British bassist Herbie Flowers, who performed with David Bowie, Elton John, and Paul McCartney, died on Saturday aged 86.
His family confirmed his death on Facebook, with tributes pouring in almost immediately, praising his “incredible musicianship”.
“While we knew and loved him as Uncle Herbie, his musical contributions have likely touched your lives as well,” wrote Kevin J Conklin, who is married to Flowers’s niece Lorraine Bassett.
“He played bass on many of the songs from the golden age of rock.
“Not many of us get our own entry in Wikipedia as Herbie did. Herbie’s musical contributions continued as he worked to involve children in music later in life. Herbie played a huge role in Lorraine’s life as a substitute father. Herbie walked her down the aisle at our wedding. She loved him dearly. I was blessed to have known him. We’ll miss you Uncle Herbie! Rock on,” he wrote.
No cause of death was announced.
Bowie’s estate paid tribute and said: “Aside from his incredible musicianship over many decades, he was a beautiful soul and a very funny man. He will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Lead singer of the Charlatans, Tim Burgess, posted on X: “Farewell Herbie Flowers, he made the greats sound greater.”
Mat Osman, Suede’s bassist, also posted on X: “Ah, damn. RIP Herbie Flowers. So many great basslines – imagine having played on ‘Space Oddity,’ ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ and ‘Rock On’.”
Flowers, a veteran musician who was a founding member of the group Blue Mink and later joined T. Rex, started out playing the tuba and double bass in the Royal Air Force during the 1950s. After his military service, he picked up work in different jazz bands, even performing as a bandsman on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner.
He also started working as a session musician for producers such as Shel Talmy, Mickie Most, Gus Dudgeon, and Tony Visconti.
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In 1969, Flowers played the bass for Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, the same year Blue Mink’s song “Melting Pot” reached No 3 in the UK singles chart.
Flowers also played the bass for Bryan Ferry’s The Bride Stripped Bare and Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards to Broad Street, and had featured in over 500 hit albums by the end of the ‘70s, according to the BBC.
One of Flowers’s best known works is the legendary bassline in Lou Reed’s 1972 hit “Walk on the Wild Side”, which he revealed later in an interview with the BBC he did because he would be paid more for playing two instruments.
“People have often suggested that I should have got writer’s credits, but I just helped put an arrangement together,” Flowers, who was born Brian Keith Flowers, said in an interview. “Lou had the chords written out on a piece of paper and my job was to come up with the bass line.”
According to reports, he was paid the sum of £17 for the iconic bassline.
“I’ve no problem with that at all! You do the job and get your arse away,” he said in another interview on his pay. “Space Oddity (David Bowie, 1969) was £9 for a three-hour session. By Rock On (David Essex, 1973) it had gone up to £12 for three hours!”
Flowers also joined Bowie on the North American leg of the tour for his 1974 album Diamond Dogs, where he got into an altercation with Bowie’s management on the pay.
According to Variety, Flowers put his foot down and renegotiated the pay for the musicians, since he noticed that their onstage equipment had been set up for recording.
“I didn’t think anything of it, but Herbie picked up on it right away,” Earl Slick, the band’s guitarist, said in a 2014 interview.
“I had gotten a letter pushed under my hotel door offering me $300 basically to give my rights over. But not long after that, Herbie is on the phone with everybody saying, ‘This is bulls***, we’re not gonna do this.’ Basically, with Herbie being the spokesperson, we said we ain’t going onstage until we get an agreement for X amount of money, period. They agreed to it, [although] I know David pitched a serious fit on Herbie.”
In the late ‘70s, Flowers founded the band Sky, with whom he performed till 1995. He also featured on records like Elton John’s A Single Man, Cat Stevens’s Foreigner, and Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.