George Roger Waters
(born September 6th, 1943)
is an English
singer-songwriter,
musician and political activist.
In 1965,
he co-founded the
rock band
as the bassist.
Following the departure
of the band's
main songwriter
Syd Barrett
in 1968,
Waters became
Pink Floyd's principal lyricist,
co-lead vocalist
and conceptual leader
until his departure in 1985.
Pink Floyd
achieved international success
with the concept albums
The Dark Side of the Moon
(1973),
Wish You Were Here
(1975),
Animals
(1977),
The Wall
(1979),
and
The Final Cut
(1983).
By the early 1980s,
they had become
one of the most acclaimed
and commercially successful
groups in popular music.
Amid creative differences,
Waters left in 1985
and began a legal dispute
over the use of the band's
name and material.
They settled out of court
in 1987.
His solo work
includes the
studio albums
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
(1984),
Radio K.A.O.S.
(1987),
Amused to Death
(1992),
and
Is This the Life We Really Want?
(2017).
In 2005,
he released
Ça Ira,
an opera translated from
Étienne and
Nadine Roda-Gils's
libretto about
the French Revolution.
In 1990,
Waters staged one of the largest
rock concerts in history,
The Wall – Live in Berlin.
As a member of
Pink Floyd,
he was inducted into
the US
Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame
in 1996
and the
UK
Music Hall of Fame
in 2005.
Later in 2005,
he reunited with
Pink Floyd
for the Live 8
global awareness event,
their only appearance
with Waters since 1981.
He has toured extensively
as a solo act
since 1999.
He performed
The Dark Side of the Moon
for his world tour of
2006–2008,
and
The Wall Live,
his tour of
2010–2013,
was the highest-grossing tour
by a solo artist
at the time.
Waters incorporates
political themes
in his work,
many of them
considered radical.
He supports socialism,
has defended
Vladimir Putin
and the Russian invasion
of Ukraine,
and has been ruled
by a court to have made
defamatory comments.
Waters is a
prominent supporter of
Palestine in the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
and Gazan genocide.
He supports the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS)
movement against Israel,
and describes
Israel's treatment of
Palestinians as apartheid.
Elements of his live show
and some of his comments,
such as his likening of
Israel to Nazi Germany,
have drawn accusations
of antisemitism,
which Waters has dismissed
as a conflation
with anti-Zionism.
Waters has been dropped,
banned or sanctioned
by a wide variety of entities
in reaction to his comments,
including
Major League Baseball,
BMG Rights Management,
the German city of Frankfurt,
multiple Argentine hotels,
and the country of Poland.
Waters has contributed to
financing a land deal
that returned 4.5 acres
of private property to
the Shinnecock Nation.
The land includes the
Shinnecock Nation's
ancestral burial grounds
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