Roger Waters

Roger Waters is the professional name of George Roger Waters, born 6 September 1943 in Great Bookham, Surrey, England. He is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as a co-founder of Pink Floyd, where he served as bassist, principal lyricist and a leading conceptual voice. He is notable for shaping several of the band’s most prominent concept albums and for a subsequent solo career focused on long-form thematic work.

Waters grew up in England and later moved to London, where he met Nick Mason and Richard Wright while studying architecture. In 1965 he co-founded what became Pink Floyd, initially working within the London psychedelic scene. After Syd Barrett’s departure in 1968, Waters gradually took a central role in the band’s lyrical direction. By the early 1970s, his writing was closely associated with major albums including The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977).

His most widely recognised period of work is tied to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he led Pink Floyd’s major narrative projects. The Wall (1979) became one of the era’s defining rock operas, and the band’s subsequent releases continued the concept-album approach through The Final Cut (1983). Waters’ lyrics often focused on themes such as war, isolation, power and social pressures, and his approach to album structure influenced later rock and pop projects built around unified narratives.

After leaving Pink Floyd in 1985, Waters pursued a solo career beginning with The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), followed by Radio K.A.O.S. (1987) and Amused to Death (1992). He maintained a large-scale live profile, including performances built around The Wall and other catalogue material, and returned with the studio album Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017). His later work continued to emphasise extended compositions and concept-driven presentation.

Waters’ legacy is strongly linked to the international impact of Pink Floyd’s catalogue, which has sold in excess of 250 million records worldwide, as well as to his role in defining the lyrical identity of the band’s most commercially successful period. As a songwriter and album conceptualist, his work remains widely studied within the history of progressive and concept-album rock.