What Pink Floyd Member Went Crazy?

If you’ve heard the epic rock music of Pink Floyd, you know one thing for sure – these guys were far from ordinary. Their songs take listeners on psychedelic journeys into the weird and wild. But Pink Floyd has a crazy origin story that many fans don’t know. What band member went off the deep end in the early days? Keep reading to uncover the truth.

The godfather of the bizarre Pink Floyd sound was none other than Syd Barrett, their super talented but troubled original frontman. Barrett wrote trippy, experimental songs inspired by his own epic intake of psychedelic drugs like LSD. For a while, the drugs seemed to expand his creativity. But eventually, they became too much for Syd to handle.

From Mind-Bending Music Pioneer to Man Over the Edge

When Pink Floyd first hit the big time, the sudden pressures of fame reportedly triggered anxiety in Barrett. To cope, he took more LSD than even his bandmates realized. And the side effects were intensifying behind the scenes.

On stage, Barrett’s behavior was becoming freakishly erratic. Sometimes he would stop playing halfway through a song and stare blankly into space for minutes on end. Other times he would angrily bash a single off-key guitar chord over and over. Following one awful 1967 TV appearance where Syd wandered away mid-performance, his concerned bandmates knew they needed backup.

That’s when David Gilmour entered the picture. As Barrett’s mental stability spiraled, Gilmour initially came in to help cover his unpredictability onstage. But eventually Syd’s condition went off the rails entirely.

When the Brilliant Light Burned Out

The guys in Pink Floyd struggled with the decision, but by 1968 there was no denying that Barrett had become entirely unreliable due to drug overuse. For the band to survive at the height of their fame, they had to carry on without him.

After his split from the group, Barrett withdrew further into seclusion and mental illness. He died in 2006 after a battle with cancer, leaving behind one of music’s most legendary tales of fragile genius gone heartbreakingly wrong at 27 years old.

The Barrett Effect Lives On

Though his recording career with Pink Floyd was incredibly short, Barrett’s creative DNA survived through the band’s music for decades. Echoes of his genius underscore many of their most epic songs about absence and longing for clarity.

For example, Wish You Were Here – considered one of the band’s masterpieces – features tracks widely believed to reference their lost bandmate Syd. Songs like “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” touch on themes of fragile brilliance blazing bright and fading too soon.

Opening up About Mental Health Through Music

While Barrett’s excessive 1960s drug use was extreme, his story connects to a larger issue in the creative world. Many artistic geniuses have struggled with mental health, amplified by fame.

In part by processing Barrett’s tragically early decline into madness, Pink Floyd’s music opened doors for more open conversations about psychological struggles. If one of history’s greatest rock bands can pen entire albums exploring mental fragility and the loss of their former leader to it, why should anyone suffer silently alone?

Barrett’s spirit lives on through the wonderfully weird music he set free. Thanks to the ripple effect of albums like Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, his unconventionally creative legacy continues inspiring art today.