“One of my kids comes up to me years later and showed me a picture of me – I think at a Knebworth concert – with a great big joint in my hand”: How David Gilmour was caught out over his claim he never smoked

David Gilmour has debunked one of the many myths that have grown up around Pink Floyd over the years.

In an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Gilmour told the host about the title track of Wish You Were Here. It opens, you may recall, with the sound of an analogue radio, some static and someone coughing. The urban legend is that it’s Gilmour who is doing the coughing and hearing it back convinced him to quit smoking. Not so, says the veteran guitarist.

David Gilmour Addresses The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz Synchronization Rumor - YouTube

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Gilmour told Fallon about an incentive his father offered when he was 14 - If he reached the age of 17 without smoking, he could learn how to drive. The young lad stuck to his promise, but unfortunately his dad forgot about his end of the deal and didn’t teach him.

“You might think that would send me immediately off to buy a pack (of cigarettes),” Gilmour said. “But it didn’t. I never smoked.”

Gilmour then explained that he had made the same deal with his kids, “and would honour it,” he pointed out. “Come the advent of the Internet one of my kids comes up to me years later and showed me a picture of me – I think at a Knebworth concert – standing with Paul McCartney and I had a great big joint in my hand.” Much paternal embarrassment ensued.

The guitarist also pooh-poohed the myth about how Dark Side Of The Moon was written to deliberately synchronise with The Wizard Of Oz. "I only heard about it years later," Gilmour said. "Someone said you put the needle on - vinyl, you know... you've got the film running somehow, and on the third roar of the MGM line, you put the needle on for the beginning of Dark Side and there's these strange synchronicities that happen."

Gilmour said that fans have done this and posted their resulting clips on YouTube. "There are some strange coincidences," he toldFallon. "I'll call them coincidences."

The 78-year-old is currently promoting his Luck And Strange album which was another Number One for him in September. This week sees him in the middle of a five night run at New York’s Madison Square Garden.