Zowie Bowie’s odd, loose connection to David Bowie

By John Katsilometes

Published Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 | 10:19 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 | 3:22 p.m.

The name once sparked confusion and prompted questions across Las Vegas: Who or what is Zowie Bowie?

Ten years on, after headlining at many Las Vegas venues, Chris Phillips has established that his is not a David Bowie tribute act nor is he any relation to Bowie’s family.

But the stunning news of Bowie’s death reminded of Zowie Bowie’s loose, odd connection to the rock icon. I had been in a text conversation with Phillips on Sunday night at the moment I heard the news of Bowie’s death of cancer at age 69. I sent a note informing Phillips that Bowie had died. The first text back: “Are you being serious?”

Moments later, Phillips noted Bowie’s timing of the release of his great last album, “Blackstar,” to his birthday (Friday) and his own death. Phillips bought the release Saturday and said, “This is a sad day for me.”

Phillips speaks as any Bowie fan. But the name he has held for 25 years, as an individual and for his act, has linked him to Bowie and his family. Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, the lone child of Bowie and his first wife, Angela, was nicknamed Zowie Bowie in his youth.

He switched to his given name of Duncan in his teens (Jones being Bowie’s given surname), but longtime Bowie fans recalled the rhyming name of the young Zowie Bowie. Phillips’ use of the name for his band has always led to questions about his connection to the family and just why he decided on that title.

What happened: When living and performing in his hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., Phillips performed as a drummer in an ’80s rock cover band. Twenty-five years ago, during a St. Patrick’s Day festival show in Tempe, that band’s singer fell ill, and Phillips — who had never sung in public — offered to fill in as frontman.

He used Zowie Bowie as his name just as a lark, believing that if he tanked, it would at least be under some random alias and not as Chris Phillips. When he took the stage in front of 3,000 people that night, Phillips knew the words to four songs: “Don’t Change” by INXS, “I Melt for You” by Modern English, “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors and Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”

“If we had to play more than those four songs, we were screwed,” Phillips recalls. “Lyrics still aren’t my strong suit, and I didn’t know the full lyrics to any other songs.”

Phillips sang his four-pack, and, experiencing what seemed to be divine intervention, local law enforcement then shut down the show because neighbors nearby complained of the noise.

Astonishingly, Zowie Bowie was a hit. But Phillips was so energized that he went home and created the blueprint for a rock act called Zowie Bowie, taking on that stage name.

He soon developed a headlining duo with his then-girlfriend, Marley Taylor, and built a strong following in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area and was recruited by Station Casinos officials to open Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort in the spring of 2006.

Zowie Bowie still headlines a Top 40 cover show/dance party at that venue each Friday starting at 11 p.m. … or 11 p.m.-ish. Members of Bowie’s immediate family — including Duncan Jones — have questioned Phillips twice about the name.

Angie Bowie lives in Scottsdale and once emailed Phillips after noticing an ad for Zowie Bowie. “Her e-mail said, verbatim, ‘Who the hell are you?’ ” Philips recalls, laughing. “I explained that we were not a tribute band and explained the history, and she said, ‘Well, as long as the show’s good, I have no problem with it.’ ”

In 2009, in a most serendipitous turn of events, Phillips heard from Jones while Zowie Bowie was playing Lounge at the Palms. A great filmmaker, Jones was staying at the hotel while premiering his movie “Moon,” which he wrote and directed, at CineVegas Film Festival.

Jones saw the Zowie Bowie marketing at the hotel and also emailed Phillips with a question similar to the one asked years earlier by his mother.

“I just wrote back that I was a tremendous fan, but this was not a tribute. It had nothing to do with him, but I respected what David Bowie represented and was inspired by how he presented himself,” Phillips said. “He was very gracious about it.”

Phillips never heard from David Bowie himself. The name has become so firmly connected to his life and career that he’s resisted the temptation to drop it entirely.

“It takes on a new meaning now,” Phillips says. “It started as a novelty joke, but 25 years later, we still have that name. This all just brings back how great he was and how much of an inspiration he really was.”

And that, in itself, is something of a tribute.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.