Award-winning singer-songwriter Sarah King is back with new music for the first time since her cancer diagnosis in 2024 with a touching version of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” dedicated to her late father.
Having been released on June 19, right before Father’s Day, the collaborative single is King’s first in the past two years, having spent time dealing with medical challenges, grief, and recovery.
King paired up with her longtime friend John Galgano (IZZ, Renaissance), to record the cover. This was originally tracked during studio time that King received for participating in and winning The Great River Folk Festival Songwriter Competition of 2023. The remote recording of the song features King’s vocals together with Galgano’s instrumental arrangement.
This release also shows the relationship between King and her voice after treatment from her diagnosis of thyroid cancer just days after the release of her first solo album When It All Goes Down in 2024. King stepped away from performing and underwent multiple surgeries, radiotherapy, and vocal therapy. Though she returned to performing in 2025, she suffered another loss when her father died unexpectedly that summer.
King stated that her father encouraged her musical endeavors and would attend her shows.
“My dad had become my biggest supporter”
Sarah King
There was more significance attached to “Wish You Were Here” in the course of making it. King and Galgano used to perform the song together casually and even discussed making a record of it someday years before. After Galgano lost his father this year, both King and Galgano felt the need to release the song to honor their fathers.
The recording brings out a new side of King. She is known to give out strong vocal performances but with this she shows her ability to work with restraint and atmosphere, like when doing improvisations with her vocals which were inspired by Pink Floyd’s song “The Great Gig in the Sky”. King described the process as a way “to prove to myself I could still sing.”
King is still creating even though she hasn’t mentioned any future tour dates or concerts. In addition to her work in music, King is busy writing a memoir of the past two years of her life.
Sarah King’s cover of “Wish You Were Here” is available now.
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