The late singer, guitarist and songwriter Syd Barrett helped to form Pink Floyd in 1965 and due to his declining mental state after years of drug abuse and a possible undiagnosed schizophrenia, the band decided to invite David Gilmour to join the band. He was supposed to be the one who would back up Syd in case he had erratic behavior when playing live, not singing or not playing guitar parts properly. However, Syd’s condition got worse and he was eventually fired from the band.
But Syd and Gilmour were actually friends much before they were together in the band. As David recalled in an interview with Mojo magazine in 2006 (The year Syd passed away), they met each other when they were still teenagers. They hang out together and even were arrested together in France during a trip.
Why David Gilmour and Syd Barrett were arrested once before Pink Floyd
“When I was about 14 or 15. He was someone people pointed out in the street, he had that charisma and magnetism. He was funny. Witty. Nothing slipped by him. He was up to date on everything, well read, a very sharp cookie. I’d hang out with him, go round his place, and when I moved to Cambridge Tech we used to meet up in the art school most lunchtimes and play Bo Diddley and “Come On” by The Rolling Stones.”
“In the summer of 65 I think, while my parents were away in America again, I hitchhiked down to the South of France and Syd came down in a Land Rover with a friend and I joined them in a campsite near St Tropez. Bacon and eggs on the Primus for breakfast – fantastic! We went busking in St Tropez and got arrested. On the way back home we stopped off in Paris and bought all those naughty books that used to be banned in England.”
“‘The Naked Lunch and The Story of (The) Eye’, what was that publisher called? (Wistfully) Green cover… I remember sitting in the campsite reading these things by torchlight. We had a great time. his father’s demise never seemed to enter into anything. You know, we’re all very good at covering these things up,” David Gilmour said. Barrett passed away in 2006 at the age of 60, a victim of pancreatic cancer.