David Gilmour has never been averse to chatting to the press, but over the weekend, the Telegraph got something of a rarity, a joint interview with both Gilmour and his creative partner of the last 30-odd years, Polly Samson.
Samson is, of course, not just Gilmour’s wife. She’s also been his lyricist, on all his 21st Century solo work as well as the final two Pink Floyd albums, 1994’s The Division Bell and The Endless River from 2014.
She’s also turned photographer and is publishing a book of photos she took on Gilmour’s recent Luck And Strange tour – the pair’s daughter, Romany, was also in Gilmour’s band, so she was able to get the sort of access that most snappers can only dream of.
In a wide-ranging interview, Gilmour talked about his collaboration last year with Ice T and Body Count on their version of Comfortably Numb. It was “fun” according to the guitarist. “It was quite a culture clash. I think I was bullied into it.”
Samson also revealed the killer line with which her husband asked her out on their first date: “He rang me up and said, ‘Can you help me out? I’ve got to go to this charity thing at the Café Royal. ’He said, ‘If I don’t take someone, women will be throwing themselves at me all night.’”
Inevitably, talk turned to Roger Waters. Famously, Samson took to Twitter/X in February 2023 and, not mincing her words, condemned Waters as “anti-Semitic” to the “rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy megalomaniac.” Gilmour backed up his wife 100%, adding, “Every word demonstrably true.”
It seems part of the reason behind her tirade is that she thought many people were getting Waters confused with Gilmour. “The reason I did it was because Pink Floyd are quite a faceless band. Everywhere I went, there’s a chance that people thought I was married to the one who said things like that. And it wasn’t a great feeling.” When asked by the interviewer if she thought people didn't know the difference between the two Pink Floyd members, Samson said: “I mean, we do. But lots and lots of people of my age don’t.”
She continued: “If they knew you’re married to someone from Pink Floyd, half the time people were giving me quite strange looks and it was really uncomfortable and I just wanted to draw a line and make it clear that these were not views held by me or the person I was married to.”
And the answer to the question of what it would take for Gilmour to feel comfortable performing with Waters again is, of course: “Nothing. There is no possible way that I would do that.”
