George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock bandPink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriterSyd Barrett in 1968, Waters became Pink Floyd's lyricist, co-lead vocalist and conceptual leader until his departure in 1985.
Waters incorporates political themes in his work, many of them considered radical. He supports socialism, has defendedVladimir Putin, and has been ruled by a court to have made defamatory comments.[2] Waters is a prominentsupporter of Palestine in theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. He supports theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and describes Israel's treatment of Palestiniansas apartheid. Elements of his live show and some of his comments, such as his likening of Israel toNazi Germany, have drawn accusations ofantisemitism, which Waters has dismissed asa conflation withanti-Zionism. Waters has been banned, cancelled or sanctioned by a wide variety of entities in reaction to his comments. Those who have acted against him includeMajor League Baseball,BMG, the German city ofFrankfurt, multipleArgentine hotels, as well as the country ofPoland.
Early years
Waters was born on 6 September 1943, the younger of two boys, to Mary (née Whyte; 1913–2009) and Eric Fletcher Waters (1914–1944), inGreat Bookham,Surrey.[3] His father, the son of acoal miner andLabour Party activist, was a schoolteacher, a devout Christian, and aCommunist Party member.[4] His older brother, John, predeceased him.[5]
In the early years of theSecond World War, Waters's father was aconscientious objector who drove an ambulance duringthe Blitz.[4] He later changed his stance onpacifism, joined theTerritorial Army and was commissioned into the 8th Battalion,Royal Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant on 11 September 1943.[6] He was killed five months later on 18 February 1944 atAprilia, during theBattle of Anzio, when Roger was five months old.[7] He is commemorated in Aprilia and at theCassino War Cemetery.[8] On 18 February 2014, Waters unveiled a monument to his father and other war casualties in Aprilia, Italy and was made an honorary citizen of Anzio.[9] Following her husband's death, Mary Waters, also a teacher, moved with her two sons toCambridge and raised them there.[10] Waters's earliest memory is of theV-J Day celebrations.[11]
Waters attended Morley Memorial Junior School in Cambridge and then theCambridgeshire High School for Boys (nowHills Road Sixth Form College) withSyd Barrett.[12] The future Pink Floyd guitaristDavid Gilmour lived nearby onMill Road and attendedthe Perse School.[13] At 15, Waters was chairman of the Cambridge YouthCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND),[14] having designed its publicity poster and participated in its organisation.[15] He was a keen sportsman and a highly regarded member of the high school's cricket and rugby teams.[16] He was unhappy at school, saying: "I hated every second of it, apart from games. The regime at school was a very oppressive one ... The same kids who are susceptible to bullying by other kids are also susceptible to bullying by the teachers."[17]
By September 1963, Waters and Mason had lost interest in their studies and moved into the lower flat of Stanhope Gardens, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic.[20] Waters, Mason and Wright first played music together in late 1963, in a band formed by the vocalist Keith Noble and bassist Clive Metcalfe.[21] They usually called themselves Sigma 6, but also used the name the Meggadeaths.[15] Waters played rhythm guitar, Mason played drums, Wright played any keyboard he could arrange to use, and Noble's sister Sheilagh provided occasional vocals.[22] In the early years the band performed during private functions and rehearsed in atearoom in the basement of Regent Street Polytechnic.[23]
When Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own group in September 1963, the remaining members asked Barrett and the guitaristBob Klose to join.[24] Waters switched to the bass. By January 1964, the group became known as the Abdabs, or the Screaming Abdabs.[25] During late 1964, the band used the names Leonard's Lodgers, Spectrum Five, and eventually, the Tea Set.[26] In late 1965, the Tea Set had changed their name to the Pink Floyd Sound, later the Pink Floyd Blues Band and, by early 1966, Pink Floyd.[27]
By early 1966, Barrett was Pink Floyd's frontman, guitarist, and songwriter.[28] He wrote or co-wrote all but one track of their debut LPThe Piper at the Gates of Dawn, released in August 1967.[29] Waters contributed the song "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" (his first sole writing credit) to the album.[30] By late 1967, Barrett's deteriorating mental health and increasingly erratic behaviour[31] rendered him "unable or unwilling"[32] to continue in his capacity as Pink Floyd's songwriter and lead guitarist.[29]
In early March 1968, to discuss the band's future, Barrett, Mason, Waters, and Wright met with the band's managers,Peter Jenner andAndrew King, of the rock music management company they had all founded,Blackhill Enterprises. Barrett agreed to leave Pink Floyd, and the band "agreed to Blackhill's entitlement in perpetuity" regarding "past activities".[33] Their new manager,Steve O'Rourke, made a formal announcement about the departure of Barrett and the arrival of Gilmour in April 1968.[34]
Waters-led period
A live performance ofThe Dark Side of the Moon atEarls Court Exhibition Centre, shortly after its release in 1973: (l–r) David Gilmour, Nick Mason,Dick Parry, Roger Waters
Waters said he wanted to "drag [Pink Floyd] kicking and screaming back from the borders of space, from the whimsy that Syd was into, to my concerns, which were much more political and philosophical".[38] He became a dominant songwriter and the band's principal lyricist, sharing lead vocals with Gilmour and sometimes Wright. Throughout the late 1970s, he was the band's dominant creative figure until his departure in 1985.[35] He wrote most of the lyrics to the five Pink Floyd albums preceding his departure, starting withThe Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and ending withThe Final Cut (1983), while exerting progressively more creative control. Every Waters studio album fromThe Dark Side of the Moon onwards has been aconcept album.[39]
With lyrics entirely by Waters,The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most successful rock albums ever. It spent 736 consecutive weeks on theBillboard 200 chart—until July 1988—and sold over 40 million copies worldwide. As of 2005, it continued to sell over 8,000 copies a week.[40] According to the Pink Floyd biographer Glenn Povey,Dark Side of the Moon is the world's second-bestselling album and the United States' 21st-bestselling album.[41] In 2006, asked if he felt his goals forDark Side had been accomplished, Waters said his wife wept the first time he played it for her: "You then hear it with fresh ears when you play it for somebody else. And at that point I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is a pretty complete piece of work,' and I had every confidence that people would respond to it.[42]
Waters's thematic ideas became the impetus for the concept albumsThe Dark Side of the Moon (1973),Wish You Were Here (1975),Animals (1977) andThe Wall (1979) — written largely by Waters — andThe Final Cut (1983), written entirely by him.[43] The cost of war and the loss of his father became a recurring theme, from "Corporal Clegg" (A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968) and "Free Four" (Obscured by Clouds, 1972) to "Us and Them" fromThe Dark Side of the Moon, "When the Tigers Broke Free", first used in the feature filmThe Wall (1982), later included with "The Fletcher Memorial Home" onThe Final Cut, an album dedicated to his father.[44] The theme and composition ofThe Wall was influenced by his upbringing in an English society depleted of men after World War II.[45]
The Wall, written almost entirely by Waters, is largely based on his life story.[46] Having sold over 23 millionRIAA certified units in the US as of 2013, is tied for sixth-most certified album of all time in America.[47] Pink Floyd hiredBob Ezrin to co-produce the album and cartoonistGerald Scarfe to illustrate the sleeve art.[48] They embarked onThe Wall Tour of Los Angeles, New York, London, andDortmund, Germany. The last Pink Floyd performance ofThe Wall was on 17 June 1981, at Earls Court London, and this was Pink Floyd's last appearance with Waters until the band's brief reunion at 2 July 2005Live 8 concert in London'sHyde Park, 24 years later.[49]
In March 1983, the last Pink Floyd album with Waters,The Final Cut, was released. It was subtitled, "A requiem for the post-war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd".[50] Waters wrote all the album's lyrics and music. His lyrics were critical of theConservative Party government of the day and mention Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher by name.[51] At the time Gilmour did not have any new material, so he asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused.[52] According to Mason, after power struggles within the band and creative arguments about the album, Gilmour's name "disappeared" from the production credits, though he retained his pay.[53]Rolling Stone gave the album five stars, withKurt Loder describing it as "a superlative achievement" and "art rock's crowning masterpiece".[54] Loder viewed the work as "essentially a Roger Waters solo album".[55]
Departure and legal battles
Amidst creative differences, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and began a legal battle with the band regarding their continued use of the name and material.[56] In December 1985, Waters issued a statement to EMI and CBS invoking the "Leaving Member" clause in his contract. In October 1986, he initiatedHigh Court proceedings to formally dissolve the Pink Floyd partnership. In his submission to the High Court he called Pink Floyd a "spent force creatively."[57] Gilmour and Mason opposed the application and announced their intention to continue as Pink Floyd. Waters said he had been forced to resign like Barrett had been years earlier, and decided to leave the band based on legal considerations, saying: "If I hadn't, the financial repercussions would have wiped me out completely."[58]
Waters did not want the band to use the name Pink Floyd without him. He said later: "I would be distressed ifPaul McCartney andRingo Starr made records and went on the road calling themselvesthe Beatles. IfJohn Lennon's not in it, it's sacrilegious ... To continue with Gilmour and Mason, getting in a whole bunch of other people to write the material, seems to me an insult to the work that came before."[59] In December 1987, Waters and Pink Floyd reached an agreement.[56] Waters was released from his contractual obligation with O'Rourke, and he retained the copyrights to theWall concept and the inflatableAnimalspig.[60] Pink Floyd released three studio albums without him:A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987),The Division Bell (1994) andThe Endless River (2014).[61] According to a 1999 interview with Gilmour, Waters declined an invitation to performThe Dark Side of the Moon with Pink Floyd atEarls Court, London.[59]
In 2005, Waters said the period of his departure had been a "bad, negative time", and that he regretted his part in the negativity: "Why should I have imposed my feeling about the work and what it was worth on the others if they didn't feel the same? I was wrong in attempting to do that."[62] In 2013, Waters said he regretted the lawsuit and had failed to appreciate that the Pink Floyd name had commercial value independent of the band members.[63]
1984–present: solo career
1984–1989:The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking andRadio K.A.O.S.
