Roger Waters’ public offerings have to be massive. Psychedelic progressive band Pink Floyd may have entertained audiences for the rest of their lives, but would it have been enjoyable without the huge pig balloon onstage or The Wall for the concert of the same name? Waters constantly focuses on his performance, but one big concert got him back on track after a lull. Waters seemed too jaded to perform bombastic rock and roll for the first several years after leaving Pink Floyd. He still had people interested in hearing his ideas, but sitting back at zero as David Gilmour tore up every solo he performed at Pink Floyd’s latest stadium show must have been difficult.
Anyway, no worries. Waters could make beautiful music, but his first few solo albums were a brain trip for listeners. Waters provided the group with The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking before starting on The Wall, but if this was all he had, it may have been the album where the prog giants stopped their run of great writing. Radio KAOS had better tempo, but Waters didn’t care. The Berlin Wall fell in 1990, so he put on a performance to celebrate by reviving the set and bringing in an all-star ensemble for the day. Waters stopped doing huge productions due to their stress and his hatred for musicians like Sinéad O’Connor. Don Henley urged Waters to try the large productions again, even though most people would be satisfied with such concerts. Waters recalls being transformed by an all-star fundraiser for Henley’s Walden Woods Project, not forcing him to perform for a high fee.
Working with his fellow luminaries, Waters decided it was the right moment to return to the big stage, telling Uncut in 2007, “He asked me if I’d sing a few songs. Me, Don, John Fogerty, and Neil Young. A terrific night. Audience warmth was immense. I thought, “This isn’t bad.” I kept thinking, “Maybe I should do some of this again,” during the 1990s, and in 1999, I decided to try it. Waters began to enjoy his legacy songs after returning to the tour, with Pink Floyd songs dominating the performance. Although the Gilmour-led band was still performing, this nostalgia may have set the stage for the impossible. After that tour, Waters was asked to perform with his bandmates at Live 8 and play some of their biggest hits. The guy behind ‘Hotel California’ helped Waters get back on his feet as a musician, even if the group didn’t reunite.
