Pink Floyd’s founding members Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright created, performed, and released works that became inseparable parts of British psychedelic music. However, the four artists couldn’t remain together for various reasons. Following David Gilmour’s joining them and Barrett’s departure because of his worsening mental health problems changed the band’s destiny forever.
The Waters-led era began, and they dropped the Pink Floyd classics such as ‘The Dark Side of the Moon,’ ‘Wish You Were Here,’ ‘Animals,’ and ‘The Wall,’ which hit the charts and sold millions of copies all around the world. In time, the Pink Floyd members proved they were extraordinarily gifted instrumentalists, songwriters, and composers. Still, the drummer Nick Mason and his wife had some controversial comments about the Pink Floyd icons.
Nick Mason On Pink Floyd Members’ Auditions
In one of his interviews with The Sun, Mason talked about the famous pop boy band One Direction, including Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik, which were extremely popular and well-known at the time. He praised the young musicians for their ‘The X Factor’ performance in which they finished in third place. Then, Mason started to express his thoughts on hiring an artist for a band.
According to Mason, the standards were higher now compared to his times in which the band members mainly were friends that loved making music together or joined the group by chance or a recommendation. However, there’s no doubt that the managers and record companies were strict about finding the proper musician and performer, considering the music industry’s competitive atmosphere and the whole show business.
The Pink Floyd drummer shared a conversation between him and his wife, Annette Lynton, saying that she thought that Pink Floyd wouldn’t have recruited Mason if they had had auditions to choose musicians. Mason stated that he agreed with her and made another statement that caused various disagreements. The artist claimed that Waters, Barrett, and others wouldn’t also be Pink Floyd members if there were an audition to hire them.
In Mason’s words, he stated:
“The standard of musicians is higher now than it was in my day. My wife said to me if they’d had auditions for Pink Floyd, I wouldn’t have gotten in, and I said she was right. But then neither would Roger Waters or Syd Barrett or anyone.”
Moreover, even though the drummer can be found right about today’s auditions, it’s hard to deny the fact that some of the band members from next-generation bands were hired just for their look or image rather than their musical talent. As a reaction to Mason’s statement, the fans expressed their harsh criticism. Most of them highlighted that finding extraordinary musicians like Waters, Mason, and Barrett was impossible, considering their contributions to the band’s sound and rock music.
