Roger Waters

At 80 years old, Roger Waters has this physical status:

George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English songwriter, singer, bassist, and composer.

In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd.

Waters initially served solely as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, he also became their lyricist, co-lead vocalist, and conceptual leader. Pink Floyd achieved international success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979).

By the early 1980s, they had become one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful groups in popular music; by 2013, they had sold more than 250 million albums worldwide.

Amid creative differences, Waters left in 1985 and began a legal dispute with the remaining members over the use of the band's name and material.

They settled out of court in 1987. Waters' solo work includes the studio albums The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), Radio K.A.O.S.

(1987), Amused to Death (1992), and Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017).

In 2005, he released Ça Ira, an opera translated from Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gils' libretto about the French Revolution. In 1990, Waters staged one of the largest rock concerts in history, The Wall – Live in Berlin, with an attendance of 450,000.

As a member of Pink Floyd, he was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Later that year, he reunited with Pink Floyd bandmates Mason, Wright and David Gilmour for the Live 8 global awareness event, the group's first appearance with Waters since 1981.

He has toured extensively as a solo act since 1999; he performed The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for his world tour of 2006–2008, and the Wall Live tour of 2010–13 was the highest-grossing tour by a solo artist at the time.

Early years

Waters was born on 6 September 1943, the younger of two boys, to Mary (née Whyte; 1913–2009) and Eric Fletcher Waters (1914–1944), in Great Bookham, Surrey. His father, the son of a coal miner and Labour Party activist, was a schoolteacher, a devout Christian, and a Communist Party member.

In the early years of the Second World War, Waters's father was a conscientious objector who drove an ambulance during the Blitz. He later changed his stance on pacifism, joined the Territorial Army and was commissioned into the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant on 11 September 1943. He was killed five months later on 18 February 1944 at Aprilia, during the Battle of Anzio, when Roger was five months old. He is commemorated in Aprilia and at the Cassino War Cemetery. On 18 February 2014, Waters unveiled a monument to his father and other war casualties in Aprilia, Italy and was made an honorary citizen of Anzio. Following her husband's death, Mary Waters, also a teacher, moved with her two sons to Cambridge and raised them there. Waters's earliest memory is of the V-J Day celebrations.

Waters attended Morley Memorial Junior School in Cambridge and then the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys (now Hills Road Sixth Form College) with Syd Barrett, while future Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour lived nearby on Mill Road and attended the Perse School. At 15, Waters was chairman of the Cambridge Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND), having designed its publicity poster and participated in its organisation. He was a keen sportsman and a highly regarded member of the high school's cricket and rugby teams. Waters was unhappy at school, saying: "I hated every second of it, apart from games. The regime at school was a very oppressive one ... the same kids who are susceptible to bullying by other kids are also susceptible to bullying by the teachers."

Waters met future Pink Floyd founder members Nick Mason and Richard Wright in London at the Regent Street Polytechnic (later the University of Westminster) school of architecture. Waters enrolled there in 1962, after a series of aptitude tests indicated he was well suited to that field. He had initially considered a career in mechanical engineering.

Personal life

Marriages of Roger Waters

In 1969, Waters married his childhood sweetheart Judith Trim, a potter; she was featured on the gatefold sleeve of the original release of Ummagumma, but excised from CD reissues. They had no children and divorced in 1975. Trim died in 2001.

In 1976, Waters married Lady Carolyne Christie, the niece of the 3rd Marquess of Zetland. They had a son, Harry Waters, a musician who has played keyboards with his father's touring band since 2002, and a daughter, India Waters, who has worked as a model. Christie and Waters divorced in 1992. In 1993, Waters married Priscilla Phillips; they had one son, Jack Fletcher. Their marriage ended in 2001. In 2004, Waters became engaged to actress and filmmaker Laurie Durning (born 1963); the two married on 14 January 2012 and filed for divorce in September 2015. Waters married his fifth wife, his former chauffeur Kamilah Chavis, in October 2021; he described her as "finally a keeper".

Waters is an atheist.

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1984–present: solo career

Waters' first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, was released in 1984, which was based on Waters' experiences with monogamy and family life in comparison to "the call of the wild." Regency's protagonist, Reggie, finally chooses love and matrimony over promiscuity. The album featured guitarist Eric Clapton, jazz saxophonist David Sanborn, and Gerald Scarfe's artwork. Kurt Loder characterized The Pros And Conscious Hitch Hiking's Hitch Hiking's a "strangely static, faintly obscure record." Rolling Stone called the album a "rock bottom one celebrity." Mike DeGagne of AllMusic praised its "ingenious symbolism" and "brilliant use of stream of consciousness in a subconscious setting five years ago," giving it a four-star rating.

