Beloved Pink Floyd Touring Member Dead at 83
Pink Floyd's David Gilmour shared some unfortunate news on Friday afternoon.
Gilmour wrote in an Instagram post that his "dear friend" and Pink Floyd's saxophonist, Dick Parry, passed away on Friday morning.
"Since I was seventeen, I have played in bands with Dick on saxophone, including Pink Floyd," Gilmour wrote in his caption. "His feel and tone make his saxophone playing unmistakable, a signature of enormous beauty that is known to millions and is such a big part of songs such as 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond,' 'Wish You Were Here,' 'Us and Them' and 'Money.'"
Parry, who was born on Dec. 22, 1942, was an English saxophonist who heavily contributed to many of Pink Floyd's songs. He started his career as a musician in the 1960s, first with The Soul Committee, a group based in Cambridge. He and Gilmour were lifelong friends, and the Pink Floyd guitarist asked Parry to join them for recording sessions for their albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Division Bell, as well as the rock band's world tours that took place between 1973 and 1977, and in 1994.
Outside of Pink Floyd, Parry also toured with The Who, and worked with various artists such as Banco de Gaia, JJ Jackson, Jimmy Dawkins, Bloodstone, Violent Femmes and more.
In a 1994 Q&A, Gilmour revealed that he and Parry had not spoken in years until one day, a Christmas card from Parry showed up at his door.
"I knew that years ago he had sold his saxophones and gone into being a farrier, shoeing horses. And he had apparently given that up as well, and he had bought himself another saxophone a year or so ago, and he just sent me a Christmas card," Gilmour recalled. "I asked him if he felt like auditioning for coming on the tour, to see if he still had his chops together, and he told me that he thought he was playing better than he'd ever played. And I got him down to the boat to have a little audition. And he played about three phrases and myself and Bob [Ezrin] said, 'Fine, he's still got it. Screw this auditioning business. See if we can stick him on something.'"
"Here are some pictures of him, including one of him and me playing for the ABC Minors at the Victoria Cinema in Cambridge in 1963," Gilmour concluded in his tribute, and shared four pictures of Parry performing with him and Pink Floyd throughout the years.
Parry was 83 years old when he passed.
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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 1:27 PM.