Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour appeared in a new episode of Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and recalled his modeling career before ever getting into his music career.
In the interview to promote his new album, ‘Luck And Strange,’ the rocker was asked about the modeling rumors. “Well, that was my life’s course, but I failed, you know? I had to go for second-best and be a musician,” Gilmour revealed.
When asked if he ever really modeled, the singer replied, “Yeah. I mean… People would offer you money.”
In addition to modeling, he had another job as well. “I was working as a van driver at that moment in time, and my wages as a van driver was £7 a week. No, they weren’t. I’m lying. That was what I got when I first joined Pink Floyd. No, it was £15 a week. True story,” the vocalist admitted. “But I was getting £15 a week for driving a van eight hours a day. One day of modeling, and you get £50. So it’s like… I mean, come on. I mean, these jobs didn’t come flying along all the time. It was a way of building up my resources to buy a new guitar or something that I actually needed.”
Shortly before becoming a Pink Floyd member, Gilmour busked around France and Spain with friends, living daily for food and a place to sleep. Under those poor conditions, he even ended up being treated for malnutrition in a hospital. During that period, the rocker needed to work in various jobs, from being a driver to serving as an assistant to a fashion designer.
During a 2003 interview with Record Collector, the guitarist shared how his career in male modeling started after his two previous jobs.
“I was hanging about in London for moments in the mid-’60s. I was getting a little bored with Cambridge. Being in a band, gigging two to five times a week, there wasn’t much money around,” he explained. “We’d get an average of A320 to A325 a gig to share between six or seven people. Every once in a while, someone I knew would say that they wanted someone to go up to Santa Pod Raceway next week and sit in a stupid motor with stupid clothes on and have your photo taken.”
Gilmour did add that he didn’t work with any agency, and only did it for a few days, so he didn’t think of himself as a male model.
Gilmour is currently on tour promoting ‘Luck and Strange.’ He is set to perform two more nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City this weekend.