Waters (top) performingThe Wall – Live in Berlin on 21 July 1990
In 1984, Waters released his first solo album,The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, which dealt with Waters's feelings about monogamy and family life versus "the call of the wild."[64] The protagonist, Reg, finally chooses love and matrimony over promiscuity. The album features the guitaristEric Clapton, the jazz saxophonistDavid Sanborn, and artwork by Gerald Scarfe.[64]Kurt Loder describedThe Pros And Cons of Hitch Hiking as a "strangely static, faintly hideous record".[65]Rolling Stone rated the album a "rock bottom one star".[64] Years later, Mike DeGagne ofAllMusic praised its "ingenious symbolism" and "brilliant use of stream of consciousness within a subconscious realm", rating it four out of five.[66]
Waters toured the album with Clapton, a new band, and new material; the shows included a selection of Pink Floyd songs. Waters débuted his tour in Stockholm on 16 June 1984. The tour drew poor ticket sales and some performances at larger venues were cancelled;[67] Waters estimated that he lost £400,000 on the tour.[68] In March and April 1985, played a tour of smaller venues in North America on a tour called "Pros and Cons Plus Some Old Pink Floyd Stuff".[69]The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking wascertified gold in the US.[70]
In 1986, Waters contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the animated filmWhen the Wind Blows, based onthe book byRaymond Briggs. His band, featuringPaul Carrack, was credited as the Bleeding Heart Band.[71] In 1987, Waters releasedRadio K.A.O.S., a concept album based on a mute man named Billy from an impoverished Welsh mining town who has the ability to tune into radio waves in his head. Billy learns to communicate with a radio DJ, and eventually to control the world's computers. Angry at the state of the world in which he lives, he simulates a nuclear attack. Waters followed the release with a tour.[72]
1989–1999:The Wall – Live in Berlin andAmused to Death
Waters also used an East German symphony orchestra and choir, a Soviet marching band, and a pair of helicopters from the US7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. Designed by Mark Fisher, the wall was 25 metres tall and 170 metres long and was built across the set, and Scarfe's inflatable puppets were recreated on an enlarged scale. Many rock icons received invitations to the show, though Gilmour, Mason, and Wright did not.[75] Waters released a double album of the performance, which has been certified platinum by the RIAA.[76]
In 1990, Waters hired managerMark Fenwick and left EMI for a worldwide deal with Columbia. He released his third studio album,Amused to Death, in 1992. The record was influenced heavily by the events of theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 and theGulf War, and a critique of the notion of war becoming the subject of entertainment, particularly on television. The title was derived from the bookAmusing Ourselves to Death byNeil Postman.Patrick Leonard, who worked onA Momentary Lapse of Reason, co-produced the album.Jeff Beck played lead guitar on many of the album's tracks, which were recorded with a cast of musicians at ten different recording studios.[77]
It is Waters's most critically acclaimed solo recording, garnering comparison to his work with Pink Floyd.[78] Waters described the record as a "stunning piece of work", ranking it alongsideDark Side of the Moon andThe Wall as one of the best of his career.[79] The song "What God Wants, Pt. 1" reached number 35 in the UK in September 1992 and number 5 onBillboard'sMainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US.[80]Amused to Death was certified Silver by theBritish Phonographic Industry.[81]
Sales ofAmused to Death topped out at around one million and there was no tour in support of the album. Waters first performed material from it seven years later during hisIn the Flesh tour.[82] In 1996, Waters was inducted into the US and UKRock and Roll Halls of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd.[83]
1999–2004: In the Flesh tour andWall Broadway production
In 1999, after a 12-year hiatus from touring and a seven-year absence from the music industry, Waters embarked on the In the Flesh tour, performing both solo and Pink Floyd material. The tour was a financial success in the US; though Waters had booked mostly smaller venues, tickets sold so well that many of the concerts were upgraded to larger ones.[84] The tour eventually stretched across the world and spanned three years. A concert film was released on CD and DVD,In the Flesh – Live. During the tour, Waters played two new songs "Flickering Flame" and "Each Small Candle" as the final encore to many of the shows. In June 2002, he completed the tour with a performance in front of 70,000 people at theGlastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, playing 15 Pink Floyd songs and five songs from his solo catalogue.[84]
