Roger Waters says he ‘did all the thinking’ as a member of Pink Floyd as he remains open to another gig

While David Gilmour may have recently ruled out a Pink Floyd reunion, Roger Waters has, in the past, been surprisingly open to the idea.

In interviews given after the band’s reformation for Live 8, Waters would say he was not opposed to playing further shows with Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright. The four-piece would play their final show together for the charity event and never appeared on stage together again, with keyboardist Wright dying in 2008. Even then, Waters had hoped to get back together with Gilmour and Mason, though said it would just be for “a few gigs” and not an extensive tour. Waters may have been keen for a tour when speaking to Uncut Magazine, but he also effectively called himself the brains of the Pink Floyd operation. Elsewhere in the interview Waters would note Gilmour’s disinterest in touring as Pink Floyd again, something the veteran guitarist has made clear in recent interviews. Waters sounded keen to reform the band once more, though this plan never came to be.

He said: “This is why Dave is very reluctant to ever do anything again: for twenty years it’s been his baby. He doesn’t want to give up that position and what should he? Listen. If somehow, working through all our egos, all the history and whatever, we could come together for a reason – I don’t care what – and maybe do a few gigs in London, a few in New York and a few in LA, Palestine, wherever.

“I’d be up for it. It wouldn’t be a one-off gig, because to do all that work just for one night wouldn’t be worth it. But a number of events that would draw a line nicely under the work the four of us did together would be very satisfying for me. I’d be prepared to give 6 months or so in terms of preparation for something like that. I’m sure Nick would as well, but I don’t think Dave wants to.

“That his prerogative and I have no down on him. If you’re talking about building a whole new show, that whets my appetite, not withstanding what I said in the late ‘70s about stadiums and how bad they were, all of which I believed at the time.

“But a Pink Floyd thing, that would need a lot of serious thinking about. Of course, when I was in the band, I did all the thinking. I wrote most of the songs and I made all of the shows, so that might be difficult.”

Waters had hinted at another Pink Floyd reunion several times following the band’s Live 8 show. The bassist confirmed a lucrative offer had been presented to the four piece, who ultimately decided to turn down the proposed tour.

He said: “A good reason. I don’t know. Something with a political or charitable connection. The day they announced the Pink Floyd were to play Live 8, I went out to dinner with a friend and an offer arrived – literally bang on the dinner table – for the four of us, the Pink Floyd, to tour again. An offer of $250 million. Guaranteed.”

Waters did not reveal why the offer was turned down but it may have something to do with the lack of a charitable angle associated with the performance. The bassist has toured as a solo artist in the years since Pink Floyd’s Live 8 reunion, as has Gilmour.