Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters discussed his relationship with his ex-band mate David Gilmour, a potential 2020 solo tour and more in an interview with Rolling Stone. Waters’ concert film, Roger Waters Us + Them, will be shown in select theaters tomorrow (Wednesday, October 2) and Sunday, October 6.

Speaking to Rolling Stone’s Kory Grow, Waters was discussing his passion for environmental advocacy when Gilmour’s name came up (Grow mentioned Gilmour donated proceeds from the sales of his guitars to fight climate change). Waters expressed gratitude for Gilmour’s gesture but then noted his former band mate had blocked promotion of Us + Them on the official Pink Floyd website.

Waters then revealed he spoke with Gilmour in June, but asserted, “We had a big meeting where I came up with a big peace plan that has come to nothing, sadly.” Grow responded that he was sorry to hear that, to which Waters replied:

I know you are. I bet all Pink Floyd fans are sorry to hear that. They all hoped that we could kiss and make up and everything would be wonderful in a cozy, wonderful world. Well, it wouldn’t be all that cozy or wonderful for me, because I left Pink Floyd in 1985 for a reason. The reason being that I wanted to get on with my work. Well, thank goodness I’ve been able to get on with my work. Work is its own reward. I was very happy to see in the Variety review of the movie that they managed to connect the dots between Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, [Waters’ solo albums] Amused to Death and Is This the Life We Really Want? That was gratifying. Anyway, let’s not go there any further. I’ve said more than I should.


Waters went on to praise his former Pink Floyd band mate Nick Mason, whose Saucer Full Of Secrets tour featured a Waters sit-in during a show in New York City. Waters did stop short of endorsing embarking on a similar small-scale theater tour. Instead, Waters discussed plans for touring in 2020, specifically in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico City. The proposed arena-exclusive tour would consist of, “30 or 40 gigs in North America in [an] election year, and also a few gigs probably only in Mexico City.”

Grow asked if the 2020 concerts would be different than the 157 show Us + Them Tour that spanned 2017 to 2018. Waters replied:

It will be even more political than Us + Them was — political and humane. We were listening to songs and looking at setlists today. We were talking about, what should we call it? I shouldn’t be giving this away, but I don’t give a shit because it will probably all change, but imagine the iconic helicopter that normally comes before “Happiest Days” and “Brick 2” — that noise that we all know and love — and imagine a megaphone, somebody abused this device before, I know — but, “This is not a drill.” I thought that could be a good title for the show: This Is Not a Drill. The ruling class is killing us.

Head to Rolling Stone to read the full interview with Roger Waters.