Roger Waters on a Pink Floyd reunion: It would be f****** awful

Roger Waters
Roger Waters (Image credit: Greetsia Tent/WireImage - Getty)

Roger Waters says there’s no way he would consider a Pink Floyd reunion if it were ever put on the table.

The vocalist and bassist was a guest of Rolling Stone on their Special Edition interview series when it was put to him that it might be nice to see old friends across the music world in general setting aside their differences and reuniting in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Waters replies: “No, it wouldn’t be nice. It would be fucking awful. Obviously if you’re a fan of those days of Pink Floyd, well then you have a different point of view. But I had to live through it. That was my life. 

“I know in the wake of it I’ve been cast as something of a villain by whoever… so be it! I can live with that. But would I trade my liberty for those chains? No fucking way.”

Waters says he also approached David Gilmour and Nick Mason with a “peace plan” but it wasn’t for a reunion.

“It was nothing to do with that,” he says. “This was just, ‘Can we release a remastered vinyl version of Animals without it turning into the third world war. Wouldn’t that be nice?’

“I actually suggested going democratic. I said,  ‘Why don’t we just have a vote? There’s only three of us and then we can decide all those things like that and at least we can just get on.’

“But they wouldn’t have that. God knows why.”

Speaking back in December 2018, Mason said an Animals box set was likely to happen at some point in the future.

He told Rolling Stone: “It’s just sort of slow because of differences of opinion about how to do it or what to put on it, but I’m sure it will eventually happen. Of all our albums that have been re-released, that’s the one that would benefit the most from a sort of reworking.”

Waters briefly reunited with Pink Floyd for 2005’s Live 8 concert at London’s Hyde Park.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.