Posted on 09/18/2005 9:45:30 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
An Interview with Roger Waters!
Waters flatly denies talk of a future tour in the U.S., even for the reported $150 million payday. "I don't really need it," he says. "It would be a very hot ticket. That said, I didn't mind rolling over for one day, but I couldn't roll over for a whole fucking tour."
Growing up, what record changed your life?
Like everyone else in England, I listened to Radio Luxembourg, a pirate station. They played rock & roll, like Bill Haley and English acts with stupid invented names like Tommy Steele and Billy Fury. Seven or eight years later, the Beatles changed all that. In the meantime I fell in love with Lead Belly, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Art Blakey, Monk and Mingus. The blues is at the root of everything I do.
Did you sing in choir?
Before my voice broke, I used to sing treble in a combined choir.
Children's choirs surface in your opera, and in Pink Floyd.
My great friend Nick Griffiths -- who died this year -- was entirely responsible for recording the kids on "Another Brick in the Wall." The sound those kids make was brilliant, but we were 6,000 miles away, in Los Angeles. Last year some ambulance chaser desperately tried to find the kids -- I think there were about a dozen or so -- and ask them, "Why haven't you gotten any royalties? Why don't you sue Pink Floyd?" He found a few of them, and a couple said that singing on it was the best thing that's ever happened to them.
You were an architecture student. What venue looks the best from the stage?
Most of my career has been in sports arenas, and those are awful places. Those old theaters are really nice, like the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, where they recorded the Chuck Berry movie [Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll]. I've played there, and the weird-red-plush, slightly decaying vibe is really cool.
Do you have the handwritten lyrics to the Floyd classics?
I don't keep anything. No T-shirts or backstage passes -- I have nothing at all of my past. I've been divorced so many times and moved so often.... I think I've still got the drawing I did of "The Wall." It's just on a piece of legal pad -- a perspective view of an auditorium with a wall drawn across it, coming down through the seats. [Whispers] "Hey, what a great idea."
What other band would you have liked to play bass in?
What's always great is playing the blues.
Twelve-bar blues, straight up. Nothing better than that. When Eric [Clapton] was in my band, back in '85, we'd play the blues during soundcheck. In Pink Floyd I was being savaged -- because Dave [Gilmour] and Rick [Wright] were kind of insecure, they'd always try to attack me, saying I sang out of tune or I couldn't really play. I said something about that to Eric, and he said, "Are you fucking crazy? You're a great bass player." I went, "Oh, yeah, maybe I am." I would be totally happy to be standing at the back of a stage playing the blues hour after hour.... I enjoyed playing bass [at Live 8].
It looked like you were having the time of your life.
It was more fun than I can remember having with Pink Floyd twenty-five years ago. When we did The Wall, we'd have four Winnebagos parked in a circle, with all the doors facing away from the circle. It was really, really bad. Everybody was kind of jealous -- definitely Dave. He was so pissed off that I was writing everything and doing all the work. He wanted to be that person, but he wasn't. But at Live 8 everything was easy. I was there to enjoy myself.
How do you think Dave felt?
He did send me an e-mail afterward, saying, "Hi, Rog, I'm glad you made that phone call. It was fun, wasn't it?" So he obviously had fun.
Can you think of a better band name than Pink Floyd?
Brand name or band name? It's a great brand name. Dave and Rick did tours [as Pink Floyd] and made huge fortunes. I've seen videos of those tours. With all due respect, it was sort of muck.
I heard you've been working on a rock & roll record.
I've written a bunch of songs. When I discover what it's actually about, I'll finish it and put it out for better or worse. I just always seem so busy. I have a new woman in my life. I can't believe I'm fucking sixty-one years old, and my golf game is such shit.
I hear you're a pretty good pool player, though. What musician has been the toughest to beat?
There's no musician out there who could hold a candle to me at pool.
The best bands are the ones where the bandmates can't stand each other.
yes
dave stole the band!
I was leafing through "Inside Out" a few weeks ago in the bookstore - Nick Mason's account of the Floyd years. It was engaging enough that I sat down and spent some time with it. He went on and on about how he tried not to take sides between Gilmour and Waters, but Waters was still the one who came off as the bigger pr*ck. Funny book, though - good to see at least one of them wasn't taking that stuff all that seriously...
Come now. They wrote a good song once. Were popular due to massive large scale marijuana usage.
These guys are blips in time, will not last.
All ready forgotten in large part.
I believe the actual sequence was:
Roger: I am Pink Floyd!
Roger: Pink Floyd is over. I quit.
Dave: Excuse me? Rick and Nick have as much right to the band name as you. I've been in the band for 20 years. We're playing.
Roger: I'll sue you...
Years pass, lawyers get rich.
Roger lost.
I'll go with Dave on this one who was Syd Barret's replacement.
Yeah, not surprising. ....and this RS interview does little to change that perception.
Waters called Gilmour "insecure" here, but I suspect he's looking at himself in the mirror.
Brilliant musician, though. ....as are all of them. Just heard the 17+ minute song "Dogs" (from the album Animals) for the first time in years last night on satellite tv. Prime Floyd.
They've stood the test of time. Albums they recorded 25 - 35 years ago are still stronger sellers -- Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall.
"That said, I didn't mind rolling over for one day, but I couldn't roll over for a whole fucking tour."
Sounds like he at least has integrity.
David Gilmour got all self-conscious a year or two ago and gave his many cars (and I think an extra home) away to charity.
What would David do with HIS cut of a $150million dollar tour?
It is their money to do with what they want but it reminds me of the bar I went to today that "suspended" their $3.50 Sunday bloody mary special for the regular price of $6.00 The bar was donating 10percetn of alcohol sales to Katrina relief (so that is $0.60 out of what has been "raised" $2.50).
Makes people feel good but they still do far better than their intended recipients.
Interesting Stuff...
I know the gossip interests us all, but I'd really like to hear how they came up with the ideas for "Echoes" and "One of these days." I loved their work, and still give it a listen every month or so.
I believe they were the most creative band of the 70's and late 60's.
Blip in time? "Dark Side of the Moon" is no blip, having sold over 25 million copies. Personally, I liked Meddle the best.
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/interview/momag5.html
I'll take Gilmour anyday.
Waters ...however tortured talented he is
comes across as arrogant as all hell
i've seen interviews with Gilmour....a decent soft spoken fellow....rather humble....i can see how they clashed
and Gilmour drove a beat up land rover from England to North Africa to fetch a desolate and abandoned and utterly fried Syd back in the very early days
he may not be perfect and swings left but he has a heart and backs up his talk with charity
and plays a unique understated guitar like no one.
In another interview a short while back Waters claimed that he and Gilmour are miles apart politically. So is Waters miles left of Gilmour?
Concur on Gilmour's understated guitar style. ....always tasteful and soulful.
I've never heard of Waters as a Tory.
He now lives in NYC with a young chick I think(?)
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
That is THE one album I can listen to today that automatically transports me back to a smoke-filled room back in the mid-late 70s.
Gilmour to his credit gave away more than just a few cars....he gave away a small fortune (10 million US) in subsidized housing for the lower classes.
He may be labour but he puts his cash where his mouth is.
and he is very well mannered and spoken
Roger Waters has always been an unashamed Communist. I forget the interview, but he mentioned going through some kind of crisis once the Floyd actually started making money, and he had to buy into the Capitalist system.
Yeah, Rog is a bit more left than Dave...
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