David Gilmour Biography

Fast Facts

• Has sold, as part of Pink Floyd, over 74 million records and CDs in the U
• S
• , and more than 200 million worldwide
• Acquired his first guitar at age 13, when a neighbor lent him his
• He never returned it
• Learned to play guitar from a Pete Seeger guitar-instruction record and book
• Met Syd Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd, during childhood in Cambridge
• Spent the summer of 1965 busking in the south of France with Syd Barrett
• Briefly worked as a model during the mid-1960s
• Recruited to Pink Floyd in 1968 to flesh out their sound; Syd Barrett left shortly thereafter
• Pink Floyd's classic 1973 LP Dark Side of the Moon remained on Billboard's Top 200 (U
• S
• ) album chart for a record-setting 14 years
• Discovered and mentored British chanteuse Kate Bush
• Released his first solo album, David Gilmour, in 1978
• Feuded with Floyd bandmate Roger Waters after Waters quit the group in 1985 and sued Gilmour and the other members over the rights to the Pink Floyd name; they later settled
• Awarded the CBE (Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2003 for services to music
• Inducted with Pink Floyd in 1996 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Hired the Australian Pink Floyd (a tribute band) to play his 50th birthday party
• Learned to play saxophone in his mid-50s after his son Charlie expressed an interest in the instrument; they took lessons from the same teacher
• Sold his London home in 2003 and donated the entire amount (3
• 6 million pounds) to the homeless charity Crisis; he later served as the organization's vice president
• Donated all royalties to charity when Pink Floyd sales spiked following the group's memorable Live 8 reunion in 2005
• Once watched The Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon to check the alleged synchronicity between the two
• It didn't make much sense to him