His first proper interview in three years.

Scott Walker dropped by Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service on BBC 6 Music (July 23) last night for a rare interview appearance – his first in three years.

During the interview, which is available to stream on the BBC Radio 6 website, Walker discussed his early career and his friendship with David Bowie – who once referred to him as his “idol” –  revealing that the late star “wanted at one stage to do an interview with me.”

Speaking about Bowie, Walker said: “Every time I spoke to him he was very nice to me. He always was on my side. He would recommend people to listen to my records.”

Walker also talked about his love of Jaques Brel, European cinema, jazz and how he once did “the James Dean roll” (from Rebel Without A Cause) out of a moving car to avoid plunging to his death while on tour with ‘Wipe Out’ legends Surfaris, of whom he was briefly a touring member.

The interview comes ahead of Tuesday night’s BBC Proms, where artists including Cocker (and Susanne Sundfør) will perform songs from Walker’s early solo albums from the late ‘60s.

During their chat, Cocker asked Walker if the prom had encouraged him to listen to the songs again, to which he replied “no,” adding: “With that kind of thing, with any past recordings, I’m like Don Quixote being confronted by the Knight of Mirrors. All I ever do is hear the faults, I never hear anything else, so I never listen.” Hear the interview in full.

The Sunn O))) collaborator’s last release was an orchestral soundtrack to the Brady Corbet-directed 2016 film The Childhood of a Leader.

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