David Gilmour Relives Being Bullied To Make Music

Pink Floyd’s last album, The Endless River, was “a bit of a merge” and David Gilmour felt “bullied by the record label” into releasing it. Gilmour spoke to the Los Angeles Times about how the 2014 album came together.

“Our engineer at the time, Andy Jackson, had compiled a bunch of jamming from the 1994 The Division Bell sessions that appeared on bootlegs as something he called ‘The Big Spliff’ when we did that album. People were really clamoring for those sessions, so we decided to give them what they wanted at last,” added Gilmour.

The Unseen Pressure Behind “The Endless River”: Gilmour Opens Up

David Gilmour expressed his feeling of closure following the recent sale of Pink Floyd’s catalog. He said that it was “nice to say goodbye” to the band’s music.

In retrospect of the sale, Gilmour said, “This is history — it’s gone. The type of songs that go on to be played for generations.” He elaborated on his reasoning:

“I was an older gentleman by then. For over 40 years I did everything in my power to keep our music away from complacency & greed, working towards getting the most out of what we created. But I have chosen to no longer fight that fight.”

Inside the Making of Pink Floyd’s Last Album: Gilmour on Creative Struggles and Industry Pressure

Last year Sony purchased Pink Floyd’s catalog, which includes the band’s recorded music, name and likeness rights for about $400 million. Although David Gilmour stands to gain a nice chunk of change, his biggest relief is finally putting an end to all the Pink Floyd business dealings that have plagued them for decades.

Gilmour stated:

“I’ve already got my advance — basically it’s what I would have made over the next couple of years.
“But to release the decades of fighting, bickering and drama between this band or teams on our part — it’s nice now to move along from that.”