The guest
Roger Waters: Co-founder, bassist and principal songwriter of Pink Floyd, now a solo touring artist and outspoken political and human-rights activist.
What this episode covers
Roger Waters joins Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging, largely political conversation framed by his mother's lifelong lesson: read deeply, study all sides, then do the right thing. He defends the BDS movement and his criticism of Israel as apartheid, insisting it is not anti-Semitism, and argues for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations in Ukraine, reading aloud his open letter to Vladimir Putin. Waters hammers on money in politics, Citizens United, corporate power (Chevron, Meta, Davos), and a mainstream media he sees as propaganda for a ruling class. He also turns personal, recounting his creative process, writing a 500-page memoir during lockdown, the heartbreaking mental collapse of bandmate Syd Barrett, and a moving story about underprivileged kids who sang at his shows.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommendedISBN verified
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
“if you haven't you should it's a fantastic book”
“my experience with Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses I don't know if you've read that novel but if you haven't you should it's a fantastic book”— Roger Waters
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd
“we play about half of Dark Side of the Moon but of course all the stuff that from it was all about the same stuff that I'm banging on about now”— Roger Waters
MediaBy the guest
The Final Cut
Pink Floyd
“the song which is from the Final Cut which was the last record I made in 1983 with Pink Floyd”— Roger Waters
MediaBy the guest
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
“it's in when we play Wish You Were Here and I do wish he was here and he's partly what that song's about”— Roger Waters
MediaBy the guest
Another Brick in the Wall Part Two
Pink Floyd
“the local Jewish Community decided that I shouldn't be allowed to use local school children to sing Another Brick in the Wall Part Two”— Roger Waters
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferenced
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
“Aldous Huxley was right to warn us of the coming dystopia in yeah no Aldous Huxley and Brave New World”— Roger Waters
BookReferencedISBN verified
1984
George Orwell
“it says all was right to warn Us in Brave New World in 1984 and Aldous Huxley was right to warn us of the coming dystopia”— Roger Waters
MediaReferenced
A River Runs Through It
Norman Maclean
“and the river runs through it and hedges just went oh the last paragraph of a river runs through it you know that boat”— Roger Waters
MediaReferenced
The Wizard of Oz
“I've watched The Wizard of Oz listening to the dark side of the moon while high on marijuana and if it's not on purpose it is a cosmic coincidence”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Death in Venice
“at the opening of Death in Venice he's sitting in a deck chair on the Lido and it's Mahler's fourth Symphony”— Roger Waters
MediaReferenced
Mahler's Symphony No. 4
Gustav Mahler
“it's Mahler's fourth Symphony or is it his fifth fourth I think it's the it's the adagietto from Mahler's fourth Symphony”— Roger Waters
MediaReferenced
Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young
“look out mile there's a white boat coming up the river you know what was that called the powder monkey I think which is on Rust never sleeps”— Roger Waters
MediaReferenced
God Bless the Child
Billie Holiday
“she wrote the lyrics to God Bless the Child and it's a true story Billie Holiday goes to borrow money from her mother who won't give her any”— Roger Waters
ProductReferenced
Marlboro Reds
Marlboro
“so I would smoke three packs at least a day wow of Marlboro Reds and I gave up eventually”— Roger Waters
Big reveals from this episode
- Waters reads his full open letter to Vladimir Putin urging a ceasefire and asking Putin to renounce any wider European territorial ambitions.
- Instead of going to Davos one Christmas, Waters flew to northeastern Syria to help rescue two children of an ISIS fighter and return them to Trinidad.
- He recounts Syd Barrett's breakdown, including Barrett standing at Hollywood and Vine saying 'it's nice here in Las Vegas,' then darkening and spitting out one word: 'people.'
- A father called the production office to explain the surly Oakland kids who sang at his show all came from broken homes, and the show was the first thing they were ever proud of.
- Waters got rich friend Steve Bing to send those Oakland kids a large check (around 50-100k) to fund theatrical work.
- Waters explains he refused the 'intellectual dark web' label and mockingly renamed it the 'international dork web.'
- He reveals he wrote a roughly 500-page prose memoir during the COVID lockdown after discovering he could write prose.
Worth remembering
- Waters has long invited 8-12 local children, often from undernourished communities, to sing on stage with him during his tours.
- After being persuaded to cancel a Tel Aviv gig, he moved it to an ecumenical agricultural community and 60,000 Israelis attended.
- He cites the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, where JFK and Khrushchev secretly negotiated a missile swap, as a model for diplomacy.
- Waters notes Tibet is roughly one third of China's land area and a critical source of water and minerals.
- He has been in a 10-plus-year court battle supporting Amazon pollution victims against Chevron, alongside jailed lawyer Steven Donziger.
- The episode plays General Wesley Clark's account of a Pentagon memo to 'take out seven countries in five years': Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.
- Waters has never smoked marijuana because it makes him paranoid, though he was once heavily addicted to nicotine.
- He argues Gaza functions as an open-air prison and that occupied people have a legal right under the Geneva Conventions to resist occupation.
- He traces his entire philosophy to a couplet in Pink Floyd's 'Echoes': 'two strangers passing in the street... and I am you and what I see is me.'
- His song 'Hey Teacher Leave Them Kids Alone' became a protest anthem in apartheid South Africa and again in Iran after Mahsa Amini's death.
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