Snowy White recently spoke with Andrew Daly of Guitar World about his experience working with Pink Floyd and how David Gilmour gave him opportunities to exhibit his skills, even in lead sections. White described the process of preparing for a tour with Pink Floyd as follows: “Once again, it was casual. They provided me all the CDs before we went on the road, and I sat at home and listened to them, paying special attention to the songs they wanted me to play live. ‘Wish You Were Here,’ the first record I played, was fairly excellent, with some lovely guitar playing. So that calmed me down a little and made me think, ‘This is something I can handle, and maybe I can even add something here.'”
Then he explained how they divided the guitar parts and Gilmour’s kindness in lending him some lead parts: “When we arrived at rehearsals, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do and what was expected of me on each track.” It had some bass, some acoustic, some rhythm, some harmony, and even some lead, as Dave put it. Dave was really liberal with the leads and gave me opportunities to shine. He had a fantastic feel for the tunes and would queue me in when he wanted me to lead or when he wanted me to follow.” In the same interview, White claimed that he was first hesitant to work with Pink Floyd because he was uninterested in their music. The guitarist elaborated: “At first, I ignored the calls because, at the time, I was a fairly narrow-minded blues player who didn’t know much about Pink Floyd and didn’t care much to find out.” To be honest, I assumed they were drug-crazed hippies [laughs].
They’d been fiddling about with all kinds of weird stuff, none of which piqued my curiosity. As a result, I did not call them. ‘Snowy, why don’t you phone them?’ remarked someone else. This would be an excellent opportunity for you.’ So I considered it, and I did.” Snowy White was a member of Pink Floyd’s subsequent concert tours in 1977 and 1980, promoting the albums ‘Animals’ and ‘The Wall.’ Rick Wright asked White to perform guitar on his 1978 solo album, ‘Wet Dream.’ His involvement with Pink Floyd did not end there. Snowy was invited to perform with Roger Waters at the magnificent ‘The Wall’ concert in Berlin in June 1990.
