#1878 - Roger Waters

Roger Waters (0:06)

Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Thank you very much for doing this. I really appreciate it. I'm a gigantic fan, so it's a real honor.

And it's very nice to know that you could actually play pool.

Roger Waters (0:21)

Well, we've only played two rikes.

Joe Rogan (0:23)

Yeah, but I could see. I could see how you moved the ball around. Got to get a little warmed up. You know, we just started.

Roger Waters (0:30)

Well, it is true that if you start playing pool against somebody you don't know, and you discover that they do understand that control of the cue ball is everything, then that's something. You think, oh, well, maybe we could have a game.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

Well, as soon as you looked at the table and said, these are very unforgiving pockets, I was like, oh, you know.

Roger Waters (0:48)

A little bit, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:49)

Yeah.

Well, first of all, it's an honor to have you in here. I'm very excited. But second of all, you're in the middle of a lot of things. You've got your tour. You've got a lot of controversy going on.

I really enjoyed that conversation that you had with CNN because that kind of conversation is rare to see on air and see someone as informed as you are to have these opinions and express them so honestly and bravely. It was a very interesting conversation.

Roger Waters (1:23)

Well, I've known Michael a bit for a year or two. And he actually, my last kind of engagement with him, with Michael Smokonish I'm talking about, right, the interviewer, was when I was playing in Miami a few years ago. And the local Jewish community decided that I shouldn't be allowed to use local school children to sing Another Brick in the Wall part too because all during the war tours that I did, I always used local children, preferably from, you know, undernourished communities, to come and sing with me, between 8 and 12 of them every night. And they would come in, having listened to the song a bit, and I would rehearse them at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and then, boom, at 8 they're on stage singing. And they get very excited, and obviously, but it's a wonderful thing for them, but also for me, and also for the band, have these children come and perform with us on stage.

And the mayor of North Miami Beach, or wherever it was, came under some pressure from the local community, and they weren't allowed to play, so I got some other kids.

Joe Rogan (2:45)

What was the objection?

Roger Waters (2:46)

That I'm an anti-Semite. Obviously, I'm not an anti-Semite. Let's get that clear straight away, if you don't mind.

Because I'm obviously not. You can study my record, going back as far as you want.

So that, yeah, that's it. But that's always the objection, because I support BDS, and because I have for the last 16 years or so. You know what BDS is, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It's a movement that was started in 2005 in Palestinian Civil Society, and it stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. And so it's a movement to try and shine a light on the predicament of the Palestinian people, particularly in the occupied territories, but also, I guess, in Israel itself.

Using those, using boycott and divestment from companies like Caterpillar or Hewlett-Packard, people like that, who deal in the illegal settlements in the occupied territory. And sanctions, well, there's not many people out there who are powerful enough to impose sanctions on other people. And most of those with that much power are allies of the Israeli government and so wouldn't do so. But anyway, that's what it is by and large. And since then, we have made great strides in that movement, and it's much bigger movement than it was. And in consequence, the sort of battle lines have been drawn, but it's got more intense and it's slightly less gentlemanly sport than it was 16 years ago, in my experience.

Joe Rogan (4:39)

So 16 years ago, you were allowed to have different opinions about conflicts.

Roger Waters (4:46)

Well, no, but nobody knew about the conflict. It was largely unknown that there was a problem at all in the Holy Land, certainly by most of the public in this country and where I'm from in the UK as well. And in me. I mean, I had accepted back in 2005 or 2006, one of those years, to do a gig in Tel Aviv. I was asked in the middle of a European tour, hey Rog, they want you to go and do a gig in Tel Aviv. And I went, yeah, right. I didn't think twice about it. So that's where I was then. So I'm not blaming people for not having known about the Zionist Project since 1948 and everything that had happened. Although I was vaguely aware of the Yom Kippur War, the 67 War and the 75 War and so on and so forth. I knew a little bit about the history, but I wasn't really au fait.