This awfully sad story via The New York Times:

LONDON (AP) — Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

Pink Floyd’s spokesman, Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group’s jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia ”happenings” made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, ”The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group’s dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and played the keyboard.

”Rick’s keyboards were an integral park of the Pink Floyd sound,” said Joe Boyd, a prominent record producer who worked with Pink Floyd early in its career.

This indeed is very sad news. I’ve listened to Pink Floyd for years.

Here’s a great video of theirs:

May he rest in peace.