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The 2 guitarists David Gilmour called his heroes
A fundamental part of Pink Floyd’s sound, David Gilmour initially joined the band as a sort of backup for Syd Barrett, whose mental health was rapidly deteriorating. However, he eventually replaced Barrett after the latter was dismissed due to his condition. Over the following years, Gilmour played a key role in shaping the band’s songwriting and sonic identity. This evolution culminated in the release of the masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and throughout that decade, Pink Floyd produced some of the most influential Progressive Rock albums of all time.
Although he has always been a guitarist closely associated with Progressive Rock, Gilmour has a remarkably broad musical taste. Rock and Roll Garage has selected the two guitar players that David once referred to as his heroes.
The 2 guitarists David Gilmour called his heroes
Jeff Beck
The first one is the late legendary Jeff Beck, who sadly passed away in 2023 at the age of 78. He was not only Gilmour’s hero, the Pink Floyd musician said in an interview posted on his official Youtube channel in 2022, that Beck was his favorite guitarist of all time. “I have lots of favorite guitar players. Probably the person who I have admired the longest and the most consistent is Jeff Beck, in the guitar playing stakes. A lovely guy,” David Gilmour said.
They were really good friends and David also praised him on the documentary “Jeff Beck: Still On The Run” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). “He is a maverick. A maverick guitar player who doesn’t like to repeat himself. Who takes big risks all the time and has done all the way throughout his career,” David Gilmour said. He had the chance to perform live with Jeff Beck back in 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They performed an instrumental version for the traditional British hymn “Jerusalem”.
His favorite Jeff Beck album is “Blow By Blow” (1975) as he revealed to Guitar Tricks Insider in 2017. That record has great tracks like “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” and it reached number 4 on the American Billboard charts.
Pink Floyd invited Jeff Beck to join the band
Curiously, Pink Floyd invited Jeff Beck to be their guitar player in the mid-60s. At the time the guitarist declined the offer and they ended up hiring Gilmour. The chosen musician recalled that in an interview with French Guitarist magazine back in 2002 . (Translated by Rock and Roll Garage): “Yes that’s right. I’m not sure they contacted him. But they considered calling him (Note: Meanwhile, Rick Wright confirmed that there had been contact but Beck seemed too good to go).”
“They always said they would have loved to recruit Jeff. He’s an amazing guitarist. But I don’t know if he would have been perfect for this job. We’ll never know. But the story would have been quite different,” David Gilmour said. In his opinion, he believes Beck would probably have quit six months later.
When Beck died in 2023 Gilmour posted a special tribute saying he was devastated by the death of his “friend and hero”.
Pete Townshend
The second musician is Pete Townshend, The Who‘s guitarist, main songwriter and sometimes singer. David was a huge fan of the band since the early days of his career and had the chance to see them live. As he told French Guitarist in 2002, he even hitchhiked to see their show once.
“Pete has always been one of my heroes. When I was very young, I hitchhiked from Cambridge to London to see him play at the Marquee Club. It was the very beginnings of the Who. He is incredible. He rarely plays lead, well, he could very well do. We played back when he had very serious problems with his eardrums. The doctors had recommended him not to play with an amp. So he took an acoustic guitar and hired me to play his usual role.”
“He couldn’t play the loud parts and he gave them to me. He is doing much better today and he went back to electric without problem. So much the better! I can’t imagine Pete without being able to do the mill on his guitar,” David Gilmour said.
They recorded together
They are really good friends and even wrote songs together back in the 80s which ended up being part of Townshend’s solo career releases. In the 80s the artists got together and wrote two tracks which ended up being released on Townshend’s solo career album. He recalled that experience in an interview with Mojo back in 2008. “We’d done some recording for ‘The Final Cut’ (Pink Floyd album) at the Eel Pie Studios (Owned by Townshend). Pete had told me he had really liked my first (solo) album. I was dumbstruck, but he said he was having difficulty writing music, but had loads of words.”
“I sent over two or three tracks and he came back with lyrics for “Love On The Air” (Released on the 1984 Gilmour solo album “About Face”), “All Lovers Are Deranged” (Also released on Gilmour’s “About Face” and re-recorded by Townshend on his 2001 compilation album “Scoop 3”) and a third one, “White City Fighting”, which ended up on his next album,” David Gilmour said.
Although it seemed like the perfect combination since Gilmour has always been a master on creating music but was never a lyricist. However, Townshend realized that he wasn’t good at working with other people, he felt his songwriting was better when he did it by himself.
