Pink Floyd legend David Gilmour is actively interested in selling the band’s catalog, but not because of the financial windfall it would surely bring him. Instead, it’s one less headache he’d have to deal with moving forward.
“To be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going is my dream,” he explained in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “I am not interested in that from a financial standpoint. I’m only interested in it from getting out of the mud bath that it has been for quite a while.”
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The “mud bath” Gilmour speaks is likely in reference to his contentious relationship with former Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters, whom Gilmour described as a “misogynistic, antisemitic, Putin apologist” in 2023. That marked just one relatively recent incident from decades of tension and conflict between the two.
In 2022, Pink Floyd first explored a catalog sale, but these discussions fell apart due to infighting among the band members and a round of inflammatory comments from Waters, which made prospective buyers wary to move forward. According to the Financial Times, the catalog sale would hover somewhere around $500 million if it were to proceed.
While these talks remain on the back burner, Gilmour has been focusing on his latest solo effort, Luck and Strange, which he will be promoting on a fall tour (grab tickets here). He described the LP as “the best album I’ve made in all those years since 1973 when The Dark Side of the Moon came out.”
Over the past few years, a number of legendary artists have sold their catalogs for enormous amounts of money. Recent example have included Bruce Springsteen selling his master recordings and publishing rights to Sony for $500 million, while Red Hot Chili Peppers reached a deal with Hipgnosis Songs for $140 million.