Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has long served as an intermediary between singer-guitarist David Gilmour and singer-bassist Roger Waters, and despite years of drama, he’s still “tempted” to reunite the band properly and get Waters back in the mix.
Gilmour recently called Waters a “misogynistic, antisemitic Putin apologist,” while Waters has taken to re-recording Pink Floyd’s legendary album The Dark Side of the Moon without the rest of the band. Still, in a recent interview, Mason didn’t rule out a reunion. “You never know what will be thrown up,” he said. “I’m tempted to say I’m available for anything.”
Mason wasn’t bothered by Waters’ rewriting of The Dark Side of the Moon, admitting that the recording was “annoyingly brilliant.”
“[Waters] actually sent me a copy of what he was working on and I write to him and said, ‘Annoyingly, it’s absolutely brilliant!,’” Mason recalled. “It was and is. It’s not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it’s an interesting add-on to the thing.”
To further his standing as a neutral party, Mason also supported Waters by signing a petition demanding the city of Frankfurt, Germany allow the musician to play a scheduled concert after its city council canceled the gig, deeming his past remarks antisemitic. Eric Clapton and Tom Morello also signed the petition, which argued that “The officials vilifying Waters are engaging in a dangerous campaign that purposely conflates criticism of Israel’s illegal and unjust policies with antisemitism.”
For those who prefer the original, Pink Floyd recently unveiled a 50th anniversary box set of The Dark Side of the Moon, featuring a remastered version of the album, a recording of the band’s 1974 set at Wembley Empire Pool, and a book of rare and previously unseen photos of the band.
Mason joined Kyle Meredith With… last year to discuss his role as a mediator between his Pink Floyd bandmates, as well as touring the group’s early catalog with his band Saucerful of Secrets.
