Roger Waters’ regretful meeting with John Lennon: “He was quite snotty, so was I”
While Pink Floyd never set out to be the successors to The Beatles, they were greatly inspired by the Fab Four. Thanks to their musical prowess, there was now a direct pathway for them to try and follow. Remarkably, within a short few years, the group had gone from idolising John Lennon to being in the same studio as him.
Both Waters and Lennon don’t hold reputations for being the warmest of characters. Even though Waters worshipped the ground that Lennon walked upon—after all, he was his earliest songwriting influence—he wouldn’t let the Beatle know this and start fawning over him while in his company.
Waters meticulously studied The Beatles during his formative years, which put him on the trajectory of conquering the world with Pink Floyd. Although he found many aspects of their artistry appealing, it was their use of creative license that Waters took on board the most.
The Fab Four gave the Pink Floyd musician a fountain of knowledge, which immeasurably helped him. Vitally, The Beatles also taught Waters that authenticity was key. He once explained: “I learned from John Lennon and Paul McCartney and George Harrison that it was okay for us to write about our lives, and what we felt — and to express ourselves… That we could be free artists and that there was a value in that freedom. And there was.”
Before then, Waters thought he needed to pretend to be someone else to be successful. However, seeing the Fab Four uncompromisingly rise to the top showed that he could do that too, albeit in his unique way with Pink Floyd.
His path only crossed once with Lennon during the Beatle’s tragically short life, which came before Pink Floyd hit the big time. The pair were working respectively in Abbey Road on March 21st, 1967, when Pink Floyd gained access to the control room to hear Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club before anybody else in the world.
As Pink Floyd were making their debut album, they were an unknown entity. However, their producer, Norman Smith, had previously worked as a studio engineer for The Beatles, which led to the meeting of minds. Their drummer, Nick Mason, later recalled: “We were ushered into Studio Two where the Fab Four were busy recording ‘Lovely Rita.’ The music sounded wonderful, and incredibly professional. We sat humbly and humbled, at the back of the control room while they worked on the mix, and after a suitable period of time had elapsed, we were ushered out again… They were God-like figures to us.”
Although it was an experience they would never forget, Waters didn’t take full advantage of his only chance to meet Lennon. Speaking on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Waters shared: “Piper at the Gates of Dawn, we were doing that in number three studio at Abbey Road, and The Beatles were doing Sgt. Peppers in number two, and I made records in number two later, we made stuff in there as well. “I only met John Lennon once, to my huge regret, and that was in the control room number two, and he was a bit of a… He was quite snotty, so was I.”
Waters didn’t specify the details of why both he and Lennon were “snotty”,” but this does seem to align with their characters. They may not have become best friends, but Waters continues to admire The Beatles and once named Lennon as one of his all-time favourite songwriters alongside McCartney.
As Waters says, they both could have handled the meeting better, but the circumstances likely didn’t help either. It was the end of the day after a long studio session for both bands, meaning Lennon probably wanted to return home rather than converse with strangers. Despite being an awkward encounter, Waters still had the pleasure of hearing ‘Lovely Rita’ before anybody else, and it remains a precious memory.
