Roger Waters’ Us + Them tour was not just another victory lap through the Pink Floyd catalog. In a 2026 Louder feature, the former Pink Floyd frontman looked back on the run and explained that it was born out of a major turning point: his 2016 Desert Trip experience, which pulled him out of the sense that he had already delivered his “swan song.” Louder says Waters had previously sparked speculation that he was winding down, but Desert Trip changed that and gave him fresh momentum at 74.
When the UK leg of Us + Them kicked off in 2018, Waters was still very much in his sharp-talking, outspoken mode. The tour rolled into Dublin on June 26 before six UK dates, with the headline London show set for Hyde Park on July 6. Louder frames the production as the kind of huge, stadium-scale event Waters had become known for in the late 1970s with Pink Floyd, and one of the biggest live spectacles he had mounted as a solo artist.
Waters explained that the idea for the tour grew directly from Desert Trip. He said Goldenvoice’s Paul Tollett and his team invited him to do Desert Trip, and Waters described the concept as bringing together a group of older, established acts for a weekend event. He recalled Tollett imagining a lineup including Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and The Who. Waters said the tickets “did” go well, noting that there were “500,000 ticket requests in the first few hours.”
That reaction gave him a new sense of purpose. Waters said he put a lot of work into Desert Trip and realized he had been asked to “don the Pink Floyd mantle,” which he accepted. He then decided that if the new record turned out well, he could build a show around some of those Desert Trip elements plus songs from the new album. That became Us + Them: a set that was roughly 75 percent old material and 25 percent new, all held together by a single theme.
That theme was spelled out clearly. Waters said the show was named Us + Them because the idea linked back to Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them” from The Dark Side of the Moon. He described the song as being about “searching within ourselves to find love and empathy for all fellow human beings.” In other words, the tour was not just a greatest-hits package; it was designed around a political and moral argument.
The interview gets even more pointed when Waters talks about war. He argues that most people think conflicts happen because one side is right and the other is wrong, but he says that is not the real engine behind war. Waters told Louder, “War is actually about keeping rich people rich and poor people poor.” He connected that view to the military-industrial complex and said that is why the world remains in “perpetual war.”
He also rejected the idea that his songs could be disconnected from his beliefs. When asked whether he could make an album without a unifying idea, Waters said, “I couldn’t personally.” He explained that he cannot write a song unless it is tied to how he feels, and said the songs endure because they are “truthful” and “very heartfelt.” He added that he tells the truth he believes in as directly as he can.
The tour itself was filmed in Amsterdam, Waters said, though he was not yet sure what would be done with the footage. Louder notes that his live work during this period sat alongside other Pink Floyd-related projects, including work on an Animals reissue and a 5.1 mix of the album. Waters said he had also been working with designer Aubrey Powell on new Battersea Power Station photographs for the cover.
What comes through in the interview is that Us + Them was not born from nostalgia alone. It was a comeback of sorts for Waters’ political touring instincts, sharpened by Desert Trip and shaped by the belief that music should still say something direct. Waters may have thought The Wall would be his farewell, but by the time Us + Them arrived, he was back in full command of the big concept show.
