Roger Waters vs. the Record Industry: How Legal Fights Alienated Bandmates and Managers

Roger Waters’ long-running legal war with EMI (and later Capitol) over the Pink Floyd catalog—especially the 2010 re-release dispute and the 2014 lawsuit over digital downloads and streaming royalties—didn’t just burn bridges with the label. It drove a deeper wedge between him and his former bandmates, who saw his aggressive litigation as another attempt to rewrite history and seize control of shared assets.

Waters’ relationship with manager Steve O’Rourke soured early on. O’Rourke, who’d represented Floyd since the early 1970s, was seen by Waters as too cozy with the label and with Gilmour. After the breakup, Waters sued his own manager in 1990 over fee disputes and commission on his solo work—adding yet another layer of distrust.

By the 2010s, Waters was publicly accusing EMI of “piracy” and corporate greed, and his solo legal actions often dragged Gilmour, Mason, and Pink Floyd Music Ltd. into the crossfire. The result was a climate where every business move felt like a battlefield—hardly the kind of trust needed for a band reunion or even civil conversations.