Close X
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
ADVT 
National

Canadian Man Remembers Jamming With David Bowie As An 11-Year-Old Kid

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 12 Jan, 2016 11:34 AM
    TORONTO — When Seth Scholes walked backstage to meet David Bowie nearly 30 years ago, the 11-year-old saxophone player from Kingston, Ont., was hardly aware of how the encounter would help shape his life.
     
    It was a chance meeting with one of music's biggest icons, spurred on by a story about the pre-teen in the local newspaper.
     
    When he thinks about the Aug. 24, 1987 encounter, he remembers how Bowie was "really cool, in the sense that he wasn't intimidating at all."
     
    "He was just really sincere, easy to talk to and seemed genuinely interested in me," Scholes said in a phone interview on Monday.
     
    Scholes was first discovered when a local reporter spotted him playing saxophone on a sidewalk in Kingston, where street performers were a rarity.
     
    His youthful ambition was enough to merit a short news story; he said he was raising money to buy a ticket to one of Bowie's concerts.
     
    The piece was picked up by The Canadian Press newswire and distributed across the country.
     
    Somewhere along the line, Bowie's representatives caught word of Scholes's aspirations and offered his family passes to the singer's Toronto concert. And the boy would get to meet Bowie backstage.
     
    "He asked me all sorts of questions and his sax player came out and taught me a few lines of 'Young Americans.' I played the best I could for him. He was pretty forgiving," Scholes recalled.
     
    "He was asking what kind of music I liked listening to. I asked him what he was listening to and he told me the Sex Pistols and he told me I should check them out.
     
    "I thought: that's good, he's staying cutting edge a little bit for an 11-year-old."
     
    Scholes had another question for Bowie: whether he preferred Pepsi or Coke.
     
    "There was all this Pepsi stuff around and he just looks at me and is like: 'Well, Pepsi's available,'" he said.
     
    The meeting with Bowie lasted just over an hour, but the interest from Canadians stretched on for almost a year.
     
    "I became a celebrity in my hometown," said Scholes. "With interviews and people stopping me on the street, and just a lot of interest in what happened to me."
     
    TV shows like MuchMusic's "Mike and Mike's Cross Canada Adventures" highlighted him as the young kid who met the international megastar.
     
    And then it was all over.
     
    Decades later, Scholes says the encounter inspired his career. He works as a technical director at a theatre in Kingston.
     
    "It solidified my interest in entertainment and music for sure," he said, noting that while he still occasionally plays saxophone, he prefers the guitar.
     
    Scholes first heard about Bowie's death when a radio station called him while he was driving to work.
     
    "I'm not going to lie, I cried a little bit," he said.
     
    "That experience did project me on the path that I ended up taking — it definitely had a big impact.
     
    "It wasn't just meeting somebody famous."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Body Of John Gallagher, Who Was Killed Fighting Islamic State In Syria, Returns Home

    Body Of John Gallagher, Who Was Killed Fighting Islamic State In Syria, Returns Home
    Throngs of people lined bridges along Highway 401 in southwestern Ontario on Friday to pay their respects as a motorcade carrying the body of a man who died fighting ISIL made its way from Toronto to Blenheim, Ont.

    Body Of John Gallagher, Who Was Killed Fighting Islamic State In Syria, Returns Home

    Therapy Dog Helps Young Witness Testify In Prince George, B.C., Trial

    Therapy Dog Helps Young Witness Testify In Prince George, B.C., Trial
    Max, a nine-year-old Yellow Lab, provided support to a nine-year-old girl as she testified at the trial earlier this month, marking the therapy dog's first time in B.C. Supreme Court.

    Therapy Dog Helps Young Witness Testify In Prince George, B.C., Trial

    One Polar Bear Cub Dies, Other In ICU At Toronto Zoo

    One Polar Bear Cub Dies, Other In ICU At Toronto Zoo
    The zoo says one of its two adult female polar bears, Aurora, gave birth to the two cubs on Nov. 11.

    One Polar Bear Cub Dies, Other In ICU At Toronto Zoo

    B.C. Urged To Improve Shelter Funding After Death Of Homeless Man

    B.C. Urged To Improve Shelter Funding After Death Of Homeless Man
    The B.C. government's priorities for shelter funding are being questioned after the death of a homeless man on the Sunshine Coast.

    B.C. Urged To Improve Shelter Funding After Death Of Homeless Man

    Executive With Quebec Pension Fund Manager Suspended After Child Porn Charges

    Robert Cote is a vice-president of legal affairs at the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and has been suspended with pay.

    Executive With Quebec Pension Fund Manager Suspended After Child Porn Charges

    Supreme Court Says Alberta Not Required To Enact Laws In Both English And French

    Supreme Court Says Alberta Not Required To Enact Laws In Both English And French
      In a 6-3 split decision, the court ruled that the arguments in favour of bilingual legislation brought forward by two appellants were inconsistent with the historical documents they relied on.

    Supreme Court Says Alberta Not Required To Enact Laws In Both English And French