Pink Floyd Lyricist Calls Roger Waters ‘Putin Apologist’ and ‘Lip-Synching’ Misogynist
“Enough of your nonsense,” wrote Polly Samson, who helped write several songs after Waters’ left the band in 1985
(L to R) David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright from the band Pink Floyd on stage at "Live 8 London" in Hyde Park on July 2, 2005 in London, England. MJ KIM/GETTY IMAGE
The decades-long rift between Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Roger Waters doesn’t show signs of mending anytime soon. On Monday, Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson, who helped write several songs after Waters left the band in 1985, took to social media to publicly criticize Waters.
“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” wrote Samson on Twitter. “Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.”
Gilmour liked the post, retweeting it, and in a show of support, wrote “Every word demonstrably true.”
Last year, Waters spoke extensively with Rolling Stone about being on a kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government.” In the same conversation, the Pink Floyd co-founder suggested that NATO is responsible for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine but positioned that his advocating for Palestine is at least partially rooted in his belief that some Jewish people in the U.S. and U.K. are responsible for the actions of Israel, “particularly because they pay for everything.”
“I can live with myself and go to sleep at night knowing that the story that is being sold by the Western media is propaganda, and it is not the truth. I know the truth,” he said. “And I’m sure I’m right about that.”
Samson’s tweet follows Waters’ interview with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung last week. According to an English translation of the interview on Waters’ website, the 79-year-old musician proceeded to voice more controversial views on Ukraine, Putin, and Israel. In the interview he griped about how it was “really, really sad” that his former bandmates recorded a protest song with Ukrainian musician Andrij Chlywnjuk.
Following Samson’s post on Monday, Waters’ official Twitter account responded later that afternoon. “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely,” stated the post, vaguely noting that he is “currently taking advice on the position.”
Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and mounted a legal battle to prevent Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason from using the band name without him. Ultimately, he lost, and the Gilmour-led version of the band later released A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987 and toured stadiums into the Nineties. In a 2013 BBC interview, Waters admitted regret for suing Gilmour and Mason. “I was wrong,” he conceded. “Of course I was. Who cares?”
From Rolling Stone US.
