Duran Duran

Duran Duran could have split up as early as the mid-1980s, but a piece of advice from Mick Jagger changed the band's fate. The story is told by Nick Rhodes in a long interview given to the British paper The Independent, in which the keyboardist revisits some of the most significant moments of his career, from meeting David Bowie and Andy Warhol to his friendship with Princess Diana.

Rhodes recalled that, at a particularly delicate moment for the group, the frontman of Rolling Stones pulled him aside to convince him not to abandon the project: “You really need to stick together, it's your future.” A piece of advice that, over the years, proved decisive. “He was right, because at that moment everything could have fallen apart.”
The musician also spoke about his relationship with drugs, explaining that he never felt drawn to that lifestyle. “My mind has always been too frantic. I can never slow down, so the last thing I wanted was to deal with a mountain of drugs. I tried a few, but they weren't for me.” Rhodes added that he always needed to stay in control: “The idea of taking something without knowing what might happen is absolutely repulsive to me.”

Among his fondest memories is of course David Bowie, the great idol of his teenage years, who over time also became a friend. “When I saw David Bowie, I no longer wanted to be an astronaut or a magician: I wanted to be a musician.” Speaking of the Thin White Duke, Rhodes describes him as “a dear friend, an intellectual and a hilarious character,” adding: “I loved him a lot because he never let me down.”
The interview also touches on other encounters that shaped Duran Duran's history, such as the one with Andy Warhol in New York during the 1980s, when the band was still trying to break through in the United States, and his relationship with Princess Diana, whom Rhodes remembers as one of the group's most famous fans. “We met her several times. She was a big admirer of ours. I used to see her around Chelsea quite often.”

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02/08/2026