The TRUE Story Behind David Gilmour's Legendary Pink Floyd Solo

I want to take a real detour now into something that's totally different which I had no idea you were involved in what your work was with Pink Floyd oh yeah and you were on the wall on several songs right? and I would love to hear from you. you just like what a Pink Floyd session is like, how you got that call. I know you're uncomfortably numb, you're also up on the wall and it just says the written time got thicker, so I want to know what that means. They also know that that was early enough in the pop record business that a group like Pink Floyd wasn't supposed to use session guys, yeah, you know, that was like a no, no, you had your guitar, God, and you know, yeah and and They were a banned band, you know, it was like what are they doing, but it turned out that Bob Ezran was the producer on that part and he orally and I had worked with him with other artists and I think.

I may be wrong about this, but Ezren even produced one of the sessions Barry Gibb did in Miami for his

solo

record, so everyone was connected and, you know, and U, so when I got the call for Pink. Floyd, you know, they were huge, you know, and they were in a band and and I knew why I got the call because it was Bob Ezan producing, but I thought, wow, that's weird, I thought they did everything themselves, you know, and then um and and. of course, you know they played the guitar really well on the record, you know that, uh uh, but anyway, so I had this huge one like we all had in those days, we had a case that's the size of this room , you know, full of like 21 guitars and mandolins and banjos and bazoukis and Strat and Jazz guitars and you know Martin and d8, you know the 12 string, you know, some of the guys wouldn't pay to play the 12 string, there's a great

story

about me and Barbara Stron playing the 12 strings I can tell you too, but anyway, uh uh, so the idea was that we were going to play together, yeah, and do what you know, it's the high string, yeah, the high rope is. a high string on a comfortably numb right hand that is playing normal acoustics.

I think so, I think I think I've seen him say he was something like Martin Dreadnut or something like a D28, yeah, something like that. So anyway, I went back to my gear, so I said I'm going to impress these guys with my gear, you know, and my box full of guitars, you know, so I went in and it was in the producers' workshop in Hollywood. and it was a medium sized room, it's not a small room, but it's not gigantic either, but it's a good room and it was full of his guitars. wall, wall, yes, wall to wall, literally each and every killer guitar that Manai knows and that you can imagine. you know, and also, they had, you know, the latest pedalboards and everything you know, that they liked, yeah, you know, so, I get there and they're working on the Comfortably Numb uh

solo

, yeah, comfortably numb and and uh , or it's another brick in the wall, well, there's another brick in the wall that you're credited with and it just says that they brought Lee in to thicken up the things it doesn't say. what and then in another or and then in comfortably numb says acoustic like a high string yes, yes, no, comfort them, sure we did it together, but then in Another Brick in the Wall they were, they said we were working on this. guitar solo, we've been working on it forever and, you know, with Roger and he said we can't figure out how to get out of this, you know, and how to end it, we don't like the ending, he said he would.

You mind, we're going to play you the solo and you just push the last four bars and give us some ideas, we're not going to use it, he's going to play it, but we just like to refresh our minds and that was it. actually, pretty creative, yeah, you know, having someone you know come in cold and just listen to it, so I got a little closer to their sound and, uh, it took me an hour, hour and a half, just to get a sound close enough to their and then they played me the solo uh on another brick in the wall and then the last four bars.

I like them, I kept banging around and trying out all these ideas and then we did that for another hour and finally they said, oh, that's cool, that gave us a bunch of ideas, they said, okay, let's move on to the acoustic, yeah, and then we did it and then you know when the record came out like, I don't know, two years later, you know, I was really curious to hear that solo, yeah, and it was definitely him, it wasn't 100% me, but could you hear some of your influence? ? I talk, but that's what I was going to say, but at the end of the solo there's a big influence, yeah, yeah, and the funny thing is that it turns out that you know, they were also studying the cats around them, so they were going through whoever's records and working sessions with other guitarists, whether it was Carlton, Dean Parks or Jay Gren. or some of the guys from New York, you know Huie McCracken and some of those guys, so for a rock band that was supposed to be isolated from themselves, they were definitely also being influenced by the times that I did. for a much better record than probably what I mean is an incredible record, quite timeless, so yeah, how about we listen to a little bit of comfortably numb and in another brick in the wall and listen to it, let's listen to some of your influence. here on this UC solo it sounds like an EMG pickup, it really does it well, yeah, but you know they had this influence of a little bit of Funk that they were definitely listening to the LA scene, so yeah, yeah, it's like the Stratocaster from two and four positions.

What's up with the emgs, maybe the preamp knows, hey teacher, leave the kids alone, oh right, it's all just another one, so did you touch any of this? I mean, you're credited for this, but it doesn't say what, yeah, I mean, it's me. Just when that little rhythm pattern happened, it sounded like something I would do and that's the funny thing about doing this interview with you is that the Stey Dan thing was the same way, it's like I knew that certain things were me, but then before . It was like that could have been me too, you know, yeah, well, yeah, but I mean, I think every session musician has certain signatures that you know, and, and, and, I would totally understand that you can recognize what you like, Oh yes, I do. that thing, yeah, and uh, you know, we were all a little different, you know, some of the guys were more chameleons like Dean Parks.

Dean could probably be on more records than any of us, but he's a little more. a million in the sense that he didn't have as much of his own personality as the one that I was finally emerging or the one that Ray Parker had or even Robin Ford or you know, or even Jay, yeah, you know, so certain guys were more uh they. They just fit the scene, you know? Yeah, I get it, I mean, some people hire you because they want your specific sound, yeah, and that started happening more and more as I established myself, yeah, well, I mean, I totally get it.

Let's see if we can get this, uh, let's see, we have this soul that you were involved in helping to break big, it kind of has a kind of clap on the bed, yeah, yeah, so that little guy from when he got back on the beat . Which I started doing that a little bit, yeah, so it was more rhythmic and then he, I think they took that influence, yeah, because he rose so high, yeah, he had nowhere to go, and I remember we talked about that. I said yes. You ran out of space, you know, and he still had another four bars left, you know?

So when I tried some things, I brought it back down to that little pace, yeah, and and and then it ended up doing something a little bit. different anyway, but that was a big influence, it's cool, it's cool. I'm going to play a little bit of Comfortably Numb now so we can hear that loud, loud acoustic part that you and David Gilmore were on. guys facing each other or, oh, we were next to each other. I remember the producers workshop like it wasn't a big room and uh, EZ was a cool producer and he was like, "We have to be isolated." rooms, are we going to like them?

I said no, let's sit next to each other, do you know what kind of acoustics you had for that? I had, yes, I think I had. It wasn't like you knew a million dollar guitar, I guess. it was a takini, okay, yeah, the Japanese Martin of the day, that's okay, that's okay, and that's what I had like heavy duty Allzy. I always assumed it was straight here, yeah, okay, did you have an idea what this was? It's going to be a huge hit when you play it in the room where you think, oh yeah, this is going to be huge, no, definitely not, you know, it's like that because sometimes everything is like that, sometimes you just work on 16 bars over and over again. again.

I know then and they had their clues and I don't think we were tracking that from the beginning. I think they already had their basic clue. Yeah, you know, I never remember them playing. I'm sure they had to trace. America in some ways is right, you know, but U the Bas and if it was them, they definitely did a lot of things together and, you know, that was a talent in those days that people like Pink Floyd or going back to the Bees or Steely Dan they could. like keeping track of their vibe, yeah, you know, and working on a song for so long, yeah, you know, and making it work, you know, that's amazing, yeah.