Pink Floyd Catalog Sale Jeopardized by Roger Waters' Comments

Legendary prog rockers Pink Floyd have allegedly been looking to sell their catalog for a total of $500 million, and the Financial Times reports there are bidders willing to spend it. However, Roger Waters' multitude of controversial political comments may have put the sale in jeopardy.

Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and the estate of Rick Wright have apparently been looking to sell their catalog, some of their assets and the rights to the band's name and album artwork for several months now. Sony Music, Warner Music, BMG, Primary Wave and Hipgnosis Songs Capital are among the top-bidders looking to make the deal.

Variety notes, though, that some of the buyers have been reluctant to finalize their offers because of Waters' politically-charged remarks about the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Syria and more, which were especially fiery in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. Sources reportedly said that one buyer is likely to pull out, and that the value of the catalog and assets may decrease as a result.

“The other band members must be furious,” one of the sources said [via Variety].

It should be noted that the musicians' declarations aren't the only factor holding up the finalization of the sale — tax issues, interest rates, the decrease in value of the British pound and the overall global recession have impacted it too.

Waters claimed he's on a Ukrainian "kill list" during the interview in question, but made other extreme comments too, such as that the U.S. is the "most evil" country in the world.

"I’m now speaking as a taxpayer in the United States. We are the most evil of all by a factor of at least 10 times,” he said during the conversation. “We kill more people. We interfere in more people’s elections. We, the American empire, is doing all this shit.”

Endangering the sale of their catalog will only further the divide between Waters and his former bandmates even more. Though they'd been bickering back and forth for several decades now, one of the more recent issues they faced had to do with the reissue of their 1977 Animals. Waters argued that Gilmour wouldn't allow the record — which had been remixed in 2018 — to be re-released unless the liner notes were taken out, which had been written by journalist Mark Blake.

"He does not dispute the veracity of the history described in Mark’s notes, but he wants that history to remain secret," Waters stated in a post on his website regarding the matter. "This is a small part of an ongoing campaign by the Gilmour/Samson camp to claim more credit for Dave on the work he did in Pink Floyd, 1967-1985, than is his due."

The Animals reissue finally saw the light of day, though, when it was released last month on Sept. 16, and with an updated album cover too.