‘Bowie’s teeth were bleeding’: Mott the Hoople on making All the Young Dudes with David

‘We went for a pizza after it came out, with Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit. He was suffering from malnutrition. Starman came on and he said, “Your song will be on soon”’

Ian Hunter, lead vocals, piano

We were losing money and Island Records were losing patience with us. They booked us to play the Gaskessel in Berne, Switzerland, which is basically a gas tank. We were so fed up we decided to split up, then had a great time on the trip home because all the tension was gone and we were done.

Our bass player Pete Overend Watts called David Bowie to ask for a job playing bass, because David was putting together his band. Then Pete rang me to say: “Bowie doesn’t want us to split up. He’s got a song for us.” David came to see us in Guildford dressed up to the nines. We all got in a limo, which was very impressive. David and Angie Bowie were on either side of me. Angie whispered: “It took him four hours to get ready.”

I poured a beer over a kid in the audience and he was still there at the end asking for an autograph

David offered us Suffragette City first, but I said no. Then I remember going into a room in Regent Street where David sat on the floor and played us All the Young Dudes. Chills went down my spine. I knew it was great and I knew I could sing it.

David’s manager, Tony Defries, managed to get us off Island and signed us to CBS/Columbia. David produced the song in a couple of days at Olympic Studios. I think I did three takes of the vocal. The opening lines are about a kid who wants to live ’til he’s 25 and end it, but I never thought too much about what the song meant. “Dude” was an Americanism. We had to change the line, “Wendy’s stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks” to “… stealing clothes from unlocked cars” so it wouldn’t breach advertising regulations, but it seems to be the “Marks and Sparks” version that’s on the radio today.

The end rap is something I’d done at a gig earlier in New York. We used to get the audience to yell obscenities at us for a laugh. So I’d shouted, “Hey you with the glasses – I’ve wanted to do this for years,” and poured a bottle of beer over this poor kid’s head. All good fun. Then we had a party, came out at 4am and that kid was standing there asking for an autograph. It was the 70s!

Verden Allen, Hammond organ, backing vocals

We were a Hereford band called Silence, but just before we were due to go to London to see potential new manager Guy Stevens there was a fight in Hereford. Our singer Stan Tippins went to break it up and someone smacked him in the mouth and broke his jaw. So when we visited Guy, he suggested getting another singer in to replace him and changing the name. Ian came along to audition and he was the perfect frontman for Mott the Hoople and we were the perfect band for Ian. So I remember thinking: “How can we split up when we haven’t had what we wanted – a hit record?”

Bowie had liked our album Brain Capers, came to see us, then sent a telegram saying: “I’ve written your hit single.” He’d already booked the studio. Island didn’t know anything about it. It was funny that we ended up on CBS because they’d turned Bowie down, but his manager asked them: “Are you going to miss out on Mott the Hoople too?” Bowie’s name, together with our live following, meant there was a buzz about us.

When we recorded All the Young Dudes, Bowie wanted me to play organ in sync with the guitar. I thought that would be quite difficult, so I suggested holding down chords so Mick Ralphs could concentrate on the guitar part. It worked. Bowie wanted to give us a more commercial sound, but there were some problems with the mix so David took it into Trident Studios and mixed it again. When the bloke from CBS heard the remix he went: “Boys, you’ve got your hit single.”

It came out right in the middle of the glam-rock explosion. Pete got some 8-inch platform boots that were so high that the weight of his bass would topple him over into the crowd. One night I went out for a pizza with Bowie, who was in his blue Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit. He was suffering from malnutrition and his teeth were bleeding, because he’d not been eating. The jukebox was playing his hit, Starman, and he said: “Yours will be on there soon.” I told him that we just wished we’d written our first hit ourselves, which he understood, but All the Young Dudes paved the way for all the hits that did come from the band. I’m glad we managed to thank him for writing it for us. It was a fantastic thing to do.