David Gilmour will never perform with Roger Waters again
David Gilmour has dashed any remaining hopes of a Pink Floyd reunion by declaring he will never perform with Roger Waters again because he can't stand his political opinions.
David Gilmour will never perform with Roger Waters again.
The pair have been at odds for decades ever since Waters left Pink Floyd back in 1985 and launched a legal battle in a bid to get his former bandmates to stop using the group's name without him - and now Gilmour has revealed the feud is still boiling away and dismissed any lingering hopes of a reunion by insisting he will never share a stage with his former friend again because he can't stand his political opinions.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Gilmour was asked if he will ever perform on stage with Waters again, and he replied: "Absolutely not. I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators like [Russian president Vladimir] Putin and [Nicolas] Maduro [President of Venezuela].
"Nothing would make me share a stage with someone who thinks such treatment of women and the LGBT community is OK. On the other hand, I’d love to be back on stage with [late Pink Floyd keyboardist] Rick Wright, who was one of the gentlest and most musically gifted people I’ve ever known."
The pair last shared a stage back in 2011 when Gilmour made a special appearance onstage at one of Waters' solo performances of 'The Wall'.
The latest flare-up comes after Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson previously accused Waters of being an anti-Semite in a post on X - formerly known as Twitter.
Gilmour shared her message along with the statement "every word demonstrably true".
The author-and-lyricist - who worked with her husband on songs for Pink Floyd's 1994 album 'The Division Bell' - appeared to be responding to an interview Waters gave to a German newspaper, in which he defended some of Russia's actions in the war with Ukraine.
Waters has previously referred to Putin as a gangster, and said in the new interview that the country had been provoked into invading Ukraine by the actions of Nato and the US.
Sharing a link to the article, Waters claimed it had been published "against the backdrop of the outrageous and despicable smear campaign by the ISRAELI LOBBY to denounce me as an ANTISEMITE, WHICH I AM NOT, NEVER HAVE BEEN and NEVER WILL BE (sic) ”.
Samson - whose father was a Jew who fled Nazi Germany - later alleged on X: "Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense."
In response, a statement on Waters' page added he was "aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely". The statement added: “He is currently taking advice as to his position."