Roger Waters and BMG are reportedly going their separate ways soon.
BMG is apparently separating from Roger Waters – the reason for the break with the record company is his statements on Israel and Ukraine, which have repeatedly caused controversy in recent years.
How “Variety” has learned, the Germany-based company is said to be preparing to break away from the musician completely soon. In 2016, Roger Waters signed a publishing deal with the record company. As early as 2023, a noticeable break in the business relationship was felt. The release of the re-recorded version of Pink Floyd’s epochal 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” was scrapped by new CEO Thomas Coesfeld. The album was eventually released on the British label Cooking Vinyl. A BMG spokesman has so far declined to make an official statement on the matter, according to Variety.
Roger Waters: He will now have to pay dearly for these statements
His controversial political statements on and off stage have repeatedly met with harsh criticism in recent years. Roger Waters will anti-Semitism accused: Among other things, in an interview with the US journalist Glenn Greenwald, he recently justified the attack on Israel by the radical Islamic Hamas with the words: “We don’t know what they did there. But were they justified in resisting the occupation? Yeah.” Waters also asked on the “System Update” program how it could be that Israel was not prepared for the terrorist attack. “That stinks to high heaven,” said Waters. He also considers reports of babies being beheaded to be fictitious. In 2023, he also spoke at the United Nations Security Council at Russia’s invitation and claimed that the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 “not unprovoked” has been.
Waters himself told Greenwald that he had been “fired” from BMG; The separation should be understood as the result of pressure from pro-Israeli interests against the BMG parent company Bertelsmann. Waters has often spoken of conspiracies against him. Bertelsmann issued a statement shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 in which the company expressed its “solidarity with Israel.”