One of the most important parts of Pink Floyd’s sound, David Gilmour helped create some of the most important albums in the history of Rock and Roll. That success and influence allowed him to meet and work with some of the greatest musicians of all time, both while recording with the band and throughout his solo career.
Over the decades, he has spoken about many drummers he admires and there are two in particular whom he has praised as the greatest in the world.
2 drummers David Gilmour already praised as the greatest ones
Steve Gadd
David Gilmour has always been a big fan of the respected session drummer Steve Gadd and in 2025 said he is his favorite and the best in the world. “We booked a week, five days with Steve Gadd, who’s the best, you know. The absolute best drummer in the world and I’d never worked with him before. I met him a few times but always wanted to (work with him). (So) I managed to get five days of his time and he flew over to London. I had booked Mark Knopfler’s studio and I got the other guys in there.”
“We had some songs we wanted to try and we spent a very intense week working on putting down those songs. (I was with) Steve, Rob Gentry on keys, Guy Pratt playing the bass,” he told Broken Record Podcast in 2025 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) about the process of recording his most recent album “Luck and Strange” (2024).
Curiously, Gilmour was a bit nervous before calling Gadd, because it was a drummer he really respected. “I’m always a bit nervous of calling people. Polly (Samson – Wife and lyricist) says to me: ‘Who’s your favorite drummer?’ (I would answer) Steve Gadd, of course, the greatest drummer in the world.”
He continued:
“So I gave Steve Gadd a call, nervously. I said: ‘Would you come and spend a week with us in London recording?’ He said yes, simple as that. He’s just a class act, he’s really good. He just nails it immediately. It was such a joy to finally be able to get him in and record with him,” David Gilmour said in the video of the making of “Luck and Strange” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
In his opinion, one of Gadd’s greatest qualities is that he plays with a very light touch, yet it sounds much heavier on record. “I think I just emailed his website (to get in touch with him). Polly said to me: ‘Who you want to play with?’ I said: ‘Well, I love Steve Gadd’, but I’m frightened.'”
“She just said: ‘Oh, man up! Call him now!’ What’s extraordinary about him is that he is very light touch all the time. He’s hardly touching (the drums). When you hear him back in the control room they sound like someone (is smashing the drums). It sounds like someone like Ged Lynch (British drummer) is whacking the shit out of them or something. How he achieves that sound just by the feel, the touch, still baffles me,” he told Kemp and Pratt.
One of the songs that made Gilmour a fan of Gadd was “Chuck E’s in Love” by Rickie Lee Jones, released in 1979.
Jeff Porcaro
The other drummer Gilmour described as the best in the world was Jeff Porcaro. Besides being a member of Toto, band Gilmour likes, he also was a highly respected session drummer. He praised him in a similar context to Steve Gadd, while discussing how he chose the musicians for his 1984 solo album “About Face”. “I wanted to make a really good record. I didn’t want to do it very, very quickly. (So) I wanted to get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me. So I thought I’d just make a little list of all my favorite musicians.”
“You know, best drummer, best bass player, best keyboard player. I’ll work through the list to see who I can get. Jeff Porcaro was top of my drummers list, Pino Palladino was top of my bass players list. Ian Quely – or the Rev, as he’s known. He actually came and did the bulk of the Hammond and piano playing, and he was terrific. Steve Winwood was top of my keyboard playing list. He couldn’t do most of the album, but I got him to do a bit,” David Gilmour told Source. Curiously, Porcaro was who played the drums on Pink Floyd’s classic song “Mother”, released on their 1979 album “The Wall”.
Gilmour explained why, saying:
“On Mother the timing follows the words. ‘Mo-ther-do-you-think- they’ll-drop-the-*bomb*?’ How many beats is that? Nine. It was very very difficult to get it to work. You can’t (mimes standard Floyd 4). There’s no rhythm that carries on straight through like that. You’ve got to find a way of floating through it. Jeff Porcaro did immediately,” David Gilmour told M. Resnicoff in 1992.
Porcaro is one of the few musicians who had the chance to play with Pink Floyd and also on the solo careers of both David Gilmour and Roger Waters. He was part of Roger’s solo album “Amused to Death”, released in 1992, the same year he passed away at the age of 38. During his career, he played on famous songs by Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and many more.