2 American bands David Gilmour is a big fan of

The guitarist and singer David Gilmour was heavily influenced by American musicians since he was a kid still learning how to play the guitarb and those inspirations were crucial in helping him later find his own style, which became a big part of the success of Pink Floyd‘s music. But he also became a fan of some bands from across the Atlantic that belong to the same generation as him.

Over the decades he talked about many artists he liked and had the chance to see playing live, mentioning especially two bands from the United States that he is a big fan of. He had the opportunity to meet their members and even record with some of them.

2 American bands David Gilmour is a fan of

Eagles

The first one is the Eagles, a band Gilmour said he nearly lost his voice after going to see live and singing along to every song on the setlist. “I deliberately tried to make it as intimate as I could (Gilmour said about a show he did). It felt fantastic, really liberating. But it’s much more frightening. The audience is right there in front of you and you can see the whites of their eyes. And my voice was really shot. I’d foolishly been to an Eagles show three or four nights before, and sung along to every song and it did my throat in a bit,” he told The Telegraph in 2002.

Years before, the Pink Floyd guitarist and singer had already praised the American band while talking about the music that was created in the 1970s. In his opinion, much of the music made during that decade was “too safe,” but he noted that the Eagles had released really good albums.

“Music in the 70s was too safe. Punk was in the 70s, the Sex Pistols, they were played pretty safe, you know. Lots of people say that it was all crap in the 70s. Fleetwood Mac put out ‘Rumors,’ and we put out ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ and ‘The Wall,’ in the 70s.”

David Gilmour continued:

“I think the criticism of the 70s followed after the euphoria of the 60s, where people were saying how wonderfully new and exciting a lot of it was. I don’t think people who criticize the 70s really have looked at the great stuff that came out. The Eagles put out really good records in the 70s,” he told TLV in 1995. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Gilmour didn’t have the chance to play with the Eagles, but he did appear on one song with the bassist Timothy B. Schmit. Called “Missouri Loves Company”, the track was part of Ringo Starr’s 2003 album “Ringo Rama”, on which he played the guitar solo. Curiously, a few years earlier, in 1992, the Eagles’ drummer and singer Don Henley sang on Roger Waters’ third solo album “Amused to Death”, duetting with him on the track “Watching TV.”

Interestingly, Pink Floyd and the Eagles became bigger bands when they brought a new guitar player into their line-up. Gilmour joined the band on their second record, later becoming crucial to their success. The same happened with Joe Walsh, who also took the band to another level in terms of songwriting. They are among the reasons why the two bands are some of the best-selling of all time.

Nowadays, “Dark Side of the Moon” appears in fourth place among the best-selling records, with an estimated 45 million copies sold. The Eagles’ “Greatest Hits (1971–1975)” comes right behind it in fifth place, with more than 44 million copies sold. But when it comes to total record sales, Pink Floyd have sold about 50 million more, totaling around 250 million records.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

The second American band that Gilmour loves is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He even mentioned once “Ohio” as one of his favorite songs of all time. “We were on tour in America when this came out. There was all this thing about the Kent State University. The four kids who got killed there in the rioting, the demonstrations against the Vietnam war. So it’s just a great song. They were always fantastic with that added to a little bit of Neil Young strength with the whole thing with Crosby, Stills & Nash great voices. Still a big fan,” David Gilmour told BBC‘s “Tracks Of My Years” in 2006 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

He ended up becoming a friend of them, especially Nash and Crosby, who appeared on “On an Island” in 2006. During the promotion of the album, they also joined him at the Royal Albert Hall concert to perform the song live. The duo also sang on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Parts 1-2, 4-5) and a cover of CSNY’s “Find The Cost of Freedom”, which was the b-side of “Ohio”, when the song as released as single in 1970.

When Crosby died at the age of 81 in 2023, David shared a photo with him and a message. He said: “We sang together, we played together and had great times together. I’ll miss The Croz more than words can say. Sail on.”

Graham Nash said David Gilmour stole their drummer

Funny enough, the only British member of CSNY, Graham Nash, once said that David Gilmour “stole” Crosby & Nash’s drummer after going to see the duo playing live. He saw at the Royal Albert Hall around 2004 and he loved the show and their drummer Steve DiStanislao.

“David and I did a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Just me, Crosby and the band. Gilmour, who we’ve been friends, came back to see us after the show. He said: ‘I have two things to say’. I said ‘Great, what is it?’ He said: ‘I have this song called ‘On an Island’. I’d love you and David to sing on it. And the second thing is: I’m stealing your drummer’, which he did. David Gilmour has a houseboat on the Thames (River), which is a recording studio.”

“It’s the weirdest experience, you’re standing in a microphone and people are rowing by the window. I thought ‘On an Island’ by David Gilmour with me and David singing was a brilliant piece of music. The DVD of David Gilmour show with me and Crosby from the Royal Albert Hall was a joy to do. David Gilmour is a wonderful musician,” Graham Nash told The Hudson Union (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). DiStanislao didn’t even have to audition for Gilmour’s band. He appeared on his most recent studio albums: “Rattle That Lock” (2015) and “Luck and Strange” (2024).