Roger Waters’ claims of being bullied while hr was in Pink Floyd has left legendary drummer, Nick Mason “flabbergasted”. The bassist has told of his pain to podcast host, Marc Maron, claiming guitarist David Gilmour and keyboardist Richard Wright “mainly were always trying to drag me down,” and “were always trying to knock me off”.
Mason recently joined veteran music writer, Jim DeRogatis, on the Coda Collection to discuss his extraordinary career which spans across 5 decades. When DeRogatis brought up the old interview of Roger, Nick said he is “slightly flabbergasted by it! I think that's a slightly over-emotional way of putting that there was some sort of division within the band about ... . Because Roger was always looking beyond the music, in a way.
Mason adds that he feels that Waters’ interview was “artificial”, yet he also believes that “possibly there was the side that wanted to do inflatables and films, as well as music, and those who just wanted to do music. But I don't think they were mean to him, particularly. It's hard to imagine being mean to Roger.”
The drummer enjoys hearing what Waters had to say, taking aim at his former bandmate and quipping, “Stalin was bullied!”. Moving on from Pink Floyd on to fellow skinners, Mason speaks of his admiration of Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts, who recently passed away.
“He was [an] absolutely delightful character, and I just wanted to say something about what he provided, I suppose, to the band,” Mason said. “Because one can get sort of a bit carried away with technique, particularly with drums in a way. … I don't think Charlie ever did a drum solo with the Stones. That says quite a lot, I think, because it wasn't necessary. What really mattered was to keep that groove going for the band. It's a little bit the same with Ringo [Starr], I think, that people underestimate just quite how good they are in that particular role.”
Mason's entire Coda Collection interview is available now and can be seen here, or you can watch highlights from the conversation below.
