His influence on progressive rock cannot be denied. Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an artist at his core, a musician secondly. Much has been speculated about what happened to Pink Floyd's "crazy diamond"(much of it silly rumour). Debates over it can set any fan group ablaze with emotional comments. To some, he was deranged to the hilt. To others, he was but a thoroughly misunderstood man that just wanted to left alone. Sifting the fact from the fiction is enough to make a sane person crazy. Friends and discerning fans have been hard pressed to debunk the rumours. People will believe whatever they choose despite their best efforts and explanation in biographies. Underneath it all, though, was a simple man that lived simply, loved to paint, visited museums and gardening shows alone and unaided, took holidays with his family and quietly jotted notes in numerous notebooks as an attempt to write a book on art history. Roger Barrett passed away in 2006.