Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has revealed he believes himself to be “far, far more important” than The Weeknd Or Drake.
The bass player and songwriter took the helm of the English psych group after the departure of Syd Barrett, helped them reconfigure them as a progressive rock juggernaut. Huge international hit albums such as ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ and ‘The Wall’ followed, alongside increasingly grandiose touring set-ups.
Now working as a solo artist following a protracted legal action against the remainder of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters has developed a habit of not holding back in interviews.
Chatting to the Globe and Mail, he noted to interviewer Brad Wheeler that the paper had not reviewed his recent Toronto show. “What I’d like to know, what I’d like you to ponder on, and maybe ask your readers, is if they have any theories as to why that may be?” Waters asked.
The remarked in turn that Waters’ show “wasn’t the biggest in town that night,” and that the Weeknd’s was bigger. The prog legend replied: “I have no idea what or who the Weeknd is, because I don’t listen to much music. People have told me he’s a big act. Well, good luck to him. I’ve got nothing against him. Would it not have been possible to review his show one night and my show another night?”
He reiterated his claims, arguing: “I’m not trying to make a personal attack. I’m just saying it seemed odd. And, by the way, with all due respect to the Weeknd or Drake or any of them, I am far, far, far more important than any of them will ever be, however many billions of streams they’ve got. There is stuff going on here that is fundamentally important to all of our lives.”
What could those be, Roger?
The English musician is passionate about the pro-Palestinian cause, but this has led him to be accused of harbouring anti-semitic viewpoints. Probed on this, he commented: “It’s not anti-Semitic, let’s get that out of the way. It’s the voice of the people saying, ‘We hear a lot of rhetoric about human rights but we don’t see evidence that our leaders [care about] human rights.’ In fact, we hear a lot of evidence that they don’t. Your government, for instance, is more interested in its mining interests and the oil and the tar sands and all that stuff than it is in the basic human rights of your Indigenous people and people all over the globe.”
Roger Waters’ This Is Not A Drill tour continues until October.
