Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recently shared his thoughts on one of his favorite bands of all time, Pink Floyd. He explained why he considers Roger Waters the most important part of the group, despite the bassist’s controversial reputation in recent years.
Portnoy was asked to weigh in on the long-running debate over which member was truly essential to the band’s identity.
He was asked, “If you have to pick one, you know, Roger the concept the lyrics and David Gilmour the sound the emotion, who’s essential to what makes Pink Floyd Pink Floyd?” Portnoy did not hesitate in his answer.
“Roger,” Portnoy said. “Well I could tell you because for instance in 1987 Pink Floyd puts out Momentary Lapse of Reason Roger Waters puts out Radio Chaos I saw both bands in ’87. I saw Roger do the Radio Chaos show at which he’s playing Pink Floyd songs and I saw Pink Floyd with Dave, Rick, and Nick all still in the band. And to me, the Waters Show was the true Pink Floyd show.”
“David got the band name and he got the flying pig and he got the round screen, but beyond that, Roger got the Wall. Like Pink Floyd was not allowed to go out and play The Wall in its entirety without Roger. In the divorce, Roger Waters got the right to The Wall. That’s why he was able to go out and do it on tour for the last couple, you know, years that he did,” he continued.
Portnoy also acknowledged that his admiration for Waters has become more complicated in recent years.
“I’m team Roger Waters. Less and less to the last couple years. He’s becoming difficult to like the last few years,” he said.
“Beyond that, creatively, my favorite albums were The Wall and Animals and and Rogers solo albums, whereas the stuff when Gilmore took over, you know, the stuff in the in the 90 80s and 90s, eh, not my thing.”
Despite his preference for Waters, Portnoy made clear that his respect for guitarist David Gilmour remains intact.
“But that being said, I mean, David Gilmour was still one of my biggest guitar heroes of all time. So, I don’t want to don’t want to act like I don’t, you know, just because I was on Team Waters, I still love David. And you look at the biggest hits on this album. He’s singing, David’s singing another brick-in-the-wall part two. He’s singing uh the choruses of Comfortably Numb. He’s singing Run Like Hell. He’s singing Hey You. All the songs you were hearing on this album uh um Young Lust. All the songs you were hearing on the radio from this album, they were all sung by David. as much as this was Roger’s album.”
Portnoy’s comments touch on a debate that has followed Pink Floyd for more than four decades. The question of who shaped the band’s identity more has never been settled.
Waters was the band’s primary lyricist and one of its central creative forces. He drove the conceptual direction of albums such as Animals and The Wall, which is why many fans link the band’s themes and storytelling to him.
Gilmour was just as important to the band’s sound. His guitar work and vocals gave the music much of its emotional weight. After Waters left, he also took over leadership of the group. That period produced the 1980s and 1990s material Portnoy says is not to his taste.
The dispute over The Wall that Portnoy mentions came out of the band’s breakup and Waters’ departure. It led to legal and ownership fights over the Pink Floyd catalog and name. The outcome gave Waters the right to stage The Wall in full. He later took it on the road as a solo act.
Watch the full interview here.