Miramax announced in 2004 that a production ofThe Wall was to appear on Broadway with Waters playing a prominent role in the creative direction. Reports stated that the musical contained not only the original tracks fromThe Wall, but also songs fromDark Side of the Moon,Wish You Were Here and other Pink Floyd albums, as well as new material.[85] On the night of 1 May 2004, recorded extracts from the opera, including itsoverture, were played on the occasion of theWelcome Europe celebrations in the accession country ofMalta. Gert Hof mixed recorded excerpts from the opera into a continuous piece of music which was played as an accompaniment to a large light and fireworks display overGrand Harbour inValletta.[86] In July 2004, Waters released two new tracks online: "To Kill the Child", inspired by the2003 invasion of Iraq, and "Leaving Beirut", an anti-war song inspired by his travels in the Middle East as a teenager.[87]
2005: Pink Floyd reunion andÇa Ira
Waters (far right) performing with Pink Floyd at Live 8, 2 July 2005Waters playing "In the Flesh" on his Dark Side of the Moon Tour atViking Stadion,Stavanger, 26 June 2006
In July 2005, Waters reunited with Mason, Wright, and Gilmour for their final performance together at the 2005Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park, Pink Floyd's only appearance with Waters since their final performance ofThe Wall at Earls Court London 24 years earlier.[88] They played a 23-minute set consisting of "Speak to Me/Breathe"/"Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and "Comfortably Numb". Waters told theAssociated Press that while the experience of playing with Pink Floyd again was positive, the chances of a bona fide reunion would be "slight" considering his and Gilmour's continuing musical and ideological differences.[89] Though Waters had differing ideas about which songs they should play, he "agreed to roll over for one night only".[90] In November 2005, Pink Floyd were inducted into theUK Music Hall of Fame byPete Townshend ofthe Who.[91]
In September 2005, Waters releasedÇa Ira (pronounced[saiˈʁa], French for "it will be fine"; Waters added the subtitle, "There is Hope"), an opera in three acts translated from the lateÉtienne Roda-Gil's French libretto based on the historical subject of theFrench Revolution.[92]Ça Ira was released as a double CD album, featuring baritoneBryn Terfel, sopranoYing Huang and tenorPaul Groves.[93]
Set during the early French Revolution, the original libretto was co-written in French by Roda-Gil and his wife Nadine Delahaye. Waters had begun rewriting the libretto in English in 1989,[94] and said about the composition: "I've always been a big fan of Beethoven's choral music,Berlioz andBorodin ... This is unashamedly romantic and resides in that early 19th-century tradition, because that's where my tastes lie in classical and choral music."[95]
Waters appeared on television to discuss the opera, but the interviews often focused on his relationship with Pink Floyd, something Waters would "take in stride", a sign Pink Floyd biographerMark Blake believes is "a testament to his mellower old age or twenty years of dedicated psychotherapy".[95]Ça Ira reached number 5 on theBillboard Classical Music Chart in the United States.[96]
2006–2009: The Dark Side of the Moon Live
In June 2006, Waters began the two-yearDark Side of the Moon Live world tour. The first half of the show featured both Pink Floyd songs and Waters's solo material; the second included a complete performance ofThe Dark Side of the Moon, the first time in more than three decades that Waters had performed it. The shows ended with an encore from the third side ofThe Wall. The elaborate staging, by the concert lighting designer Marc Brickman, included laser lights, fog machines, pyrotechnics, psychedelic projections, and inflatable floating puppets (Spaceman and Pig) controlled by a "handler" dressed as a butcher, and a full 360-degreequadraphonic sound system. Mason joined Waters for theDark Side of the Moon set and the encores on some 2006 performances.[97]
In March 2007, the Waters song "Hello (I Love You)" featured in the science fiction filmThe Last Mimzy. Waters released it as a single, on CD and via download, and described it as "a song that captures the themes of the movie, the clash between humanity's best and worst instincts, and how a child's innocence can win the day".[98] He performed at California'sCoachella Festival in April 2008 and was to be among the headlining artists atLive Earth 2008 in Mumbai, India, in December 2008,[99] but the concert was cancelled following the26 November terrorist attacks in Mumbai.[100] In April 2008, Waters discussed a possible new album with the tentative nameHeartland.[101]
2010s: The Wall Live andIs This the Life We Really Want?
