Ricky Gardiner, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie’s guitarist have died. On Monday (May 16), Iggy Pop and producer Tony Visconti announced the news on social media, with the former tweet, “Dearest Ricky, gorgeous, lovely man, shirtless in your coveralls, the kindest person who ever played guitar.”
Thank you for the memories and melodies, and may you rest in peace.” The reason for his death was not revealed, however, Gardiner’s old friend Visconti stated that the guitarist had Parkinson’s disease. Ricky Gardiner was 73 years old when he died.
Gardiner is most recognized for his tight relationship with Iggy Pop on “The Passenger.” In a 2005 interview with The Independent, he described how he came up with the song’s iconic tune while in Berlin.
“It was undoubtedly a case of the chord sequence ‘slipping through’ as I was ‘lost in the bliss’ of a gorgeous spring morning,” he explained. “In the distance, I heard myself playing.
The power contained in a round drew my attention, and I saved the sequence for future use.” Gardiner appeared on David Bowie’s Low and Tonight, as well as Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life (where he co-wrote “Success” and “Neighborhood Threat”).
Gardiner grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was born in 1948. He began learning music as a kid and had an interest in informal bands as a teenager. In 1969, he co-founded the prog-rock band Beggars Opera, recording a number of albums until retiring after 1975’s Beggars Can’t Be Choosers.
Gardiner met Iggy Pop while working on Low with David Bowie, having been hired by producer Tony Visconti after working on his solo album Visconti’s Inventory.
Bowie, freshly sober and wary of self-promotion, instead joined Iggy Pop for a mid-1977 tour in support of his solo album The Idiot. Bowie assembled the backing band, which included himself on keyboards and Gardiner on guitar.
Lust for Life was released later that year, but Gardiner declined to accompany Iggy Pop on a more lengthy tour in order to focus on fatherhood.
Despite stepping away from the spotlight, Gardiner continued to create music on his own, focusing on electronic and meditational music.
Gardiner stated in 2006 that he had been suffering from electrosensitivity for over a decade, a condition that made it difficult for him to be around the production equipment required for creating and recording his music.
