As Roxy Music Gears Up For a Historic Reunion, Bryan Ferry Talks About Their Legacy—And Their Look

And yes, my parents did think I was nuts.

Let’s go back for a moment to 1970, just before you formed Roxy Music, when you’re teaching ceramics at a girls’ school in West London. Were you really fired for “holding impromptu record-listening sessions”—and if so, what kind of music were you playing?

No, I wasn’t fired, but I don’t think the head teacher approved. It’s normal studio practice to listen to music while making art, and when I was teaching I encouraged music being played in the background. We played all sorts of music, mainly pop.

Roxy was one of the very first bands to truly channel and own the visual presentation of your music, from the photography and graphic design of your album covers to the rather outré fashions you performed in. Was this kind of attention—or control—something you had fierce battles over (with record companies, etc.)? And where did you get those clothes?

From the beginning, it seemed natural for me with my art school background to do my own album covers. And when we had finished the first Roxy album I had the good fortune to meet Antony Price, who had just graduated as the star fashion student from the Royal College of Art, and we worked closely on the visual presentation of the record, together with the photographer Karl Stoecker. My art school friend Nick de Ville worked on the typography. He went on to be a professor at Goldsmiths College, teaching the YBAs.