Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has defended Venezuela's ousted President Nicolas Maduro and insisted that Vladimir Putin had 'really tried not to hurt people' in a recent interview with Piers Morgan, which saw the pair clash in a heated exchange.
Defending Maduro, Waters said: 'I support him because he's the duly democratically elected leader of a country that represents all the principles of Bolivarian and Chávez revolutionary process. So he represents the people of Venezuela, [who] live a completely different way of life than in the United States, where I live, or in England, where you live,' the rockstar said.
'But it is one that I admire because it's based upon socialist principles of the idea of equal human rights.'
Waters' comments on Morgan's programme, in which he made a series of strident remarks on global politics, come two weeks after US forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The Pink Floyd bassist went on to condemn Donald Trump's intervention in the Latin American nation, saying the US had 'invaded the sovereign country of Venezuela.'
Waters also accused the US of kidnapping Maduro and making up claims that he is a drug dealer.
'They made up the dark story about him being a drug dealer, which is absolute, arrant nonsense, as everybody knows, and then they invaded the country and whisked him off. What's going to happen next? Nobody knows.'
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters made a series of strident comments on global politics
Waters' comments come two weeks after US forces seized Maduro (pictured in November 2025) and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges
Waters also seemingly defended some of Putin's actions in Ukraine, stating: 'If the West manages to get rid of Putin, they should be careful what they wish for, because it's very likely that the much harder line faction in the Russian political society, one of them, might take over.
'And then you will see something completely different, because Putin has conducted the special military operation with his gloves off. He really has tried not to hurt civilians and so on and so forth.'
A baffled Morgan responded: 'Vladimir Putin is trying really hard not to hurt civilians?... Vladimir Putin illegally invaded a sovereign democratic country and started bombing the sh*t out of it. Why? Why would you, on any level, try to excuse or defend it?'
Waters also touched on the current political climate in Britain, calling England a 'fascist state', as he referred to a recent bill that designated the activist group as a terrorist organisation in the UK.
The musician also blasted Trump as 'demented', 'obviously very evil', and a 'scumbag', telling Morgan that all the president believes in is 'lining the pockets' of his family, friends, and billionaires.
Morgan also questioned Waters about the harsh comments he made about Ozzy Osbourne just weeks after the rock icon's death.
'So I do want to end with something which was quite personal to me, because it involved a friend of mine, which was after Ozzy Osbourne, your fellow rock star…', Morgan said.
Waters hit back, saying, 'Oh shut up!'
Waters also seemingly defended some of Putin's actions in Ukraine
Calling Ozzy's widow 'Karen', the Pink Floyd musician went on to say he made the comments 'in the middle of a long interview', adding: 'Well, I mean, do I have to like every rock group there ever was?'
Piers responded: 'Did you have to trash him in such a personal way so soon after he had died?'
He then suggested playing a clip of Sharon Osbourne on Piers Morgan Uncensored recently, but Waters replied: 'Oh, I've seen it. No, I don't want to see it. I'm not interested.'
Pressed on whether he would apologise for any hurt he had caused Sharon, he said: 'Of course I will, not that I have any time for Sharon, she is a raging Zionist… She's accused me of all kinds of things because she is part of the Israeli lobby.'
He concluded: 'I was honest. I said I didn't like Black Sabbath… I don't like people who bite the heads off bats. I just don't. I think it's disgusting, and I've said that again now. I know he's dead, and he can't come back and go, 'Yeah, I'm sorry I bit the heads off bats,' if he ever did. Who knows whether he did or not? I don't want to talk about it.'
