzanne Vega (30:49), and his collaboration with David Bowie (36:43). Towards the end of our chat, we spoke about his solo work under the title of Spooky Ghost (43:55), before me ending the conversation by asking Gerry what he is listening to at the moment and (49:00) and his up and coming projects (51:45).
- Gerry’s website
- Gerry on Wikipedia
- Hinterland on YouTube
- Gerry and David Bowie
- Gerry talks about his guitar equipment
- Arvo Pärt selection
- Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
- For more, hear my conversations with Midge Ure, Nick Duerden and Sandy Kaye
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The Comfortable Spot Podcast 
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