Waters performed a series of concerts inMexico City in October 2016
Waters released his first solo album in nearly 25 years,Is This the Life We Really Want?, on 2 June 2017.[111] It was produced by theRadiohead producerNigel Godrich. Godrich was a fan of Waters's work with Pink Floyd, but was critical of his solo work and encouraged him to make a concise album showcasing his lyrics.[112][113] Waters returned to North America in 2017 with theUs + Them Tour, performing Pink Floyd and solo material.[114]
2020s: This is Not a Drill, Pink Floyd disputes andThe Dark Side of the Moon Redux
In January 2020, Waters announced a new arena tour,This Is Not a Drill, that would tour North America and finish one month before the2020 presidential election.[118] The tour was rescheduled to 2022 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[119][120] The concerts were held from July to October 2022,[121] and expanded with dates in Europe from March to June 2023.[122] In 2021, Waters said he had begun writing a memoir during the pandemic.[123] In December 2022, he released an EP,The Lockdown Sessions, comprising six new versions of songs from his solo career and Pink Floyd.[124]
Waters continued to quarrel with Gilmour.[125] In 2021, Waters wrote publicly of their disputes over Pink Floyd reissues and credits, accusing Gilmour of distorting the truth, and complained that Gilmour would not allow him to use Pink Floyd's website and social media channels.[123]Rolling Stone noted that Waters and Gilmour had "hit yet another low point in their relationship".[123]
Early in 2023, Waters gave an interview in which he criticised Pink Floyd's 2022 track "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!", which was released in support of Ukraine.[126] Shortly afterwards,Polly Samson, the wife of Gilmour and a lyricist for Pink Floyd, wrote on Twitter that Waters was antisemitic and "a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy megalomaniac". Gilmour replied on Twitter: "Every word demonstrably true."[127] Waters released a statement saying he was aware of the "incendiary and wildly inaccurate" comments and was "taking advice as to his position".[127] Asked byPiers Morgan to respond, Waters said: "No comment. Oh, shut up ... They're public, and I'm private."[128]
For the 50th anniversary ofThe Dark Side of the Moon, Waters recorded a new version,The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, released on 6 October 2023.[129] It features spoken-word sections and no guitar solos, to "bring out the heart and soul of the album musically and spiritually".[130][131] In a press release, Waters wrote: "Dave, Rick, Nick, and I were so young when we made [the original], and when you look at the world around us, clearly the message hasn't stuck. That's why I started to consider what the wisdom of an 80 year old could bring to a reimagined version."[132] In October, Waters held two concerts at theLondon Palladium, where he performedThe Dark Side of the Moon Redux, spoke on topics such asJulian Assange and read from his unpublished memoir.[133]
Politics
Israeli–Palestinian conflict and accusations of antisemitism
Waters is a vocal supporter ofPalestine in theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict.[134] He is a member[135] ofBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a campaign for an internationalboycott of Israel.[136] Waters first saw theWest Bank barrier in 2006, at the request of Palestinian supporters, when he was scheduled to perform inTel Aviv. He subsequently moved a Tel Aviv concert toNeve Shalom and called for the barrier's removal: "The wall is an appalling edifice to behold. It is policed by young Israeli soldiers who treated me, a casual observer from another world, with disdainful aggression."[137][138] He has repeatedly described Israel's treatment of Palestiniansas apartheid.[139] In 2023, he was one of the principal signers of an open letter called Artists Against Apartheid.[140][141]
In 2013, RabbiAbraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Jewish human rights organisation theSimon Wiesenthal Center, accused Waters of antisemitism for including a giant pig balloon bearing aStar of David in his concerts.[150][151] Waters responded that it was one of several religious and political symbols in the show and not an attempt to single out Judaism as an evil force.[134]
In December 2013, in an interview inCounterPunch, Waterscompared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians toNazi Germany, saying: "The parallels with what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious."[134] He said the reason why few celebrities had joined the BDS movement in the United States was because "theJewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry".[152][153] TheAnti-Defamation League charged that Waters's remarks were antisemitic.[153] The American rabbiShmuley Boteach responded to Waters in theNew York Observer: "That you would have the audacity to compare Jews to monsters who murdered them shows you have no decency, you have no heart, you have no soul."[134] Speaking in New York afterwards, Waters said supporters of Israeloften attack critics as antisemitic as a "diversionary tactic" by conflatinganti-Zionism with antisemitism.[134]
