Rick Wright
We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it.
We fought during 'The Wall,' which was an album Waters wrote, based on his family story, we clashed long before that, during the period of the Dark Side and 'Wish You Were Here.' Actually, we never got along.
There is no way that I could play music and take any kind of drug at the same time.
The late 60's was a purely experimental time in the band's history. But it was a learning process. By the 70's we'd consolidated ourselves and we knew what we could do: what we could write, what we could play. Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here was a very enjoyable time.
The fact that people still know us is, in my opinion, a result of our music and of the big money that runs the music industry today. The people who control the industry are accountants who recycle everything in new, nostalgic packages, and everything else, to make more money.
Pink Floyd is like a marriage that's on a permanent trial separation.
My best times in the band were in the middle of the '60s. In the beginning we used to do jam sessions. We would start playing long tracks, that we never knew how and when they'll be over. But maybe also because this period of the sixties in London was very special. Nowadays, there aren't many musicians out of art schools, like it was then.
It was in 'The Wall' that Roger really lost his mind. He was convinced that he is Pink Floyd and that he doesn't need me nor Nick Mason. I wasn't in a state to argue about that, because we were financially ruined. I made a decision and left, and then he left, and I came back. Since then, he's mad at all of us.
If the band wouldn't have made it, I probably would've been a photographer. Being an architect never interested me.
I wrote the tunes and sang only nonsense words. Then came Moore and dressed them with the lyrics.
I thought punk was good because it bought me back to the UFO Club days. At last I thought there was something that had come along and was really pushing the boundaries. Unfortunately, I didn't like the music, but I liked the whole movement and people like Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
I don't know if it was writer's block, but I became very lazy. After Identity in 1984 I went off to live in Greece, in an environment that was not very conducive to playing music. I lost touch, if you like. I was happy sailing my yacht around the Greek islands (laughs), but now I look back and think "Perhaps it was a bit of a waste of time".
I always felt we were on our own, but I was aware of the bands that were around at this time: groups like Genesis, Yes and Led Zeppelin. I listened to all of those groups and I liked some of them. I always liked Genesis with Peter Gabriel, but I rather lost interest when he left.