Roger Waters: 'no regrets' over Pink Floyd exit

As he prepares to bring The Wall to Dublin - the penultimate stop on a mammoth world tour that commenced in September 2010 - Roger Waters sat down with Hot Press for an exclusive interview that proved highly fascinating.

Speaking to Dave Fanning, Waters initially talked politics, musing on how The Wall's themes of totalitarianism, oppression and the power of hope are arguably more relevant today than ever before. In a reflection of his increasing interest in political songwriting, Waters shared lyrics for an as-yet-unpublished song that concerns the Obama administration's use of drone strikes.

Recalling the moment in his storied career where he left Pink Floyd to go it alone and subsequently found himself playing, initially, to a much smaller audience, Waters maintained that he is satisfied with his lot.

"I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; bands are like other groups of people," he said. "They have a life. They have a half-life or whatever it is and then it’s over and when Pink Floyd was over, it was over. People keep raking over the coals of it and people miss it and that’s absolutely fine, I don’t mind that at all, but I was there.

"I know the reasons why we broke up were very real and they were very right and it was the correct thing to do and I have no regrets about leaving, even on that cold night when I was playing to those 1500 people in Cincinnati… absolutely no regrets."

Regarding Floyd's brief return at Live 8 in 2005, Waters revealed the full extent of the sacrifices he felt he had to make in order for the reunion to go ahead, essentially keeping his mouth shut and having no say in the set list or any of the planning. This, he felt, was nothing new for him.

"I spent my life doing that because I had strong ideas about things, as I did 20 and 30 years before that and the reason that we broke up is that we disagree about shit. Big time. But I loved it and I thought we were great. I thought it was beautiful and I’m so glad we did it because Rick [Wright, keyboardist] died soon afterwards and I’m so happy that we got that in before Rick died. Rick was a very special part of all of that and doesn’t usually get the credit he deserved."

You can read the entire interview in the brand new issue of Hot Press - Emeli Sandé cover - in stores now.