(Credits: Far Out / digboston)
Wed 8 October 2025 7:00, UK
It’s never easy telling people like Roger Waters that it’s time to hang things up.
As much as they might love the idea of making music, not everyone’s cut out to play their tracks live, and it was easy to see that Waters had fallen out of love with everything once he saw Pink Floyd start making waves with his old material. It had to sting every time those stadium shows went on sale, but Waters knew he’d find a way to be more content with playing the music he wanted to make.
Then again, making a masterpiece like Amused to Death was always going to be difficult for Waters to reproduce in any live capacity. It makes sense to go all out on the various iterations of The Wall because of how well-known the record is, but if there are so many moving parts on an album that not every has even heard yet, it makes sense for Waters to lean back and ease into playing any of those newer songs.
But, really, it was going to be difficult for Waters to play any kind of new material at the time, either. Because of playing covers of his old band, it’s not like 1992 was the best time to be playing tunes off of Radio KAOS, either. That album was destined to be forgotten the minute that grunge came to wipe out every 1980s keyboard tune, but Waters knew he could churn out anything as long as he has the passion for it.
After all, all of his greatest inspirations were always reinterpreting their tunes the way they wanted to. Bob Dylan never stopped workshopping his ideas, and even contemporaries like Neil Young didn’t have a problem disassembling everyone’s expectations of him and wiping the slate clean. And even if Amused to Death was more in the vein of what Waters did, it took one of the songs from his old band to bring him back.
For all intents and purposes, Waters was out of the business of touring until working with Don Henley with the Walden Woods Project. The idea of him showing up to play a handful of tunes was simply an excuse for him to have some fun playing music, but the minute that he kicked into playing ‘Mother’, he started to get that same energy that he felt when listening to his favourite records for the first time.
All of a sudden, music felt like a rush all over again, and Waters knew it would be a shame if he never played it again, saying, “I didn’t have any show, no quadraphonic sound, just Don’s band and me on the guitar. I remember playing ‘Mother’ and I can remember feeling this extraordinary wave of love from the audience. There I was singing this song which they all knew, and they all seemed so happy.”
And it’s almost fitting that a tune like ‘Mother’ be what comforted him as a performer. As much as the song itself is a dark look at what a helicopter parent can do to a person that doesn’t know how to navigate life, the fact that it could be performed on an acoustic guitar and still manage to elicit a reaction from the crowd was all the reminder that any musician needs to prove their worth.
It’s not like Waters was up and running within weeks of putting on the concert. He had more than a few miles to go before he had the confidence to put on those massive shows that Floyd were known for, but even if it was a baby step, it’s better to take that step rather than staying at home strumming away for the rest of your life.
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