David Gilmour and Roger Waters had teased a Pink Floyd reunion
(Picture: Dave Benett)Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has been accused of being an “antisemitic Putin apologist” by former bandmate David Gilmour and his wife.
Polly Samson attacked bassist Waters after he appeared to defend Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and branded Joe Biden a “war criminal” for supplying arms to Kyiv and, in his mind, “fueling” the war.
“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” Samson tweeted. She went on to make a series of unsubstantiated accusations, calling Waters a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical... lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac.” “Enough of your nonsense,” she added.
Waters, incensed at the accusations, hit back, with a statement saying: “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely. He is currently taking advice as to his position.”
Despite the legal threat, Gilmour backed up his wife’s tweet an hour later, adding, “Every word demonstrably true.”
Every word demonstrably true https://t.co/KWk4I3bMTN
— David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) February 6, 2023
In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, Waters asked: “And I wonder: is Putin a bigger gangster than Joe Biden and all those in charge of American politics since World War II? I am not so sure. Putin didn’t invade Vietnam or Iraq? Did he?”
He added: “Anyone with half a brain can see that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked beyond all measure. It is probably the most provoked invasion ever.”
Asked if he still believed in previous comments comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, he doubled down: “Yes, of course. The Israelis are committing genocide. Just like Great Britain did during our colonial period, by the way.”
He also slammed Pink Floyd’s “sad” recent release Hey Rise Up with the Ukrainian musician Andrij Chlywnjuk which raised £500,000 to help “alleviate the suffering” of the people in the war-torn country.
He said: “I have seen the video and I am not surprised, but I find it really, really sad. It’s so alien to me, this action is so lacking in humanity. It encourages the continuation of the war. Pink Floyd is a name I used to be associated with. That was a huge time in my life, a very big deal. To associate that name now with something like this… proxy war makes me sad.”
Guitarist and vocalist Gilmour, who has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren, previously said the group had been “feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers”.
