The album that destroyed Roger Waters’ relationship with Nick Mason
Friendships do not always last forever, and the chances of survival are cut dramatically if you happen to be in a band together. The pages of musical history are chock full of ego battles, musical differences, and vicious inter-band conflicts, from the sibling rivalry of Oasis to the love triangles of Fleetwood Mac. One of the most prominent examples of a band enmeshed in arguments and conflict was Pink Floyd, who were plagued by in-fighting for the vast majority of their existence, often centring around Roger Waters.
One would have to assume that when the band first got together in 1965, the individual members got on with each other fairly well. However, this brief period of harmony was fleeting. Originally, psychedelic master and artistic visionary Syd Barrett was at the helm of the revolutionary band, but after Piper At The Gates of Dawn, his mental health witnessed a steep decline, spurred on by his increased experimentation with drugs. As a result, Barrett was pushed out of the band in April 1968, leaving Waters to take on the leadership role.
As is the case with many rock musicians, Waters had a particular vision for what he wanted to achieve with Pink Floyd, and he was not overly receptive to ideas that did not fit with that singular vision. Almost immediately, conflict between Waters and David Gilmour – who joined the group in 1967 as a replacement for Barrett – became commonplace within the group. Even during their commercial breakthrough, with the release of The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, the pair still could not seem to get along.
Nevertheless, Waters remained the predominant creative force driving Pink Floyd throughout the 1970s, their most acclaimed period as a band. With every record, tour, and writing session, the relationship between Waters and Gilmour became more and more strained. Still, Waters managed to steer the band from the intense success of The Dark Side of the Moon to groundbreaking releases like Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall.
By the time the 1970s came to an end, however, the writing was on the wall (pun certainly intended) for the future of Pink Floyd. Creating 1983’s The Final Cut was a particularly treacherous process for the band. Although much of the album was composed of unreleased material from The Wall sessions, the process of putting the record together was a key moment in the downfall of one of Britain’s defining bands.
A notable turning point came when Nick Mason, who had previously been fairly diplomatic within the band while Gilmour and Waters were at each other’s throats, seemed to side with Gilmour. Speaking to Matthew Gwyther in 1993, Waters reflected on how his diminished relationship with Mason impacted him. “When push came to shove when we were making The Final Cut, I asked him to stand by me, to be part of ‘my gang’. He said to me, ‘I want to go on with Gilmour’,” he shared.
“At least he had the courage to tell me that. I went, ‘Alright if that is what you believe’,” Water said. Despite this, The Final Cut ended up being the final Pink Floyd studio album recorded with Roger Waters. In 1985, when tensions within the group were at their boiling point, he chose to leave the band, citing that old chestnut of creative differences.
Even in the decades since Waters left Pink Floyd, him and Gilmour have found consistent opportunities to attack each other in interviews and their respective music careers. Seemingly, though, it was the demise of Waters’ friendship with Mason that sparked his abandonment of Pink Floyd.
