Polly Samson, the songwriter and wife of David Gilmour, addressed Roger Waters in no uncertain terms. In a tweet to the musician, she wrote: “Unfortunately you are anti-Semitic to the core”. She added that he was a Putin apologist and a “lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, playback-singing, misogynistic, megalomaniac envious bastard.” Finally, she appealed to him to stop “the nonsense”. Sharing the post, Gilmour wrote, “Every word provably true.”
Every word is demonstrably true https://t.co/KWk4I3bMTN
— David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) February 6, 2023
Waters responded to the allegations shortly thereafter. The statement said: “Roger Waters is aware of the inflammatory and totally inaccurate comments Polly Samson made about him on Twitter, which he completely denies.” The post also noted that he is “currently engaged in this matter advise”.
Samson’s tweet follows a Interview with Waters, which the “Berliner Zeitung” published last Friday (February 3). In it, the 79-year-old once again expressed his controversy about the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Israel. Among other things, he also said it was “really sad” that his former bandmates recorded a protest song with Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk.
Criticism of Roger Waters
On a website he has the translation of the interview published with a personal introduction. In it he writes that there is a “slander campaign by the Israeli lobby” against him, which “denounces him as an anti-Semite” and wants to cancel his concerts in Germany. He claimed they wanted to “silence” him “because I lend my voice to the seventy-five year old struggle for equal human rights for all my brothers and sisters in Palestine/Israel, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or nationality.” He ended the text with the sentence written in capital letters: “The truth will set us free.”
The musician has long been criticized for his statements. Organizations urged that his concerts in Germany be canceled. The synagogue community in Cologne, for example, requested this in vain at the end of last year. In addition to the concert in Cologne’s Lanxess Arena, Waters has also announced shows in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.