The already sour relationship between former Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour appeared to take an irreparable turn on Monday.
Gilmour’s wife, writer and lyricist Polly Samson, took to Twitter to accuse Waters of being “antisemitic to your rotten core” and called him “a Putin apologist and a liar, thief, hypocrite, tax evader, lip syncer, misogynist, sick of envy, megalomaniac”.
It is not clear what prompted the message, but it may have been an interview Waters gave to the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, in which he said he was supported by comments comparing modern Israel to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Palestinians , accusing the Israelis of genocide and defended his boycott of the nation.
Waters, who left Pink Floyd nearly 40 years ago, also wrote on his website that the “Israeli lobby” is trying to silence him with a “vicious smear campaign”, while he insisted he was not an antisemite.
Even him posted another message in response to Samsoncalling his comments “inflammatory and wildly inaccurate” and suggested he was considering legal action.
Gilmour, who only posts occasionally on social media, responded later in the day with a tweet saying his wife was just citing the basics:
Waters is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. Some argue that his words and actions crossed the line into anti-Semitism, something Waters angrily denied.
Waters has also defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and called US President Joe Biden a war criminal for the war in Ukraine.
His former bandmates, on the other hand, reunited last year to release a single under the name Pink Floyd in support of Ukraine. “Hey, hey, wake up!” features the vocals of Andriy Khlyvnyuk from the Ukrainian band BoomBox, as well as a Ukrainian choir.
In his new interview, Waters called the band “very, very sad” and “dehumanized” by the movement.
Waters had a notoriously contentious relationship with fellow Pink Floyd members while in the band as well. He eventually left the group after the release of 1983’s “The Final Cut”, then went to court to stop the other members from using the band’s name.
It was eventually settled out of court and the band continued without him.
There has been little romance between them since, but Waters and Gilmour have shared the stage on a few occasions, most notably a 2005 reunion with Pink Floyd for Live 8, a global event that helps fight poverty.
Waters and Gilmour were joined there by Nick Mason on drums and Richard Wright on keyboards, both founding members of Floyd.
Wright died three years later.
Waters just finished a US solo tour and will be arriving in Europe in the spring. Gilmour streamed a few live shows from home during the pandemic, but hasn’t toured since 2016, when he traveled as a solo act. Mason has been touring with his band, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, which focuses on early Pink Floyd songs.
