David Gilmour: ‘There’s No Room in My Life for Pink Floyd’
So many of your peers say their biggest regret is not spending more time with their kids when they were young.
When you’re in your twenties, just starting out, you are fighting the world to get your career off the ground, to make something of yourself. Sacrifices have to be made, and people suffer. You have to choose what you want. When you’re a bit older and you’ve had that sort of success you can take a different perspective and alter your life priorities. That’s what I was doing.
Also, how much bigger could that band get after that last tour? You’d already packed most every stadium in the world several times over.
The whole concept of whether our tour is bigger than a Rolling Stones or U2 tour is of no consequence to me. Those aren’t my values. It’s lovely to play to a lot of people and get our music out to a lot of people, but the figures that management and the media put out about how many dollars are earned and how many people saw the show…that’s never been something that’s high on my list of loves.
How far are you along on your new solo album?
It’s coming along very well, actually. There’s a lot of very, very well done sketches that are not finished yet. Some of them will be started again. There’s a few months work in it yet. I’m hoping to get it out this following year.
Is the sound and vibe similar to the last one?
Nope. [Laughs] It’s a bit of a departure in places.
In what sense?
I’m not going to give you any more clues than that!
Are you going to tour behind it?
Yeah. I’m hoping to do a bit of a tour, an old man’s tour. Not a 200 dates sort of thing.
What kind of venues are you going to play? You played Radio City Music Hall the last time you were in New York when you could have easily played Madison Square Garden.
That’s what I was saying before. The huge scale and size of Pink Floyd was something I wanted to gently back away from a bit. I wanted to make these things more personal and more manageable. This time, to be honest, I haven’t really gotten to the discussion point yet. But I’m not intending to play vast places, though I’m sure people will try and persuade me otherwise. But, you know. Radio City Music Hall sounds like the right sort of vibe for me.
Getting back to the record, you’ve said this is the final Pink Floyd album. Are you positive about that?
I don’t see how it could be otherwise. We’ve been through all of that stuff now. Anything of value is on there. Trying to do it again would mean using second best stuff. That’s not good enough for me. So I think I can confidently say that is not going to happen. Obviously, going with that, there will be no more Pink Floyd shows. Without Rick, that’s obviously impossible.
So there’s no scenario where you can see yourself touring as part of Pink Floyd again?
No.
Some fans were hoping to see Roger play on this new record, maybe on just a song or two. Was that even discussed?
Roger was tired of being in a pop group 30 years ago. Why on Earth anyone thinks what we do now would have anything remotely to do with him is a mystery to me. He’s having his fun. He’s had his world tour, which went brilliantly well. And we are getting on with what we do. You’d have thought that after 30 years people might have thought, “Hmmm, maybe we won’t mention him every time.”
I guess people saw that you played with him at Live 8, that charity show and one of his Wall gigs, and them maybe just assumed he was at least somewhat back in the mix.
I think Roger is very used to being the power, the sole power, behind his career. And that’s great for him. But I think the thought of him coming back into something that has any form of democracy to it wouldn’t be be what he’d be good at. It’s been much, much too long. As you said, I was in my forties when Floyd last toured. Let me think, I believe I was in my thirties when Roger left. I’m 68 now. It’s over half a lifetime away.
We really don’t have that much in common anymore. That’s not to say that we didn’t do some of the greatest stuff that I could imagine in the time we spent together. You know, that was a mere seventeen years. It’s been well over that, actually much longer, since he left.
Would you be open to a charity show or something in the future where you play a song or two with him?
I wouldn’t rule anything out. I don’t want to make hard and fast rules for myself. Anything I say to you about this stuff is, of course, just my opinion at this particular moment in my life. Anything could change, but I think the likelihood of it being any more than one little charity show or something is very, very remote. It would have to be the right thing.
You say anything could change, but you seem pretty definitive about this being the end of Pink Floyd.
I just try to imagine what it would be like and the thought of it makes me break out in a cold sweat. I’m an older person. I’m really enjoying my life. I’m really enjoying the music that I am making, and there’s no room for Pink Floyd.