Five classic rock artists that Roger Waters can’t stand
Roger Waters is arguably one of the greatest musical minds to ever whistle a tune, as his work in psychedelic rock and with the art of concept albums has led to the creation of some of the most spellbinding albums ever made.
To this day, people still call records like Wish You Were Here and The Wall some of the greatest LPs ever put together. It’s safe to say that if anyone has earned the right to be overly critical about music, it’s Roger Waters… and he seems to be well aware of that. Let’s just say, he’s not a musician who holds back when it comes to his opinions.
Whether it’s a modern musician, a pioneering artist, or someone with whom he once was in a band, the artistic world is flooded with people whom Roger Waters seems to absolutely detest. He doesn’t hold back when it comes to laying his thoughts on the line, as every other interview he does is littered with the names of those unfortunate few.
It makes for some controversial and some pretty brutal reading in all honesty. So, shall we?
Five artists that Roger Waters can’t stand:
Ozzy Osbourne
We may as well get his most controversial one out of the way first. When Ozzy Osbourne passed away, the entire musical world came together to equally mourn the Black Sabbath vocalist- he had a massive impact on rock and is credited with creating the genre of heavy metal, so losing him was a major moment in music, but Roger Waters wasn’t convinced.
Shortly after he passed, the former Pink Floyd member did an interview where he shared his opinion on Osbourne as a vocalist and Black Sabbath. “Ozzy Osbourne, who just died, bless him in his whatever that state that he was in his whole life. We’ll never know. The music, I have no idea. I couldn’t give a fuck,” he said, rather scathingly.
Concluding, “I don’t care about Black Sabbath, I never did. Have no interest in biting the heads of chickens or whatever they do. I couldn’t care less, you know.”
Sex Pistols
Punk was certainly a divisive genre when it came to the theme of different songs. A lot of people, particularly those in politics, despised the Sex Pistols because of how crass a lot of their lyrics were. Waters’ problem had nothing to do with what the band were saying, though; instead, he despised the music that they made, saying that it was just noise for the sake of it.
“The Sex Pistols were just trying to make noise,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “It was so clearly contrived. You know, they were managed by a bloke who ran a shop selling silly clothes!” Once again, not being sensitive around death, Waters said that the band’s legendary status came from the passing of Sid Vicious, as opposed to what they actually made.
“And then one of them died, so you got that iconic thing that lives on,” he said. “If somebody dies, that’s always good. Except for him, obviously, and his mom and dad, and [his girlfriend] Nancy; but for everybody else, it’s brilliant.”
Bono
When Pink Floyd started getting big, a lot of music lovers became fans immediately, but other listeners thought their sound was a little over the top. One of these critics was Bono, and it made Waters quite resentful, given he felt that the U2 member was only saying as much because he thought that it made him look cutting edge.
“I remember when we did The Wall, being criticised by Bono,” he said. “U2 are a very young band, and they’re going [in a mock Irish accent], ‘Oh, we can’t stand all that theatrical nonsense that Pink Floyd do. We just play our music and the songs unto themselves and blah, blah, blah.”
Radiohead
While Waters might not utterly loathe Radiohead‘s music, he does find that it does absolutely nothing to him, and sometimes that’s even worse. Speaking about the band, he explained, “That bit of my brain has no power, I think. It doesn’t attach. I don’t really listen to Radiohead. I’m sure it’s very good and everything – I’m absolutely sure it is because everybody says it is – but I listened to the albums, and they just didn’t move me in the same way, say, John Prine does.“
“His is just extraordinarily eloquent music and he lives on that plain with Neil [Young] and [John] Lennon,“ he added, implying by contrast that Radiohead are somewhat less than that. This was prior to politics entering the picture in a major way, too, with Waters’ remarks dating back to 2008. Since then, his contempt has grown, labelling Thom Yorke no more than a “timid little bloke“.
The other members of Pink Floyd
This one is a bit of a given – very few bands break up and end things on good terms, but Pink Floyd took their bitterness to another level, and one of Waters’ biggest feuds is with guitarist David Gilmour, who continued making music under the moniker of Pink Floyd even after Waters had left… He was always very vocal about his disdain towards this move and also how much he hates the music that Pink Floyd began putting out.
He said that he felt sorry for fans who were still buying the albums, as it seemed that they were having rubbish music pushed on them. “With all due respect to the people who went out and bought those records, they are just rubbish,” he said. “Particularly The Division Bell, it’s just nonsense from beginning to end.”
