Harry Waters, the son of former Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters, has revealed that he was fired by his father from his touring band.
Speaking in an interview, Harry explained that he was told by Roger Waters that he would no longer be required to play keyboards on his father’s touring band.
Harry was fired by his father in early 2016, ahead of the ‘Us + Them’ tour, having formed part of his dad’s band for 14 years.
Despite this, the younger Waters has designs on playing his dad’s music in a Pink Floyd tribute band instead.
“doubly hurtful”
In this interview, Harry said that his sacking at the hands of his father was “pretty miserable”.
“I was fired, it was pretty miserable”, Harry said.
The younger Waters also added, “I think he just wanted a change of blood, something new, something fresh. I’m not sure of his exact reasoning, but everyone except two people got fired”.
“But the other guys that got the sack weren’t his son, so it was doubly hurtful for me”.
Despite this, Harry has continued to play his dad’s material , having recently finished off a tour with Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, which saw them cover Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ in full.
Harry can now look forward to playing more of his dad’s material, with Pink Floyd tribute act, Brit Floyd.
Roger Waters’ son accepted an offer to play three shows with the band, who feature former Pink Floyd background singer Durga McBroom, and former saxophonist Scott Page.
“I’ve never met any of them, but I’ll just turn up and play,” stated Harry. “I’ve been playing this music for 30 years or so. I think we’ll be OK without rehearsal. I think we all know the material pretty well”.
“It’s just not true”
Elsewhere, Harry also spoke about his father’s recent political controversies.
This comes after a court in Chile ruled that Waters’ upcoming concerts in the country can take place as planned, despite numerous attempts to block them, amid accusations of antisemitism.
The Reprsentative Committee of Jewish Entities in Chile had repeatedly tried to block Waters’ ‘This Is Not A Drill’ shows to the country’s capital, Santiago, pointing to what they call, Waters’ “history of incitement to antisemitic hatred”.
Last April, Waters also won a legal battle to perform in Frankfurt. This show was also cancelled over allegations of antsemitism.
Roger Waters has always denied such allegations.
These claims were thrown out on the grounds that “no facts have been mentioned that could constitute a violation of the constitutional guarantees”.
“It’s just not true at all that he’s an antisemite”, Harry insisted, when asked about his father.
“People say, ‘Oh, he dresses up in an SS uniform, and he has a Star of David on the [inflatable] pig. And I just want to say, ‘You f****** idiots. He’s been doing that for 40 years. It’s satire”, he added.
“There’s also a Mercedes sign, a hammer and sickle, and a dollar sign on the pig … He’s bringing to light all the evils of the world. But people confuse that and think he’s an antisemite, which is really stupid”.
Roger Waters also had his say on the Gaza-Israeli war back in October. See his statement here.
