Roger Waters says ‘close quarters’ encounter with Syd Barrett influenced Wish You Were Here

An encounter with former bandmate Syd Barrett influenced the making of Wish You Were Here, according to bassist Roger Waters.

The veteran songwriter would take over as leader of the band when Barrett left. Though the “huge shock” which influenced Pink Floyd‘s 1975 album is no secret, Waters shared in an interview in 2003 that there were “elements” of Barrett’s mental illness in the album. Barrett visited the studio where Pink Floyd were recording Wish You Were Here, much to the surprise of his former bandmates. The band had been mixing Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a song dedicated to and about Barrett. According to cover artist Storm Thorgerson, a handful of people who saw Barrett that day were reduced to tears, and it seems the effect of his visited lasted long after he left the studio.

Thorgerson said: “Two or three people cried. He sat round and talked for a bit but he wasn’t really there.” Guitarist David Gilmour confirmed Barrett was only in the studio for “two or three days” but the brief appearance from their former frontman left an impact on the recording process.

Waters would suggest as much in a 2003 interview with Uncut Magazine, where he said seeing Barrett’s condition up close affected him and his bandmates deeply. A song featured on The Dark Side of the Moon was also affected by Barrett’s departure from the band, according to Waters.

He suggested both Brain Damage and Shine On You Crazy Diamond were adaptations of how the band felt about Barrett. Waters said: “Absolutely! It was a huge shock to me to see the ravages of schizophrenia at those close quarters.”

The songwriter would go on to suggest it was one of the “elements” featured in The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. He said: “Yeah, maybe. I think that’s certainly one of the elements. There’s no way to deal with it. Certainly there wasn’t with Syd.”

Waters would go on to confirm the band had no contact with him as he “doesn’t like to be reminded of his times with the band.” This would remain the case for Barrett, who had no contact with the band after the Wish You Were Here recording process. He would bump into Waters accidentally while shopping in Harrods, though the encounter saddened the bassist behind The Wall.

He recalled: “The last time I saw him was a couple of years after he turned up at the Wish You Were Here sessions. I bumped into him in Harrods, where he used to go to buy sweets. But we didn’t speak – he sort of scuttled away.”

Following Barret’s departure from the band, Waters would step in as leader. He said of the change in roles: “I’m perfectly happy being a leader. In fact, I know I can be an oppressive personality because I bubble with ideas and schemes, and in a way, it was easier for the others simply to go along with me.

“We rarely used to see each other socially, although I used to get on with Nick Mason alright. For a limited time, in the early days of the group, we did mix socially. Because there is something rather appealing about a group together on the road. But that soon palls. And things like families make sure that cycle comes to an end.”