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From the Cuban Revolution to Roxy Music to a Kanye Sample Cash-In, Phil Manzanera Opens Up About His Unlikely Life

Phil Manzanera's book, 'Revolucion to Roxy,' covers Roxy Music, the Cuban Revolution and more.

From rubbing elbows with musical deities to surviving tumultuous moments in political history, the 73-year-old musician’s life recalls the groundbreaking guitar work he delivered as a member of Roxy: Loaded with left-field twists, out-of-the-blue delights and the occasional hint of danger. Along the way, he’s had hairy run-ins with Columbian cartels, baffling moments with Bob Dylan and cashed in big time when Kanye West and Jay-Z sampled one of his guitar licks for the 2012 single “No Church in the Wild.” Oh, and later in life, he found out that his father was the product of a secret love affair his grandmother had with a touring Italian musician while estranged from her abusive husband (the two eventually reconciled, so he grew up knowing a non-biological grandfather). A 1972 audition in front of Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy MacKay and Paul Thompson turned him into a full-time member of Roxy Music, where he’s remained a constant through the band’s on-and-off half-century.

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