Roger Waters believes legendary guitarist David Gilmour “regretted” reforming Pink Floyd for Live 8.
The bassist and founding member suggested Gilmour was against getting the band back together for future performances for one reason. He shared as much in an interview with TVNZ, where the Amused to Death creative said he would perform with the classic line-up again in a “heartbeat”. Despite Waters‘ keenness to perform another show with Pink Floyd after Live 8, plans would never materialise. Keyboard player Richard Wright would die in 2008, making it even less likely for the band to reunite. Gilmour would appear at a Waters performance in 2011 to perform Comfortably Numb, though there have been few, if any, overlaps of Gilmour and Waters since. It appears the chances of Pink Floyd reforming again are almost zero, though it seemed much more likely the band would play again in 2005.
Waters said: “No of course not. I’d do it in a heartbeat. I don’t think Dave wants to do it all. I think he sort of regretted Live 8 a bit, so who knows. Well because it was his band and suddenly it wasn’t any more.
“Suddenly this is what it was, this is the sort of thing it actually is – it’s Dave and Roger and Nick and Rick. And he said afterwards it would have been just the same if Roger hadn’t been there, but it’s not the same.”
Waters would say in several interviews around this time that he wanted to reform the band and also that he “regretted” the way things fell apart for the group on his departure in 1985. Speaking of his departure from the band in 2007, Waters said: “I don’t think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit, really. It was a bad, negative time, really. And I regret my part in that negativity.
“I was actually more attached to the philosophy and politics of Pink Floyd than the others were — certainly more so than David was. In a way, whatever I did I did in a way to protect the integrity of what I saw as being important about the work that the four of us did together.
“I realise now that move was doomed to failure … and why should I have imposed my feelings 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.”
A chance to rectify those mistakes presented itself with the band’s Live 8 reunion, which Waters considers a chance to “let bygones be bygones” with his ex-bandmates. In interviews and performances to follow that 2005 performance, the relationship between Gilmour and Waters seemed to improve slightly.
Roger Waters is a classic narcissist. He used and abused the rest of Pink Floyd but then is all aghast when the rest of the band, especially David Gilmour, don’t want to jump back into that toxic relationship. Gilmour proved Waters wrong that he was Pink Floyd. And now that Rick Wright is gone there’s no point to even think about revisiting the idea of a Floyd reunion.
Waters wrote the songs that are Gilmour’s bread and butter. It’s unlikely they’d even be around today to talk about if not for him. Gilmour is instrumental to the sound of pink floyd, so now that they have the songs, they don’t need waters, and you’re wrong to say “they” don’t want waters back around, nick Mason would take him back in a heartbeat. Gilmour is just as big of an egotistical ass as waters where this is concerned
Garbage…Waters was a great lyricist. All the heavy lifting music wise was done by Gilmour and Wright. Gilmour even played the bass lines Waters found too difficult..Waters insistence that he was the sole creator is laughable, and quite sad as they reach their late 70s early 80s.
Who knows ,who’s to blame, its just sad they all couldn’t get along, i dont think either was that good after the split, Dave is Dave and Roger is Roger, and it will always be that way
The same has been said about David and his treatment of Roger. It’s between them. I choose to enjoy all of the music and not judge or criticize any of them.
Roger, David didn’t want to perform with you because you’re a world class a-hole.
Like most bands..They get old lazy and slow and it ain’t as tight anymore..And they sound like My grandpa singing in the bathtub singing LA BAMBA..Yo no soy prisonero..Bamba Bamba 😆😆
You’ve clearly not been listening to Gilmour’s performances, then.
No point in a band staying together if the atmosphere is toxic. The Beatles proved that. Roger like Paul McCartney before him, was a control freak. The good news is that there is back catalogue of music for the fans to enjoy
Roger had a high opinion of himself, and was a bit of a control freak, that I believe was the reason for the split,
Who can criticise Dave when there was a toxic atmosphere in the band caused by Waters.
Roger had to take control as the rest of the band admitted they lacked direction. His part in The Wall was phenomenal and the story he projected through their instruments was so touching.
Also Alan Parsons was a GODSEND and a Genius for engineering Dark Side of the Moon, and I believe without him things would have turned out a lot different.
Because he was a game-changer for The Dark Side of the Moon. Alan Parsons’ production and engineering skills were instrumental in making The Dark Side of the Moon the sonic masterpiece it is. He was instrumental in techniques like multi-track recording, using the studio as an instrument, and applying compression in ways that defined the album’s sound.
A critical collaborator: His work was not just about technical execution but also about creative collaboration. He worked with the band to add layers of sound and texture that helped bring their experimental ideas to life.
Alan Parsons engineering sounds made Dark Side of the Moon cutting edge for its time.
Waters is and always has been a current social commentator. Gilmour couldn’t handle his composition ability and overall superiority. Done.
It’s a well travelled down road, often 2 in a band that end up hating each other, usually between the most creative and the most pragmatic, Lennon and McCartney, Frey and Henley, Gabriel and Collins, Jagger and Richards some how managed to not let it become terminal. It mirrors life really, those types always clash and always will.
The two men are amazing musicians. They were never better than when they where together. It saddens me that such great talents can’t find a way to let the past go. The world could use a new Pink Floyd Album!
I couldn’t have said it any better. Totally agree
Both amazing at pink floyd stuff, but being around some one who you don’t gel with completely especially if that person thinks they know it all is tiring, you get a fatigue that doesn’t go away after a nights kip or even after any amount of time, if you have to break through someone’s ego for every little suggestion you have its doomed, and then you realise how much happier you are when you are not in that person’s company there’s no going back. I believe there is a phenomena where yo can be in someone’s company for the first time in years but in that very moment it dont feel good actually it feels like you have spent every minute of the last few years with that person with no break. Most times your wellbeing is just too important.
What might have been. I alway saw Roger Waters as the “software” of Pink Floyd- the writer, lyricist, idea man behind their greatest albums. David Gilmour was the “hardware” of Floyd- the great guitarist and voice of the band. Richard Wright and Nick Mason also contributed greatly to the music.
Neither one of them cared about the fans. Egotistical snobs. Both of them. But without each other, neither is as good as they were together. Poly can’t write Floyd music. The two great when they worked together but sub par as solo (compared to Pink Floyd). They complimented each other.
You guys (those of you who commented above me) should we really care about this “fued” between Waters and Gilmore? Why care? We’re not their friends, we don’t know them personally; what interest could their private lives have for us. Waters would (and rightly so) call us all assholes for thinking about this “feud” for more than a minute of our lives. “Go do something productive or artistic or loving or charitable,” he would say, “rather than obsessing over the meaningless bullshit of our TRULY meaningless squabbles.” In other words, “Get a life, and try to do something loving and good for the world.”
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Pink floyd couldn’t get out of bed if it wasn’t for Rodger waters