Roger Waters: 'David Gilmour & Rick Wright always tried to drag me down in Pink Floyd'

Not one to pull his punches, Roger Waters has spoken about the “toxic atmosphere” in the latter days of Pink Floyd.

Published 3rd Nov 2016

Talking about how he is liberated as a solo artist, Roger said that David Gilmour and the late Richard Wright thwarted him musically and constantly put him down.

"I always felt insignificant and somewhat inept (in Pink Floyd),” Roger said. “More recently, over the years, I've come to realise that actually I have quite a sophisticated musical brain and that I get a lot of things that other people don't notice."

He continued to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast: "Getting away from Pink Floyd I think, I'm serious, I really think it was important that I got away when I did.

"It was a very toxic environment, when I was around some people. David and Rick mainly who were always trying to drag me down and trying to knock me off whatever that perch was by claiming that I was tone deaf and that I didn't understand music. 'Oh, he's just the boring teacher figure who tells us what to do, but he can't tune his own guitar.'

"They were very snotty and snipey because they felt very insignificant I think. I'm not putting them down. Those years that we were together, whatever it was like socially, there is no question that we did some really good work together."

Reflecting upon his musical legacy, Roger said he’ll be remembered for his he was a game changer in the live arena.

"My major contribution to rock 'n' roll - I mean I've written some decent songs - but it was really to develop the theatre of arena rock, which I did almost single-handedly back in the middle '70s," he said.

Roger headlined the Desert Trip Festival in California last month where he launched stinging attacks on Donald Trump and Israel.