David Gilmour was a crucial element of Pink Floyd’s sound and the band’s career would not have been the same without his incredible guitar playing. With the success of albums such as “Dark Side of the Moon” (1973), “Wish You Were Here” (1975) and “The Wall” (1979), he became one of the most influential guitar heroes of his generation, which included many other remarkable musicians.
One of them was the late legendary American artist Prince, who is often overlooked as a guitarist but certainly not by his peers, including David Gilmour, who has already shared his opinion on him.
What is David Gilmour’s opinion on Prince
David Gilmour is a big fan of Prince and said he was “bloody great” live in concert. He believed that the late musician was one of the few people in the music business who surrounded himself with competent collaborators who shared his passion for putting on the best concert possible, and that he was someone who thought about every detail. He said this when comparing a Michael Jackson show with a Prince concert he had seen within a short period of time.
“I saw Michael Jackson in an indoor arena in America, and it wasn’t great. When I see something like that, I think, My God, put ‘me’ in charge for a week and I’ll turn this into something ‘good’! There’s no doubt in my mind that I could have turned something like the Michael Jackson show from a pretty average to pretty damned good, given a few days and bucks.”
David Gilmour continued:
“There are corners that can be cut and corners that can’t – just a million little details that one could look at. But I went to see Prince at Wembley and he was bloody good. He definitely does things from the right attitude; I think he goes out of his way to get the best people to do the best job, and he thinks about every detail. He gets people around him who share his belief that it will come right if you get it right, which is our attitude,” David Gilmour said in an interview with Q magazine in 1990.
Like many of his peers, including Eric Clapton, Gilmour had a deep respect for Prince’s music. In 1992, he took part in the Tom Jones TV special “The Right Time”, which aired around June that year. Gilmour was one of several special guests on the show, during which the Welsh singer covered many songs, including “Purple Rain.” The Pink Floyd frontman (at the time) played guitar on that performance, which became one of the most famous covers of a Prince song. Fans highly praised his tone and playing, noting how he put his soul into the beautiful guitar parts originally performed by Prince.
David Gilmour combined “Comfortably Numb” and “Purple Rain” solo in Prince’s honor
24 years after covering “Purple Rain” alongside Tom Jones, David Gilmour paid tribute to Prince during one of his solo shows. The American musician passed away in 2016 at the age of 57 and during a show at Royal Albert Hall in London, Gilmour combined the “Comfortably Numb” solo with the one from “Purple Rain,” which thrilled the audience. It was his final tribute to Prince.
Curiously, many fans have long noted that they hear elements of David Gilmour’s guitar style in Prince’s music, particularly in the solo of “Purple Rain.” The American musician, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1958, was 12 years younger than Gilmour and began his career in 1975.
By that time, Pink Floyd was already one of the biggest bands in the world and had released Wish You Were Here, the follow-up to the groundbreaking The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Although Prince had a shorter career, he was far more prolific than Gilmour and Pink Floyd combined, having released 39 studio albums, while Gilmour was part of 19 studio records (14 with Pink Floyd and 5 solo).
When it comes to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Pink Floyd was inducted in 1996, while Prince was honored eight years later, in 2004. Like the British band, he is also one of the best-selling artists of all time, with an estimated 100 million records sold worldwide, which is about 150 million fewer than Pink Floyd.