During a conversation with Rolling Stone, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters talked about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
When asked about bands planning to tour in September, he said:
“I’m not an epidemiologist. I’ve only just learned to say that word, it’s hard. [Laughs] Anyway, I don’t think it’s realistic, but you know, there’s a whole bunch of things, which is this basketball season, hockey season, we share venues with these places, it’s the same places where all that happens.
“So there’s always a scheduling thing, that’s why the summer is, you know, people [musicians] go out [on tour] because it’s not the middle of the NBA season and you don’t clash with hockey.
“So, if you clash with hockey and basketball, you can’t work unless you’re working in the Beacon, which is lovely, I’ve toyed with that idea as well. There’s something about being in a tiny theater with a few hundred people that is very, very challenging, but extremely enticing in its intimacy.”
On being comfortable to tour, he said:
“I don’t know, that’s the question I can’t answer. Who knows when there’s going to be a vaccine? People are guessing, they guess that the shortest period of time is probably a year, but a year from, like, a month ago. But they’re only guessing, they have no idea.
“People are working away on it for all kinds of different reasons. Some people because they believe in saving lives, and some people because they believe in making money, and maybe some who are motivated by both of those things, who knows?”
Regarding risk of doing live shows and catching an infection, he said:
“Well, some people have played their last shows anyway because they’re too f*cking old. Like me, for instance, I thought long and hard before booking this tour for next summer because I was tired although it was years since I’ve finished the previous tour, 10 months or so.
“I had to make a decision, whether to push the button or not. Since then, speaking of risk factors, I was walking around with a bacterial infection; not walking around, I was doing gigs for months and months, and I didn’t feel quite right, but the show must go on.
“So when I pushed the button for the tour, ‘Yeah, I’m healthier now. I figured out what that was, got rid of it, and I can do this.’ And I can, but I’m 76, so next year I will be pushing 77.
“I find it hard to imagine doing a rock ‘n’ roll arena show when I’m 80+, and that’s only four or five years away, so you know… everything has come to an end, as we know.
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I wonder if bands like Aerosmith,Rolling Stones and many older acts will call it quits as well.