In a 2017 interview withOmar Barghouti, Waters again likened Israel's public diplomacy to Nazi Germany: "The thing about propaganda – again, it's not hard to go back toGoebbels or the 1930s. You understand the tactic is to tell the big lie as often as possible over and over and over and over again. And people believe it."[154][155] In 2017, the writerIan Halperin produced a documentary,Wish You Weren't Here, accusing Waters of antisemitism and "erecting the very walls that hinder peace in the region and fuel hatred".[156]
In 2020,Major League Baseball stopped advertising Waters's This Is Not a Drill concerts after receiving criticism from Jewish advocacy groups.[157] Later that year, Waters said the American Jewish businessman andRepublican Party donorSheldon Adelson was a "puppet master" controlling American politics. He said Adelson believed that "only Jewish people are completely human ... I'm not saying Jewish people believe this. I am saying that he does, and he is pulling the strings."[158] In the same interview, Waters said that themurder of George Floyd was carried out with a technique developed by theIsraeli Defence Forces. He said the Americans had studied the technique to learn "how to murder the blacks because they have seen how efficient the Israelis have been at murdering Palestinians in the occupied territories by using those techniques ... The Israelis are proud of it."[158] In January 2024, theBMG music company cancelled a publishing agreement with Waters over his comments on Israel, Ukraine and the United States.[159]
In a February 2024 interview withAl Jazeera, Waters criticised theU2 singerBono for dedicating a performance of "Pride (In the Name of Love)" to those killed in the 2023Nova music festival massacre. Bono changed the lyrics, written aboutMartin Luther King, from "Free at last/They took your life" to "Stars of David/They took your life". Waters said it was "so disgusting and degrading when you stand up for the Zionist entity ... [It] was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life."[160]
On 25 February 2023, the German city ofFrankfurt cancelled one of Waters's scheduled shows, calling him one of the "most widely known antisemites" and citing his support for BDS, the imagery at his shows and his talks with Hamas. The move was supported by theCentral Council of Jews in Germany and the Frankfurt Jewish Community.[162][139] Waters hired a German law firm to challenge the concert cancellation, and released a statement denying the accusations and stating that the cancellation could have "serious, far-reaching consequences for artists and activists all over the world".[139] A German court overturned the cancellation, saying the concert should be viewed as a work of art and that it "did not glorify or relativise the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology".[163]
That May, German police opened a criminal investigation into Waters and the Nazi-style uniform he wore during his Berlin performance for possibleincitement.[164]Nazi symbolism is banned in Germany, with exemptions for educational and artistic purposes.[165] Waters has long used similar uniforms for performances ofThe Wall, in which the protagonist hallucinates himself as a fascist dictator.[165]Israel's Foreign Ministry criticised Waters for his performance.[166] TheUS Department of State called it "deeply offensive to Jewish people" and accused Waters of having a record of using antisemitic tropes.[167] In the UK, Starmer and the secretary of state,Michael Gove, issued statements condemning him.[168]
Waters said the use of fascist imagery was a statement in "opposition to fascism, injustice and bigotry".[169] He pointed out that he had been using Nazi-inspired uniforms in performances since 1980, but they had only recently attracted controversy.[170] Waters felt the criticism was disingenuous and politically motivated,[169] and that he had been attacked at the behest of the "Israeli lobby" in Germany.[171] In an interview withDouble Down News, Waters said the accusations of antisemitism were a "vicious lie" and "deeply insulting", and that he was a victim ofcancel culture. He said that the Israeli government was attempting to discredit him as they saw him as an "existential threat to their settler-colonialist, racist, apartheid regime".[170]
In May 2023, the Labour MPChristian Wakeford criticised Waters's shows in the UK parliament. Waters responded at a concert in London the following month, calling Wakeford a "fucking moron" and a "cripple", whichVariety said "drew a sharp intake of breath" from some in attendance. Waters also said he was "pissed off with thisIsraeli lobby bullshit" and accused critics of "making up stuff because you've been told to by your masters from the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv".[172]
