From busking on the streets to becoming one of the biggest rock legends in the world. What a journey!
David Jon Gilmour was born on March 6, 1946, in Cambridge, England. His father, Douglas Gilmour, was a leading instructor in the zoology department at the University of Cambridge, and his mother, Sylvia Wilson, worked first as a teacher and later as a film editor for the BBC television channel. David has three siblings: Peter, Mark, and Catharine, and the family initially lived in Trumpington before moving to Grantchester after several relocations.
His parents recognized his son’s musical interests early on and encouraged him to develop them. In 1954, he received his first record, Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock.” His enthusiasm grew the following year with Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” and The Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” sparked his passion for playing the guitar. Gilmour borrowed a guitar from a neighbor to practice, but never returned it. Soon after, he began teaching himself to play guitar using a book and records by Pete Seeger (portrayed by Edward Norton in the film No Direction Home).
At age 11, he began attending The Perse School in Cambridge, which he didn’t enjoy, though it was there he met two classmates who would later become members of Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.
In 1962, Gilmour began studying modern languages at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, and although he didn’t complete the course, he eventually became fluent in French. Barrett was also a student at the college, and the two young men spent their lunch breaks playing guitar together.
A Parisian Detour
That same year, Gilmour joined a blues band called Jokers Wild, and at age 19, he hitchhiked to Saint-Tropez, France. Barrett joined him there, but they were soon arrested for street performing. Gilmour and Barrett later traveled to Paris, where they camped outside the city for a week and visited the Louvre. During this time, Gilmour worked as a driver and assistant for fashion designer Ossie Clark. However, this bohemian lifestyle proved less romantic than expected, and Gilmour was even hospitalized for malnutrition at one point.
In mid-1967, he traveled to France again with Rick Wills and Willie Wilson, former members of Jokers Wild. They performed under the names Flowers and then Bullitt, though club owners were reluctant to pay them. Shortly after arriving in Paris, thieves stole their equipment. Although in France, Gilmour sang on two tracks for the soundtrack of the film A Heart Full of Soul – Two Weeks in September (1967), which starred Brigitte Bardot. When he returned to England with Bullitt later that year, they didn’t have enough money for gas and had to push their van for a stretch (they had previously stolen gas from a construction site to secure that far).
The Pink Legend
In 1967, Pink Floyd, the band formed by Gilmour’s Cambridge schoolmates Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, along with Nick Mason and Richard Wright, released their debut studio album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. When David returned to London, he went to watch the band record one of their songs and was shocked when Barrett, who was already struggling with mental health issues, didn’t seem to recognize him.
In December 1967, Gilmour was invited to play with Pink Floyd to replace the increasingly unpredictable Barrett, briefly making the band a five-piece. The initial plan was for Barrett to continue writing songs but not perform on stage. By March 1968, however, collaborating with Barrett had become too difficult, and he agreed to leave the band. Gilmour then became the guitarist and one of the vocalists (alongside Waters and Wright). The release of albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here saw Waters accept increasing control of the band’s direction and songwriting.
In 1985, Waters announced his departure from the band, stating in a press release that Pink Floyd was no longer a viable creative force and assumed they would disband without him. Gilmour and Nick Mason, however, stated they would continue Pink Floyd without Waters, leading to a major legal battle.
The dispute primarily concerned the use of the band’s name. Gilmour and Mason even considered involving Wright in a return to Pink Floyd to help in the fight to retain the name. As is well known, the trio won the legal battle, allowing them to maintain the Pink Floyd name, though Waters received a fixed fee for every concert where his ideas were used, such as the inflatable pigs, the helicopter, and the burning airplane.
Gilmour gained almost complete control of the band and immediately recorded A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), with contributions from Mason and Wright, though neither performed on the album’s initial promotional concerts as they hadn’t played in some time and weren’t in performance condition.
Their next album wasn’t released until seven years later, in 1994, with The Division Bell, which was also a huge success, with the album and accompanying tour featuring songs like What Do You Want From Me, Take It Back, Coming Back To Life, and High Hopes.
Two Wives, Eight Children
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his life story, Gilmour didn’t lead the typical rock star lifestyle, marrying only twice, and currently enjoying a marriage of over 30 years. He first married on July 7, 1975, at age 29, to American model and artist Virginia “Ginger” Hasenbein. They had four children during their 15-year marriage: Alice (1976), Clare (1979), Sara (1983), and Matthew (1986). They divorced in 1990.
Four years later, in 1994, he married English writer Polly Samson, who has written lyrics for several of his songs, including some on Pink Floyd albums.
Gilmour and Samson have four children: Charles (1991, Samson’s son from a previous relationship, whom David adopted), Joe (1995), Gabriel (1997), and Romany (2002), born when his father was 56 years old.
Gilmour is also an experienced pilot and aviation enthusiast. Under the umbrella of his company, Intrepid Aviation, he assembled a collection of historic aircraft. He later sold the company, which he had started as a hobby, feeling it had become too commercial for him to enjoy.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List, his net worth is approximately £115 million.
You Probably Didn’t Know…
Despite his laid-back and modest appearance, David Gilmour’s life outside of his musical career is full of surprising quirks. Before becoming a guitarist with Pink Floyd, he briefly worked as a model in the late 1960s, though fans may be glad he ended up on concert stages and in recording studios rather than on the cover of Vogue.
Another interesting fact many don’t know is that acclaimed and multiple Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, The Ring, King Kong, The Impossible, Birdman, Twin Peaks, The Watcher) is Gilmour’s goddaughter. Naomi’s father, Peter Watts, was Pink Floyd’s roadie in the 1970s, creating an unexpected but lasting bond between the Hollywood star and the legendary musician.
Gilmour’s other often-overlooked side is his deep commitment to charitable work, particularly in the field of environmental protection.
He is a known animal rights activist, supporting numerous organizations dedicated to the protection of wild and domestic animals. In 2003, for example, he sold his London mansion for £3.6 million, donating the proceeds to Crisis, a British charity working to address homelessness.