Waters played Clapton, a new band, and new music; the show featured a collection of Pink Floyd songs. On June 16, 1984, Waters began his tour in Stockholm. The tour brought poor ticket sales and a few shows at larger venues were postponed; Waters estimated that he lost £400,000 on the tour; Waters estimated that he lost £400,000 on the tour. Waters returned to North America in March 1985 to compete in smaller venues with Pros and Cons Plus. — Old Pink Floyd Stuff—North America Tour 1985. The RIAA has awarded Gold to Hitch Hiking's Pros and Consciousness.

Waters contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the animated film When the Wind Blows, which was based on Raymond Briggs' book of the same name. Paul Carrack's backing band, The Bleeding Heart Band, was dubbed The Bleeding Heart Band. Waters released Radio K.A.O.S., a concept album based on a homeless Welsh mining town who has the ability to listen to radio waves in his head, in 1987. Billy learns to communicate with a radio DJ and eventually control the world's computers. He simulates a nuclear attack in an Angry world in which he lives. The Waters came after the initial release in 1987, but the support tour was also available.

The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, and Waters, one of the most popular and elaborate rock concerts in Berlin, staged The Wall – Live in Berlin, on the vacant terrain between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. According to the show, there were 200,000 viewers, though some estimates are even more than doubled, with approximately one billion viewers. Waters was requested by Leonard Cheshire to perform the concert to raise funds for charity. Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Scorpions, and Sinéad O'Connor were among the Waters' musicians. In addition, waterways from the US 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron used an East German symphony orchestra and choir, a Soviet marching band, and a pair of helicopters from the US 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. The wall, designed by Mark Fisher, was 25 meters high and 170 meters long and was constructed across the site, and Scarfe's inflatable puppets were recreated on a larger scale. Many rock stars were invited to the show, but Gilmour, Mason, and Wright were not invited, but not to the show. The RIAA has released a double album describing the event.

Waters recruited Mark Fenwick and left EMI for a multinational collaboration with Columbia in 1990. In 1992, he released Amused to Death, his third studio album. The record was heavily influenced by the 1989 and Gulf War protests, as well as a critique of the possibility of war being viewed as a form of entertainment, particularly on television. The name was derived from Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death. The album was co-produced by Patrick Leonard, who worked on A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Jeff Beck appeared on several of the album's tracks, which were recorded with a cast of singers at ten separate recording studios. It's Waters' most highly acclaimed solo record, gaining praise for his collaboration with Pink Floyd. Waters described the album as a "thunning piece of work," placing it alongside Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall as one of the best of his career. Pt. 'What God Wants' In September 1992, 1" hit number 35 in the United Kingdom and 5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States, and at number five. The British Phonographic Industry awarded Amused to Death an Aristote. Amused to Death's sales reached a one million mark, but there was no tour to promote the album. During his In the Flesh tour, Waters would first perform information from it seven years later. Waters was inducted into the US and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame in 1996 as a member of Pink Floyd.

Waters embarked on the In the Flesh tour in 1999, after a 12-year absence from touring and a seven-year absence from the music industry, performing both solo and Pink Floyd material. The tour was a financial success in the United States; although Waters had booked mostly smaller venues, tickets were sold so well that many of the concerts were moved to larger ones. The tour descended on the world and lasted three years. In the Flesh – Live, a concert film was released on CD and DVD. Waters performed two new songs, "Flickering Flame" and "Each Small Candle," as the last encore to many of the shows on the tour. He closed the tour in June 2002 with a performance at the Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, where he performed 15 Pink Floyd songs and five songs from his solo catalog.

Miramax revealed in 2004 that a production of The Wall would be seen on Broadway, with Waters playing a major part in the creative direction. According to reports, the musical featured not only the original tracks from The Wall but also songs from Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and other Pink Floyd albums, as well as new material. Extracts from the opera, as well as its overture, were performed on the occasion of the Welcome Europe celebrations in Malta's accession country. Gert Hof converted extracts from the opera into a cohesive piece of music that was performed as an accompaniment to a large light and fireworks display over Grand Harbour, Valletta. Waters released two new songs on the internet in July, "To Kill the Child," inspired by Iraq's 2003 invasion, and "Leaving Beirut," an anti-war song influenced by his Middle East travels as a youth.

Waters reunited with Mason, Wright, and Gilmour for their final appearance together at the 2005 Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, Pink Floyd's first appearance with Waters since their final appearance of The Wall at Earls Court London 24 years ago. They performed "Speak to Me/Breathe"/"Breathe"/"Breath"/"Breath"/"Breath", "Money," "Wish You Were Here"), and "Comfortably Numb" during a 23-minute set. Waters told the Associated Press that although the learning of playing with Pink Floyd again was positive, the possibility of a bona fide reunion would be "slight," considering his and Gilmour's continuing musical and ideological differences. Though Waters had conflicting opinions about which songs they should play, he "agreed to roll over for one night only." Pink Floyd was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame by Pete Townshend of the Who in November 2005.

