David Gilmour vs Roger Waters: What caused Pink Floyd's feud?
- aimeeelkington153
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 hours ago
Pink Floyd are one of the most critically and commercially successful bands of all time. They’ve sold over 250 million records worldwide. They’ve won more awards than your nan has mustache hairs, their albums are considered some of the best ever made and they’ve influenced the likes of David Bowie, Queen and Radiohead.
The two driving forces of the group - David Gilmour and Roger Waters, had their fair share of squabbles, though. Eventually leading to Roger Waters quitting the band in 1985, where the feud only intensified.
This is the story of one of music’s greatest ever feuds. And let me ask you - who’s side are you on? Gilmour or Waters?
It all started in 1965, when Roger Waters founded Pink Floyd (or The Pink Floyd Sound as it was then) with Syd Barret, Nick Mason and Richard Wright.
Before that, at university, Rogers had been in his “Let’s Name The Band Something Ridiculous” phase,
Making music in groups called The Screaming Abdabs, Tea Set, Sigma 6, Spectrum 5, Leonard’s Lodgers….
It was during these years he’d collaborate with Syd Barret and Nick Mason. The foundations of Pink Floyd were brewing.
The feud though really begins in 1968 - the year David Gilmour officially joined Pink Floyd,
You see, Syd Barret was the creative genius of the band until he decided that he'd rather experiment with mind-altering substances than make coherent music. Years of drug abuse and consequent health problems eventually led to him being too unstable to hold a position in Pink Floyd. So, he was fired.
So, in came David Gilmour, the friend from school who could play the guitar without turning it into a spaceship…
Now, to understand this feud, you’ve got to understand that David Gilmour, was a man with a vision - he was unapologetically creatively driven. He had ideas, and he wanted to run with them.
This caused Waters to feel threatened. Suddenly it feels like he’s not the captain of his own ship anymore.
Despite this, the two worked together for nearly 20 years, producing some of the world’s greatest albums in the process: Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall being the obvious examples.
Pink Floyd were creating the most unique, psychedelic rock the world had ever seen and Roger Waters as lyricist and conceptual leader was steering the ship.
That’s not to say the others didn’t have any input though, because they certainly did.
Richard Wright for example, the unsung hero of Pink Floyd is often overlooked or underappreciated as a member, but his contributions played a huge role in Pink Floyd’s sound - from his incredible work on the organ to the synths, he, like Gilmour, was certainly having an impact.
However, in the late 70s, fuelled by the success of Darkside of the Moon, Waters began tightening his ship, creatively overshadowing the other members and dominating the writing process.
Animals, released 1977, was the first Pink Floyd album without any songwriting credits for Wright.
Then, during the writing of The Wall, Waters became just too domineering for Wright, leading to his departure from the group
Wright would eventually rejoin the group later on as a salaried musician - and fun fact, he was the only one of the group to make any profit from the live shows of The Wall - because they were so expensive to produce. That was a smart move, Wrighty!
During this period of tension, and also feeling somewhat underused in Pink Floyd, David Gilmour began producing his own albums - the first of which, David Gilmour, was released in 1978.
This was Gilmour showing the world what he could truly do when he wasn’t restrained by the limitations that Waters put on him. And Waters liked it - in fact, a track he had been working on for the album ended up on The Wall instead - Comfortably Numb.
This didn’t alleviate the power struggle between Gilmour and Waters though, and in 1985, Roger Waters left the group because of... creative differences, let’s call it.
However, Waters, believing he was the main creative force behind the group, believed that Pink Floyd couldn’t simply continue without him.
A year after leaving, he began legal proceedings to dissolve Pink Floyd - calling them a ‘spent force, creatively’
David Gilmour and Nick Mason refused to fold, eager to continue Pink Floyd and create new music. They argued that the group was very much still alive.
The case raged on for months before eventually being settled in 1987 with Waters backing down. He blamed the costs of the proceedings as the main reason for settling. He also later in life admitted that it was wrong of him to have done that.
The Gilmour-Waters feud, however, was far from settled - it raged on for many years, despite a few temporary truces.
The main one was in 2005 as the band reunited as part of the Live 8 benefit concerts in 2005.
Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed as the classic Pink Floyd line-up for the first time in more than 24 years. This would be the last time Richard Wright performed with the group, sadly passing away in 2008.
In the show at Hyde Park, they dedicated ‘Wish You Were Here’ to Syd Barrett. He would pass away a year later in 2006.
Now, I have no idea what Bob Geldoff did to make Pink Floyd reunite like this but it was probably illegal or disgusting or both…Or maybe they just love charity, who knows?!
After that performance, the four were offered a £150 million deal for a tour of the US. They turned it down.
Not even 150 million quid could get Waters and Gilmour to work together long term again - now that’s how you know it was a real feud.
There were a few more temporary truces over the years too
Gilmour and Waters performed together in 2010 for a charity called Hoping Foundation - reportedly laughing and joking together like old times.
And in 2011, Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" with Waters at the O2 in London and, along with Nick Mason, performed “Outside The Wall” for the show’s finale.
Oh great, the feud is over! No, no, no…
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Gilmour took a little dig at Roger, saying:
“The thought of him coming into something that has any form of democracy to it, he just wouldn’t be good at that.”
Implying of course that Waters couldn’t collaborate effectively.
In 2018, also speaking to Rolling Stone, Nick Mason gave his thoughts on the feud, stating:
“I think the problem is Roger doesn’t really respect David”
Roger was always under the impression that guitar playing and singing was something anyone, almost, could do. Whereas the writing, lyricism and concepts, the stuff in Water’s wheelhouse are where the true heart comes from.
In 2020, Waters took a swipe at Gilmour on Twitter. In a five minute video he rants at the fact he is not able to have access to Pink Floyd’s social media - also accusing David Gilmour of banning him from the Pink Floyd Website.
He then ranted about how David Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, was able to promote her novels and projects via these channels but Roger Waters’ solo stuff wasn’t allowed to be on there.
As recently as 2022, the pair had disagreements over a re-release of their album Animals. Gilmour had this to say:
“A very lovely Animals remix has been done, but someone has tried to force some liner notes on it that I haven’t approved and, someone is digging his heels and not allowing it to be released.”
Obviously referring to Waters there, Gilmour seems to be hinting at the pettiness of the whole situation.
Shortly after this episode, Waters began voicing some questionable political opinions about a smattering of topics which caused him to be in the spotlight once again.
David Gilmour’s Wife, Polly Samson, then took to Twitter to condemn Roger, a move backed up by Gilmour. Polly tweeted this:
“Sadly, Roger Waters 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.”
Phwoar, didn’t pull any punches there did she?
So, even after nearly 40 years, even after a shared storied musical history, the two are still feuding to this day. Like two old cats hissing at each other from different sides of the room.
Who’s side are you on though? Or, is it stupid to take sides… should we just be grateful for the music Pink Floyd were able to produce?
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