Roger Waters On Howard Stern
He’s so damn difficult!
Usually Howard gets the interviewee going and then interrupts him with left field questions. Frustrated that Roger was not forthcoming, Howard keeps firing away, hoping to rev up an interview that never truly gets rolling because Roger’s so reluctant.
Maybe if you’re his buddy, he relaxes and moves up from 16 RPM to 33 1/3, never mind 78, but here Roger is measured, as if he’s being interrogated by the CIA and he just might make a mistake.
Someone like Roger Waters could only be a rock star, because he couldn’t fit in anywhere else. He tells the story of calling out his architecture professor, for directly copying from the book. Most people learn how to play the game in school, but it appears that Roger could not be taught.
Not that he couldn’t learn, he’s uber-smart.
But every single step of the way Roger’s evaluating, thinking what works for him.
He’s so different from today’s stars. You can’t see him hanging out in a club, going on the red carpet and being nice to the inane bubble-headed interviewers. Hell, he refuses to get up and jam with other rock stars, he just doesn’t do that, you see it’s all about composition, a lonely pursuit, and performing in a band.
Did you read that story in Sunday’s "New York Times":
It’s all about how the great work is done in private, alone, with no interruption.
There’s all this Hollywood b.s. about open plan offices. We collaborate! No, you jerk each other off, become inhibited by others’ opinions and latch on to the lowest common denominator to keep everybody happy.
As for those Nashville group compositions, too many are hits but not legendary. Whereas so much genius comes straight from the heart. Kind of like those Lennon & McCartney tunes. It didn’t take long for us to learn they were really solo compositions, with a bit of insight given at the end.
Kind of like "Wish You Were Here". David Gilmour had the opening riff. But the rest is Roger’s. And they didn’t do it together in a room. Kind of like "Comfortably Numb"… Gilmour wrote the music and eventually Waters wrote the words, under protest, alone.
And speaking about "Wish You Were Here" Roger said the first verse and the chorus were easy, it’s the remaining verses, what comes next that is hard. You can have a burst of imagination, of insight, but oftentimes that’s not the end, just the beginning. Your whole life is about getting ready, so when you have that great start, you’ve got the chops to finish.
And Howard asks Roger if it’s true he watches his own show on tape every single night.
Yes. But the reason isn’t to achieve perfection, but it’s late and he’s still high on adrenaline and what else is he gonna do, stare at the ceiling?
Not that Roger is disconnected from society. He speaks of "Sgt. Pepper" opening doors and "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" giving him permission to write a long-form piece.
If you’re interested in gossip, if you’re interested in facts, this interview won’t really satiate.
But if you want to know what a rock star is truly like, this interview is genius. Because you can see how recalcitrant and difficult and iconoclastic Roger Waters truly is. He’s doing it his way, and no one else can convince him otherwise. He won’t license his music to commercials, won’t become an American citizen, I don’t agree with everything he says but I’m totally sure it’s his opinion.
We’ve completely lost our way. This is how all rock stars used to be. Square pegs not even trying to fit in round holes. Doing it their way. How they looked, how they interviewed didn’t really count. It was all about their music. Which could change the world.
Check this interview out. You can’t get this information anywhere else, not from fawning interviewers or print. Listening to the man, you start to know who he is. And we always used to want to know who our rock stars truly were.
