How Syd Barrett's 1967 US Tour Chaos Forced Pink Floyd to Hire David Gilmour as a Fifth Member

The 1967 US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience was the breaking point. Syd Barrett’s onstage behavior had already been slipping, but in America it became impossible to ignore—he’d detune his guitar mid-song, stare blankly at the crowd, or simply stop playing. The band had to finish sets without him, and road manager Peter Jenner recalled that Hendrix’s crew openly mocked them. The other three—Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright—realized they couldn’t continue this way, so they secretly approached David Gilmour, a childhood friend of Syd’s, to join as a fifth member and