2023 documentary alleging antisemitism
In September 2023, a documentary alleging antisemitism by Waters,The Dark Side of Roger Waters, directed byJohn Ware, was released by the British groupCampaign Against Antisemitism.[173] It includes accounts from Waters's past collaborators, including theWall producerBob Ezrin, who say Waters made offensive remarks about Jewish people.[173] In a separate statement, Ezrin said he did not object to Waters's challenging Israeli policy, but that "if your language directly or by implication promotes the eradication of the world's only Jewish state, then that is absolutely antisemitism in my book".[173] Waters responded in a statement that he was "frequently mouthy and prone to irreverence" but not antisemitic, and that the film misrepresented his views.[173]
According to the documentary, in a 2010 email to his crew, Waters described his idea for the inflatable pig to be floated above his gigs, which would have the words "dirtykyke", "follow the money" and "Scum" written on it.[174] In response, Waters said that the "offensive words I referenced... were my brainstorming ideas on how to make the evils and horrors of fascism and extremism apparent", and "not the manifestation of any underlying bigotry as the film suggests".[174]
Ware sued for libel after Waters called him a "lying, conniving Zionist mouthpiece" and had also accused him of "cheerleading the genocide of Palestinians" in an interview onAl Jazeera. On 25 February 2025, aLondon High Court judge ruled that Waters' comments were in fact antisemitic and defamatory, and advanced the case towards trial.[175]
A week before theRussian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Waters told anRT interviewer that rumours of Russia launching an invasion were "bullshit" andRussophobic propaganda.[182] After the invasion, Waters said that US PresidentJoe Biden was "fuelling the fire in the Ukraine... that is a huge crime", and questioned why the United States was not encouraging Ukraine "to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war". Responding to accusations that he was placing the responsibility to negotiate on the country that was invaded, Waters said that Russia wasresponding to provocations from NATO: "This war is basically about the action and reaction ofNATO pushing right up to the Russian border – which they promised they wouldn't do."[183][184] In another interview, Waters said the attack on Ukraine was "probably the most provoked invasion ever" and he refused to "see Russia from the current Russo-phobic perspective".[185]
On 5 September 2022, Waters published an open letter toOlena Zelenska, theFirst Lady of Ukraine. He accused Ukrainian "extreme nationalists" of starting the war and made no mention of Russia's responsibility for the invasion.[186] He argued that the West should not provide Ukraine with weapons, and that Western governments were prolonging the war with their support. Waters urgedher husband to end the war based on theMinsk agreements.[187] Waters'sThis Is Not a Drill concerts in Poland were cancelled following local outrage over his comments.[186]
In February 2023, Waters echoed Russian propaganda, saying that "the Ukraine" is "not really a country" but a "vague experiment", and suggesting thatVladimir Putin was "leading his country to the benefit of all of the people of Russia".[188]Polly Samson and former bandmate David Gilmour responded by calling Waters a "Putin apologist".[188] On 8 February, Waters gave a speech to theUnited Nations Security Council at the Russian government's behest. He condemned the invasion of Ukraine as illegal, but said it was "not unprovoked" and also "condemned the provocateurs" and called for a ceasefire.[185][189] Waters was praised by Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy.[185] Ukraine's UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, denounced Waters as "another brick in the wall" of Russian "disinformation and propaganda".[185]
In February 2025, Waters made another speech to the United Nations Security Council, which was requested by Russia for the tenth anniversary of the signing of theMinsk II agreement.[190] Waters accused the Ukrainian president,Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of abandoning the Minsk agreements, in breach of his election promise, and accused the former UK prime ministerBoris Johnson of acting for the US to stop peace talks.[191]
Other views
Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" duringThe Wall Live in Kansas City, 30 October 2010
After the2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequenttsunami disaster, Waters performed "Wish You Were Here" with Eric Clapton during a benefit concert on the American networkNBC.[192]
