Roger Waters Appears On Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast

Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters was the latest guest interviewed on the WTF podcast. Host Marc Maron spoke with Waters between his appearances with My Morning Jacket and Lucius at the two Desert Trip festival weekends earlier this month.

The typically in-depth WTF discussion covers aspects of Waters’ childhood with his widowed mother following his father’s death in World War II. He details a significant experience with a policeman as a young man on vacation in Beirut. Waters recalls the early days of Floyd and recording at The Beatles Abbey Road studios, sharing the story of his only meeting with John Lennon. He also describes seeing The Rolling Stones in the early 1960s on a bill with blues legends including Howlin’ Wolf and briefly mentions pre-Floyd band mate, guitarist Bob Klose.

The legendary musician also discusses Neil Young, John Prine, Eric Clapton, The Band and his former Pink Floyd band mates David Gilmour and Rick Wright. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t have pleasant things to say about Gilmour and Wright but goes on to speak fondly about Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, his friend Clapton and others. Waters reveals he thinks his greatest contribution to rock music was the development of “the theater of arena rock” but that he’s “over” playing The Wall.

The conversation pauses for Waters to read a political poem entitled “Is This The Life We Really Want?” and he also recites a portion of his “Crystal Clear Brooks” which was played at the Newport Folk Festival in 2015. He concludes by letting Maron know of his intentions to drop “Pigs On The Wing 1” and “Pigs On The Wing 2” from the second Desert Trip performance setlist.

Give a listen to the full chat below: