That Time Roger Waters Fired His Own Son

Not that anyone needs any more proof that Roger Waters is a nasty piece of work, but did you know he fired his own son, who still does not know why he did it?

SHORTLY BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2016, Roger Waters visited his firstborn son, Harry, at his Santa Monica, California, home to deliver some rather bad news. Harry had spent the past 14 years playing keyboard and organ in his dad’s band, which included three extensive world tours, but Roger was making changes for his upcoming Us + Them tour. “I was fired,” Harry tells Rolling Stone. “It was pretty miserable.”

Harry claims he doesn’t know why his own father let him go. “I think he just wanted a change of blood, something new, something fresh,” Waters says. “I’m not sure of his exact reasoning, but everyone except two people [keyboardist Jon Carin and guitarist Dave Kilminster] got fired. But the other guys that got the sack weren’t his son, so it was doubly hurtful for me.”

Not that junior is not a nasty piece of work himself.

What does he think about his father’s controversial take that the “Russian invasion of Ukraine was not unprovoked?” “I realized a lot of what he says is certainly inflammatory, if for the right reasons or for the wrong reasons,” he says. “But I don’t know enough about the history of the situation to be able to put forth my ideas. I don’t know whether he’s right about that or whether he’s wrong, but he’s pretty smart. And I know he reads a lot about everything.”

Even though everyone from the ADL to David Gilmour has labeled his father an antisemite over his views on Israel, which includes his recent assertion that the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas was a possible “false flag operation” by the Israeli government, Harry stands by him. “It’s just not true at all that he’s an antisemite,” he says. “People conflate being against the Israeli government and being against Netanyahu with being antisemitic.”

“People say, ‘Oh, he dresses up in an SS uniform, and he has a Star of David on the pig,” he continues, referencing the inflatable pig that’s been part of Waters’ live show for decades. “And I just want to say, ‘You fuckin’ idiots. He’s been doing that for 40 years. It’s satire.’ There’s also a Mercedes sign, a hammer and sickle, and a dollar sign on the pig … He’s bringing to light all the evils of the world. But people confuse that and think he’s an antisemite, which is really stupid.”

So Daddy's take on Russia and Ukraine might be "inflammatory", but Junior says he does not know enough about the history of the situation. Yet when it comes to Daddy's take on Israel, suddenly Junior is an expert and agrees - even though Daddy's comments go way beyond criticism of the Israeli government and into real antisemitism territory.