Pink Floyd songwriter Roger Waters has stopped hoping for a ‘new revolution’ in music

Roger Waters has given up hope for a “new revolution” in music, with the Pink Floyd legend claiming nobody can replace his generation of musicians.

Citing greats like Bob Dylan and John Lennon, Waters suggested that there were no artists currently at work who could come anywhere close to replacing them. The Wall writer has shared his love for the likes of Dylan and Neil Young in the past, but believes it will not be easy to replace those legends. Whether such artists step up to the plate is yet to be seen, but for Waters, it seems unlikely that anyone will reach the high bar set by The Beatles‘ songwriter or Highway 61 Revisited mastermind.

Waters said: “I do. There’s something about the mathematics of what we call music that affects something in our physiology and creates an emotional response that feels as if it causes a difference in one. I believe everything is connected. It’s like a pebble in a pond: the change might be infinitesimal, but it is a change nevertheless and the ripples spread. I’m not expecting any new revolution or for a new Dylan or Lennon to come along, but music changes all our lives every day.”

Modern musicians like Radiohead were knocked back by Waters, who claimed there was little interest in their work, despite it being “good”. He said: “That bit of my brain has no power, I think.

“It doesn’t attach. I don’t really listen to Radiohead. I’m sure it’s very good and everything – I’m absolutely sure it is because everybody says it is – but I listened to the albums, and they just didn’t move me in the same way, say, John Prine does. His is just extraordinarily eloquent music – and he lives on that plain with Neil [Young] and [John] Lennon.

“I don’t have satellite radio in my car yet – which is stupid and you can get whatever you want and as much of it as you want – but if I’m flipping through channels in the car I’ll stop for old stalwarts like Neil and John, but usually you can be certain that the thing you’ve stopped for is going to finish in three minutes and the thing that comes after it will be unlistenable. So you sort of don’t bother.

“That’s why I never watched MTV – because of the programming. Nothing ever seemed to go on long enough to be worth watching. And even if that particular video was interesting, you’d get something directly afterwards that inevitably wasn’t.”

Fellow music legends were not safe from Waters’ criticism either. The Pink Floyd bassist lashed out at Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who died on July 22 last year, in an interview with The Independent Ink, too. The songwriter behind Amused to Death and The Wall said he doesn’t care about Black Sabbath and that he “couldn’t give a fuck” about their musical legacy.