Roger Waters shares exact moment he became ‘leader’ of Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd went through three band leaders over its near-30-year run as an active band. Syd Barrett, the first frontman and mastermind of debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he was soon replaced by Roger Waters. Under the controversial second leader’s guidance, the band wrote and released albums like The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and Wish You Were Here.

While it was not a planned transition of power, Waters says he still remembers exactly when he took over from Barrett and how he felt at the time. David Gilmour would take over from Waters upon the bassist’s departure in 1985, before the band came to a complete stop in 1994. There were a handful of reunions from then, but never a moment when either man felt fully in control of Pink Floyd. Gilmour would lead the band a few times after a Live 8 reunion in 2005, but even then it faced vocal opposition from Waters, who was not with the group at the time.

Waters once explained how he felt when the rest of the band turned to him for leadership following Barrett’s departure. Waters explained: “Yes, It was straight after we had split up with Syd. I’m sure you would get arguments about that from the other ‘boys’, but I simply took responsibility, largely because no-one else seemed to want to do it, and that is graphically illustrated by the fact that I started to write most of the material from then on, I’m perfectly happy being a leader.

“In fact, I know I can be an oppressive personality because I bubble with ideas and schemes, and in a way it was easier for the others simply to go along with me. We rarely used to see each other socially, although I used to get on with Nick Mason alright. For a limited time, in the early days of the group, we did mix socially. Because there is something rather appealing about a group together on the road. But that soon palls. And things like families make sure that cycle comes to an end.”

It was as simple as needing someone to steer the ship, according to Waters. The bassist and songwriter would leave the band two years after the release of The Final Cut.

Speaking of his departure from the band, 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.

He praised not just Gilmour’s “beautiful” singing but the event itself for being an appropriate way to bury the hatchet between the four. It seemed to last, for a little while anyway, with Gilmour appearing to play a part in Waters’ solo show in 2011. The relationship between the two may now be frosty, but for a time, it seemed relatively polite.