In 2007, Waters became a spokesman forMillennium Promise, a non-profit organisation fighting poverty andmalaria.[194] That July, he participated in the American leg of theLive Earth concert, aimed at raising awareness about global climate change.[195] In 2015, Waters said thatsocialism was "a good thing", and called forsocialised healthcare in the United States.[196]
Waters is supportive ofveterans, which he partly attributes to the death of his father in World War II. He allocates a block of tickets for veterans at his shows. For a few years he performed with a group of wounded veterans that was arranged through the United States National Military Medical Center.[197] In 2012, he led a benefit for United States military veterans, Stand Up for Heroes, and invited a group of combat-wounded veterans,MusiCorps, to perform with him.[198]
After the April 2018Douma chemical attack carried out by the Syrian government, Waters called civil defence volunteers, theWhite Helmets, "a fake organisation that exists only to create propaganda for thejihadists and terrorists" trying to incite the West to "start dropping bombs on people in Syria".[202][203][204][205]
Waters and Lula da Silva in 2023
In 2018, Waters included the Brazilian far-right presidential candidateJair Bolsonaro in a list of "neo-fascists" displayed on a screen at his concert inSão Paulo, which drew mixed responses from the crowd.[206] In a concert inRio de Janeiro that October, he acknowledged the murdered Brazilian councilwomanMarielle Franco and brought her daughter, sister and widow on stage.[207] In an interview with the online music magazineBrooklynVegan, he said he tried to visit the progressive politicianLula da Silva, who was imprisoned on corruption charges; Waters said "the only reason Lula is in prison is because he would have won the election".[208]
In 2019, Waters spoke at a rally outside theHome Office calling for the release of theWikiLeaks founderJulian Assange, and dedicated a performance of "Wish You Were Here" to him.[209] The following year, he spoke at a rally in support of Assange outside parliament in London.[210] He showed his support for the2019–2022 Chilean protests through a video from POUSTA.com.[211] In an interview with the communist deputyCamila Vallejo, he condemned the presidentSebastian Piñera, calling him a "rat", and said the2022 Chilean national plebiscite was "extraordinarily revolutionary".[212]
Waters in Barcelona during The Wall Live, 5 April 2011
Waters's primary instrument in Pink Floyd was the bass guitar. However, he said in 1992 that he was "never a bass player" and was "not interested in playing instruments and I never have been".[217] Gilmour said that Waters used a limited, simple style and had not been interested in improving, and that Gilmour had played many of the bass parts on Pink Floyd records.[217] According to Mason in 2018, Waters feels that "everything should be judged on the writing rather than the playing".[125]
Waters briefly played aHöfner bass, but replaced it with aRickenbacker RM-1999/4001S. In 1970, it was stolen along with the rest of Pink Floyd's equipment in New Orleans.[25] He began usingFender Precision Basses in 1968, originally alongside the Rickenbacker 4001, and then exclusively after the Rickenbacker was lost in 1970. First seen at a concert in Hyde Park, London, in July 1970, the black P-Bass was rarely used until April 1972, when it became his main stage guitar. On 2 October 2010, it became the basis for a Fender Artist Signature model.[218]
The Pink Floyd biographer Mike Cormack wrote that Waters is "surely the greatest lyricist in all of rock music",[230] citing the use oftrochaic tetrameter in the refrain of "Time"[231] and the "exquisite phrasing" of "Your Possible Pasts".[232] He wrote that the lyrics of "Comfortably Numb" were "the greatest ever in rock music".[233]
Personal life
In 1969, Waters married his childhood sweetheart,Judith Trim, a schoolteacher and potter. She was featured on the gatefold sleeve of the original release of the Pink Floyd albumUmmagumma, but her image was excised from CD reissues.[234] They had no children and divorced in 1975.[235] Trim died in 2001.[236]
In 1976, Waters marriedCarolyne Christie, the niece of thethird Marquess of Zetland.[235] They had a son,Harry Waters, who has played keyboards with Waters's touring band since 2002, and a daughter, India Waters, who has worked as a model.[237] Christie and Waters divorced in 1992.[235]
In 1993, Waters married Priscilla Phillips. They had a son, Jack Fletcher. Their marriage ended in 2001.[238]
In 2004, Waters became engaged to the actress and filmmaker Laurie Durning.[239] They married on 14 January 2012[240] and filed for divorce in September 2015.[241]
Waters married his fifth wife, Kamilah Chavis, in October 2021.[242]
^Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement (15 July 2017)."A Conversation with Roger Waters".Facebook.com.Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved15 September 2022.
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