Waters premiered a Ira [sa ia], French for "it will be fine,"; Waters added the word "There is Hope"), an opera in three acts based on the French Revolution's historical period. A Ira was released as a double CD collection starring baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang, and tenor Paul Groves. Roda-Gil and his partner Nadine Delahaye co-authored the original libretto, which was set during the early French Revolution. Waters had begun rewriting the libretto in English in 1989 and said of the arrangement: "I've always been a huge fan of Beethoven's choral music, Berlioz and Borodin..." This is unashamedly romantic and lives in the early 19th-century style, because it is where my interests lie in classical and choral music." Waters appeared on television to discuss the opera, but the interviews often referred to his friendship with Pink Floyd, a sign that Waters will "take in stride," a Pink Floyd biographer Mark Blake says, a tribute to his mellower old age or twenty years of dedicated psychotherapy. In the United States, a Ira reached number 5 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart.

Waters began in June 2006 in Europe, with two-year Dark Side of the Moon Live world tour beginning in June and North America. Both Pink Floyd and Waters' solo recordings were on display in the first half of the exhibition; the second featured a complete presentation of The Dark Side of the Moon, the first time in more than three decades. With an encore from The Wall's third side, the performances came to an end. Laser lights, fog machines, pyrotechnics, psychedelic projections, and inflatable floating puppets were part of the elaborate staging conceived by concert lighting designer Marc Brickman's "handler" disguised as a butcher and a full 360-degree quadraphonic sound system. On some 2006 appearances, Mason joined Waters for the Dark Side of the Moon and the Encores.

In March 2007, the Waters song "I Love You") was included in the science fiction film The Last Mimzy. Waters released it as a single, on CD and download, and said it was "a song that captures the movie's plot, the clash between humanity's best and worst instincts, and how a child's innocence can win the day." He appeared at the Coachella Festival in April 2008 in California and was supposed to be one of the headlining artists at Live Earth 2008 in Mumbai, India, but the show was postponed due to the 26 November terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Waters and the others discussed the possibility of a new album under the tentative name Heartland in April 2008.

Waters released a cover of "We Shall Overcome," a resistance song written and arranged by Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger. In July 2010, he performed with Gilmour at the Hoping Foundation Benefit Evening. The set included a cover of Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is Love Him," which was performed in early Pink Floyd soundchecks, "Wish You Were Here," "Comfortably Numb," and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)".

Waters began the Wall Live tour in September 2010, an updated version of the original Pink Floyd tour on display, including complete coverage of The Wall. The tour will most likely be his last: "I'm not as old as I used to be." I'm not like B.B. Muddy Waters, King. I'm not a great vocalist or a great guitarist, or whatever, but I do have the fire in my belly, and I have something to say. I have a swan song in me, and I think this will be it."

Gilmour and Mason also appeared with Waters on "Comfortably Numb" and "Outside the Wall" at the O2 Arena in London on May 12, 2011. The tour topped worldwide concert ticket sales in the first half of 2012, with more than 1.4 million tickets sold in total. By 2013, the Wall Live had become the highest-grossing tour by a solo artist. On December 12, 2012, Waters performed at the Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden. He headlined the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, along with the band My Morning Jacket and two members of the group Lucius. In October 2016, Waters at the Desert Trip festival performed.

Waters released his first solo album in nearly 25 years on June 2nd, 2017. Is This the Life We Really Want? It was created by Radiohead engineer Nigel Godrich. Godrich was a fan of Waters' collaboration with Pink Floyd, but he was critical of his solo career and urged him to produce a short album showcasing his lyrics. In 2017, the Us + Them Tour brought water back to North America, with Pink Floyd and solo performances.

Sony Classical Masterworks published a new version of Igor Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale narrated by Waters on October 26, 2018. Waters performed "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" at the Beacon Theatre on April 18, 2019. Waters was one of the ten highest-grossing concert performances of the decade. Waters, a watershed charity, has released This Is Not a Drill, a new show that will tour North America and concludes exactly one month before the 2020 presidential election. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to 2022. The concerts were only held in arenas from July to October 2022. Waters revealed in September 2022 that tour dates in Europe would be extended from March to June 2023.

With Gilmour, the waters continued to quarrer. He wrote about his fight over reissues and credits, accusing Gilmour of distorting the truth and complaining that Gilmour would not encourage him to use Pink Floyd's website and social media pages. Waters and Gilmour "seem to have hit yet another low point in their relationship" in 2021. During the pandemic, Waters also revealed that he had started writing a memoir.

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