Roger Waters has set tensions running high in Canada over claims that he is “more important” than two of the country’s biggest musical stars.
English-born Waters, who rose to fame in the mid 1960s with iconic band Pink Floyd, made headlines this weekend by comparing himself to both Drake and the Weeknd – and finding them both lacking.
Speaking to Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail, Waters said he was “far, far more important” than both artists, adding that it “seemed odd” that The Weeknd’s Toronto show was covered more than his, despite it ultimately being cancelled.
“I have no idea what or who The Weeknd is, because I don’t listen to much music,” the musician told the publication.
“People have told me he’s a big act. Well, good luck to him. I’ve got nothing against him. Would it not have been possible to review his show one night and my show another night?”
“With all due respect to The Weeknd or Drake or any of them,” he added, “I am far, far, far more important than any of them will ever be, however many billions of streams they’ve got.
“There is stuff going on here that is fundamentally important to all of our lives.”
However, once the story broke on social media people had their own views on Waters’ claims to greatness.
“Pink Floyd is the most overrated rock band of all time. A boring version of the Beatles,” one user tweeted, while another wrote: “Pink Floyd is amazing but to say you’re more important than someone is wild. You don’t have to like Drake and The Weeknds music to respect them as people that’s weird.”
Not everyone disagreed with Waters. “Not a huge Pink Floyd fan but yeah, he’s right,” one user tweeted. “This is the deal of this era in arts: it’s hard to be original because there is no real staying power for experimental artists. Drake isn’t a [sic] experimental artist. Pink Floyd is. There is no room for anything but commercial music now.”
Waters’ outspokenness seems to be related to striking out solo: he attributed it to not being “constrained by the rock group that I was with then.”
“They were always trying to drag me back from my natural instinct, which is to tell the truth,” he added in his interview.
Pink Floyd are cited as one of Britain’s first psychedelic groups and had hits with albums that include Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.
