When it comes to famous bands, some stories are kept out of the public.
So you won’t hear about this Pink Floyd story in places like Wikipedia. This shocking tale comes from loudersound.com, and allegedly from the mouth of shock rock god, Alice Cooper himself.
First, some context:
In 1968, a fairly new Pink Floyd was in California for a gig. For the past three years, the band had been building a following with Syd Barrett on lead guitar and lead vocals, and Roger Waters on bass and secondary vocals. The band had just signed with EMI Records and were a few months into their tour of the U.S.
If you were around at this time, you might remember this tour, or at least saw Barrett with Pink Floyd on shows like Dick Clark and Pat Boone. Barrett was the guy who seemed totally disengaged during the interviews, sometimes just staring off into space when he was supposed to be talking. It wouldn’t be long before Barrett would leave Pink Floyd altogether.
But we’re not there yet! First, the night in question.
During the tour, Pink Floyd was booked to perform at the same venue in Los Angeles as the Alice Cooper Band (before Cooper went solo). Since Cooper‘s whole band lived in a house in Venice Beach, Pink Floyd decided to crash at their pad.
At this time, the Alice Cooper Band wasn’t doing so well. California just wasn’t that shocked by Cooper‘s brand of shock rock. Seems with the Hollywood way of life, there wasn’t much that would raise an eyebrow in those days. The band didn’t start gaining momentum until they relocated to Michigan in 1970.
While Pink Floyd was staying at their house, the Alice Cooper Band had an audition to play at a club in Hollywood. So they invited their guests to come along. And here’s where the story gets good… – Wendy