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The second David Bowie World Fan Convention hit New York in June, featuring some of David Bowie’s closest collaborators in music, film, and fashion. Vocalist, songwriter, model, and actor Ava Cherry sang on some of Bowie’s most transformative records, and changed his outlook on music, fashion, and nightlife. From 1974 to 1978, Cherry was one-third of Bowie’s vocal backing trio, appearing onstage, in the studio, and on all TV appearances. Cherry and Bowie’s relationship was even closer than that, beginning as lovers, and enduring as friends.

According to the autobiography All That Glitters, written by Cherry and Lisa Torem, Ava was raised in Chicago, taking a job at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion when she was 17 years old, before moving to New York and working at the nightclub Genesis. This is where she met Bowie, who asked her to provide backing vocals on an upcoming tour in Japan.

The David Bowie World Fan Convention brought the artists who worked with David Bowie to the audience who grew alongside his mythical output. Prior to the festivities, singer, fashion model, and actor Ava Cherry discussed the profound influences she brought to the singer-songwriter. Cherry was also quite open about how Bowie attempted to return the gestures, if not always the clothes he borrowed.

After Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars finished their mission, and just prior to recording Diamond Dogs, Bowie put together a trio he hoped would take off on their own orbits: Ava and the Astronettes. Front and center was his girlfriend, Ava Cherry.

After hearing Cherry harmonize with the top soul voices at an afterparty for Stevie Wonder’s Carnegie Hall concert, Bowie recruited Ava to go on the road to end the Ziggy Stardust tour in Japan. “David said ‘You’re a singer?’” Cherry tells Den of Geek.