The late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, who passed away in 2008 at the age of 65, is probably one of the most overlooked members of the band and contributed much more to their music than many fans realize. David Gilmour was a big fan of his playing and remained close to him until his death. He brought Wright back into the band in the ’80s after he had been forced out of the group by Roger Waters a few years earlier, and Wright also played on many of Gilmour’s solo albums and joined him on tour. To this day, David still mentions Richard, sharing his opinion of him as a musician and discussing his role in Pink Floyd.
What is David Gilmour’s opinion on Richard Wright
For David Gilmour, his late bandmate and friend Richard Wright was a unique musician who was overlooked many times. “He is an integral part of the flavor of pretty much everything that we’ve put out. Sometimes all the noise that Roger and I tend to make verbally, in the press and on the records, he tends to get slightly overlooked. His part has always been there on everything you hear and it’s him. It’s idiosyncratic, it’s different from any other player and has indefinable something that great players have”.
He loved everything that Richard did but “The Great Gig in the Sky” was special to him. “It’s hard to pin down, Rick wrote a lot of beautiful pieces of music. Obviously, ‘The Great Gig In the Sky’ is one of those things. I would say ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ is one of his finest moments,” he told Absolute Radio.
The song was part of “Dark Side of the Moon”, the band’s best-selling album. Released in 1973, it sold an estimated amount of more than 45 million records worldwide.
David Gilmour said that Richard Wright played like no one else could
Since he passed away, Rick has been deeply missed by Gilmour not only as a person but as a musician. “From the first second you hear Rick playing his electric piano, you just know there’s something absolutely individual about what he does that no one else does or could do. His level of creativity is something that I’ve missed over the years.”
More recently, while recording his solo album “Luck and Strange”, which featured unreleased recordings by Rick, the keyboardist Rob Gentry made him feel musically closer to what Wright used to play. “But some of the people that Charlie has brought have added creativity of that sort. We have a keyboard player called Rob Gentry, who has done a lot of the keyboards. Some of the things he does take a minute to get used to. They’re very off the wall sometimes. But it’s fantastic,” he said in the documentary of “Luck and Strange” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Gilmour didn’t felt good when Richard Wright was forced out of Pink Floyd during the recording of “The Wall” (1979) due to internal tensions with Roger Waters. He stayed with the band as a salaried touring musician for The Wall tour until 1981, leaving for good that year. That’s why “The Final Cut” (1983), their final album with Roger Waters before he left the band, also is the only one from the band’s discography without Richard.
When David Gilmour and Nick Mason decided to continue as Pink Floyd, challenging Roger Waters’ desire to end the band, they brought Rick back. He remained a member until his death. He was also part of their final album, “The Endless River”, a posthumous instrumental record featuring Wright’s recordings.
One of the last things Richard Wright wanted to do musically according to Gilmour
Richard Wright died in 2009 from lung cancer at his home in London. At the time of his death he was working on a new solo album. He also had plans for live music as Gilmour said after his passing. When receiving the “Outstanding Contribution” title at the 2008 Q Awards, he dedicated the prize to his late friend. “I’m gonna dedicate this, if you don’t mind, to my old friend and colleague Richard Wright who died a couple of weeks ago, with whom I’ve worked for 4o odd years and that has now come to an end. There’s all sorts of music that I’ll not be able to play again wihtout him, which is a source of sadness for me.”
He continued:
“One of the last things that he wanted to do in this last year was to do a big outdoor festival such as Glastonbury. We were unable to do that due to all sort of strange reasons, which again, is a sadness. Anyway, as I say, he deserves this just as much as I do. You could say that he worked in the position of second fiddle. Or slightly behind some of the pushier chaps up the front. But his work was vitally important to our entire career,” David Gilmour said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). He then raised his glass and, visibly choking up, proposed a toast to the memory of his friend Richard Wright.
The keyboardist played on Syd Barrett’s second and final album “Barrett” (1970). He also appeared on Gilmour’s “On an Island” (2006) and “Luck and Strange” (2024). As as solo artist, he released the album “Wet Dream” (1978) and “Broken China” (1996). He also was part of the album “Identity” by Zee, short lived side project with Dave Harris of Fashion.