“I’ve always been a painter…”

We interview rock legend Woody Woodmansey about his rediscovered purpose

What a treat! We spent a few hours over a sunny summer lunchtime interviewing Woody Woodmansey about how he rediscovered his love for art and his new found ‘second career’ as an artist.

Perhaps best known for being the drummer at the heart of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, we discovered there is a lot more to the man than rock music once you go beneath the surface. We wanted to get down to discussing his new found love of art but we just had to begin talking about music, Bowie and the forthcoming release of D.A. Pennebaker’s remastered and reedited film of the band performing at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, the last gig Bowie and the band ever played together. As you might imagine, Woody has been much in demand for interviews, as July is the 50th anniversary of this famous event and the new film is scheduled for a global release in July.

He is also halfway through recording a new album with Joe Elliot and Phil Collen of Def Leppard fame.

But now onto the art... and what a story unfolds.

As it turns out, when Woody was a young lad in Yorkshire, he used to paint a lot and write poetry. He had a couple of good art teachers and would also spend hours teaching himself about art. He painted in the evenings and was much impressed that his Auntie, who visited now and again, would regularly ask if she could have one of his paintings. This happened every couple of months or so. He was working in oils and felt very acknowledged that someone loved his art. He thought he had his first collector. Fifteen years later he discovered she had been taking them to Hull and selling them but never told him!

Art was his passion and he thought this would be his career. In his very early teens he won an art competition, the prize being a scholarship to a prestigious London art college. His parents, however, being ‘solid’ northerners, decided he needed a proper job so that didn’t come to pass.

Strange how these things turn out, because then music came along. He had been teaching himself the drums and had started to play in a few local bands. Then one day he received a phone call from David Bowie who needed a drummer... and the rest is history!

Sadly Woody lost his lovely wife June before the beginning of the covid pandemic. They had been