The two musicians David Gilmour believed saved the guitar
David Gilmour has never been particularly pleased with seeing the face of a journalist staring back at him, and that’s because, by and large, they all have the same questions.
What’s it like working with Roger? Will Pink Floyd ever reunite again? If you could pick one Pink Floyd song to call your favourite, what would it be? And, it’s easy to understand why those questions are being asked. Gilmour has been at the forefront of one of the most inspiring bands of all time for decades.
Those are the kinds of questions icons are always asked. Understanding a legend’s favourite things isn’t always based on morbid fandom, but usually as a desperate plea to enjoy, and perhaps be inspired by, said things. When it comes to Gilmour, one unending edition of the favourites game is who is his favourite guitarist.
Over the years, Gilmour has been gracious enough to often admit that while he is considered one of the more unique players, and perhaps one of the best, he only found his talent in the work of others. He famously advised all young guitarists: “I copied – don’t be afraid to copy – and eventually something that I suppose that I would call my own appeared.”
“When you start out, you copy,” Gilmour told Uncut about the salad days of his own career, confirming that while his sound is unique, his influences run deep. “Trying to be too original when you’re too young is possibly not the best thing. But I learned copying Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix. All sorts of people.” However, there were two guitarists who emerged after he had found fame, which he believed helped to rescue the instrument.
During a conversation with Guitar Classics in 1985, he made sure to note down a run of his major influences. “I was a blues fan, but I was an all-around music fan,” he told the interviewer as he explained that his best work was born in the brilliance of others. “For me, it was Leadbelly through BB King and later Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck,” all of which are names that most would attribute to Gilmour’s style and circumstance.
Having grown up in the bustling blues scene of 1960s London, these are names that feel synonymous with his growth. But he then mentioned another name, in his list of inspirations: “Eddie Van Halen”. Over the years, Gilmour has routinely noted that Van Halen possessed something he simply couldn’t even hope to achieve: “I can’t play like Eddie Van Halen. I wish I could. I sat down to try some of those ideas and I can’t do it. I don’t know if I could ever get any of that stuff together.”
Arriving at the end of the guitar’s dominance of the 1970s, Van Halen would become the new decade’s ultimate showman. But for the 1980s, there also needed to be a unique player, someone who delivered solos with a casual grace, and for that, Gilmour believed, there was Mark Knopfler. The Dire Straits man has long been held as the thinking man’s favourite guitarist, and that seems to have been the case for Gilmour.
“Mark Knopfler has a lovely, refreshing guitar style,” he explained in 1985. “He brought back something that seemed to have gone astray in guitar playing.”
Gilmour continued, “These days I don’t listen to other people with the objective of trying to steal their licks, although I’ve got no objections to stealing them if that seems like a good idea. I’m sure that I’m still influenced by Mark Knopfler and Eddie Van Halen as well.”
David Gilmour might not enjoy speaking about his own work too often. The pressure to show off and put yourself forward as a great has never sat easily with him. But, given the opportunity to raise those around him to new heights, you seemingly can’t stop him.
