Barrett: "Who are my idols? Well, Steve Cropper is an obvious choice, and so is Bo Diddley. In the old days, he was a great influence on both me and the group. No, I don't think they influence me now. At least I'm not conscious of it." -- Beat Instrumental, October 1967

Waters: "Like everyone else in England, I listened to Radio Luxembourg, a pirate station. They played rock & roll, like Bill Haley and English acts with stupid invented names like Tommy Steele and Billy Fury. Seven or eight years later, the Beatles changed all that. In the meantime I fell in love with Leadbelly, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Art Blakey, Monk, and Mingus. The blues is at the root of everything I do." -- Rolling Stone, July 28, 2005

Gilmour: "My parents sung well, my brother played flute, and my sister the violin, and I was always interested in music. Folk and blues at first: Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and all those people. Subsequently, Elvis Presley and that whole thing. I used to listen to a station called 'Radio Luxembourg' out of Europe, and try to learn all the parts of my favorite songs--bass, rhythm guitar, lead. Naturally it took a while, often involving 20 passes or more at the song during a week's time!" -- Fender Frontline magazine, Winter 1993

Barrett: "Then I joined a local Cambridge group called Jeff Mott and the Mottos.... We did a lot of work at private parties. And some of our material was original, but mostly we stuck to Shadows' instrumentals and a few American songs. Eventually the group dissolved and I moved into the blues field, this time playing bass." -- Beat Instrumental, October 1967

Wright: "We started out like everyone else playing R&B classics, but with Syd the direction changed. It became more improvised." --BBC's Later with Jools Holland

Mason: "We already played three or four of Syd Barrett's songs. The rest, which means 90% of our repertoire, consisted of Rolling Stones and Bo Diddley songs, as well as some old blues." -- March 1973

Robert Wyatt: "I think the Floyd just got it absolutely right at that time because I think they were closer to rock when they started. They played sort of rhythm and blues and, as far as I know, their name is based on King Floyd. Syd Barrett was actually much more at home in rhythm and blues related music." -- BBC's "The Sounds of a City", circa 1985

interviewer: "Did you start out as a fan of the blues?"
Gilmour: "I was a blues fan but I was an all-around music fan. For me it was Leadbelly through B.B. King and later Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and anyone you care to mention. Mark Knopfler has a lovely, refreshing guitar style. He brought back something that seemed to have gone astray in guitar playing."
interviewer: "Was there a particular song or songs that sparked you to imitate another player?"
Gilmour: "Of course, there were many. I was trying to learn 12-string acoustic guitar like Leadbelly at the same time I was trying to learn lead guitar like Hank Marvin and later Clapton. All of those different things had their moments and filtered through my learning process. These days I don't listen to other people with the objective of trying to steal their licks, although I've got no objections to stealing them if that seems like a good idea. I'm sure that I'm still influenced by Mark Knopfler and Eddie Van Halen as well." -- Guitar Classics, January 1985

Gilmour: "My style is a mish-mash, really. A combination of blues licks, guitar solos I've learned from the past, all sorts of lovely, lovely tunes--for instance those from musicals like West Side Story. You just put it all together, bit by bit. Every time you've learned someone else's melody, from any type of music, that melody gets inside your brain a little. Eventually, something from what is learned is going to be regurgitated into something else you do." -- Fender Frontline magazine, Winter 1993.

interviewer: "It often seems to me that you use blues motifs, blues-sounding things and somehow weld them into what the Floyd does. 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2's' solo is very bluesy really."
Gilmour: "Yes - but that's rather an atypical solo."
interviewer: "It's a well-known one!"
Gilmour: "Yes, it is a well-known one. But it's an unusual type of solo, an unusual sort of sound for me that one."
interviewer: "The beginning of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' sounds almost like Peter Green."
Gilmour: "Does it? Thank you (laughs) we try! Yes, it's obviously largely based in blues stuff. I've got a background in that--psychedelia and blues coming together is obviously a large part of what I do I suppose." -- Sounds "Guitar Heroes", May 1983

Waters: "What's always great is playing the blues. Twelve-bar blues, straight up. Nothing better than that. When Eric [Clapton] was in my band, back in '85, we'd play the blues during soundcheck. In Pink Floyd I was being savaged--because Dave [Gilmour] and Rick [Wright] were kind of insecure, they'd always try to attack me, saying I sang out of tune or I couldn't really play. I said something about that to Eric, and he said, 'Are you fucking crazy? You're a great bass player.' I went, 'Oh, yeah, maybe I am.' I would be totally happy to be standing at the back of a stage playing the blues hour after hour...." -- Rolling Stone, July 28, 2005

interviewer: "Why don't you play blues anymore?"
Mason: "Playing them on certain occasions, like in the Rainbow last year, is fun. Every night, on the other hand, would be boring." -- March 1973