Describing China’s history of suppression of its own people as “bollocks,” Waters said, “The Chinese didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2003.” He defended China as having the right to invade Taiwan, saying, ““They aren’t encircling Taiwan – Taiwan is part of China and that’s been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948.” Waters’ latest incendiary interview followed by a few months an argumentative conversation with CNN in which he suggested that China has a better record on human rights than the U.S. Fans have continued to hope for a reunion, even as both Gilmour and Waters have made clear just how extraordinarily unlikely that is, with little coming of Mason’s peacemaking efforts. Their business interests, nonetheless, remain aligned, for purposes that include the Floyd catalog reportedly being up for sale at a price in the hundreds of millions of dollars.Īlthough it was Waters’ intent that Pink Floyd not go on when he left the group in the early ’80s, Gilmour, Mason and Rick Wright opted to continue without him under the Floyd banner into the ’90s, enjoying successful followup albums and tours, with Samson drafted to write some of the lyrics in Waters’ absence. Their only other joint appearance since the “Final Cut” album was a reunion set at Live 8 in 2005. Waters, Gilmour and Mason last played together at a Waters show in London in 2011, a rare moment of detente between frontmen who have often been at odds, to say the least, since they last recorded together as Pink Floyd in the early 1980s. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” he wrote, “and neither can this apartheid rabble.” He tore into what he called “an outrageous and despicable smear campaign by the Israeli lobby to denounce me as an anti-semite, which I am not, never have been and never will be.” In a statement on his website prefacing the interview reprint, he vowed not to back down. Waters has had concerts in Poland canceled over his views. Challenged repeatedly on his anti-Ukraine statements, he said, “You seem to be asking me to see Russia from the current Russo-phobic perspective. “Moscow does not run an apartheid state based on the genocide of the indigenous inhabitants,” said Waters. The article found Waters reiterating that he would play in Moscow but never Israel, which, as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, he considers a “genocidal” nation. Huh? Anyone with half a brain can see that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked beyond all measure,” he said. “What everyone in the West is being told is the ‘unprovoked invasion’ narrative. Waters called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “probably the most provoked invasion ever.” I mean, they haven’t made the point of demanding, ‘Stop the war, stop the slaughter, bring our leaders together to talk!’ It’s just this content-less waving of the blue and yellow flag.” To associate that name now with something like this… proxy war makes me sad. That was a huge time in my life, a very big deal. Pink Floyd is a name I used to be associated with. It encourages the continuation of the war. It’s so alien to me, this action is so lacking in humanity. “I have seen the video” released under the Floyd banner, Waters said, “and I am not surprised, but I find it really, really sad. In it, he said it was “sad” that Gilmour and Nick Mason joined up with Ukrainian musician Andrij Chlywnjuk to record a song protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The interview with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung was reprinted in an English translation on Waters’ website. Samson and Gilmour did not say what it was that triggered this explosive statement, but the most likely source of their suddenly public ire is an interview the singer-bassist did in which he criticized his former bandmates for having reunited to record a pro-Ukraine song last year and otherwise doubled down on some of his most polarizing positions. Waters has given many interviews in recent years that some fans who support Israel and/or Ukraine have considered a last straw. CIIy5r6SyA- Roger Waters February 6, 2023
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