10 Musicians Who Decided To Quit Huge Bands

The rock-star lifestyle ends up taking a massive toll on your body. For as much physical endurance you put your body through while onstage, a lot of musicians end up self-medicating through booze and drugs to help keep themselves sane. However, when you start hitting your anesthetics a little too hard, you end up a different person than you were going in.

Such is the case for Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, who led the band to the top of the psychedelic rock scene with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Though the band seemed to be going steady for a little while, Barrett’s behavior while under the influence of psychedelics started to take a toll on his live performances, including one show where he stared aimlessly into the audience while ambient feedback played in the background.

Bringing in David Gilmour to fill out the sound, Barrett soon found himself at his wit’s end and opted to step away from Pink Floyd, becoming a symbol for the rest of his bandmates as to what going too far looks like. Once the band ended up paying tribute to their friend on Wish You Were Here, Barrett came back to the band looking like a shell of his former self. Fame can be a wonderful thing, but when you find that you’re not yourself, things can go downhill really fast.