There have been a couple of incidents in Waters’ professional life he’d do differently if given a second chance. Firstly, there’s the brutal way Pink Floyd dealt with Syd Barrett and removed him from the band due to his mental health troubles. Admittedly less was known about these issues back then, and although Pink Floyd did try to help him with his solo albums, the band could have done more.
Roger Waters had already a guest appearance with Brooklyn indie pop band Lucius in New York show to play a Pink Floyd classic. (Faroutmag)
Waters’ last encounter with Barrett was a chance meeting in the mid-1970s, but his former bandmate and confidante had grown into a stranger. “I bumped into him in Harrods where he used to go to buy sweets. But we didn’t speak – he sort of scuttled away,” Waters once recalled.
Another incident that could potentially leave Waters regretful is how he left Pink Floyd and the bitter lawsuit that followed. To announce his departure, Waters issued a statement to EMI and CBS invoking the ‘Leaving Member’ clause in his contract. As the main creative force in the band, he didn’t believe Pink Floyd could continue in his absence which led to a messy legal battle.
When Planet Rock asked Waters about the biggest regret of his career, he was deliberately vague and seemed uncomfortable speaking about himself in this way. For somebody who usually has so much to say, it’s peculiar to see him scrambling for words.
“Do I have any regrets? Pfft. Yeah I do, but what a strange question to ask me though,” Waters defensively replied. “I regret that sometimes in the past, I’ve probably been less charitable than I could have been to other people. I tend to be rather critical to other people, and I sometimes regret that, and sometimes I regret opening my big mouth and saying it”.
“I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened to me, I’ve had work that I really enjoy to do all my working life is a huge privilege. Next,” he jokingly adds after a candid moment.
The Pink Floyd founder didn’t name any examples of times when he wasn’t “charitable” enough to those he loved or when he should have stayed silent. However, likely, both the treatment of Barrett and his exit from the band fall into those categories, respectively.
