Roger Waters Says He's 'Far More Important' Than Current Music Stars Like Drake and The Weeknd
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Kurt Krieger/Corbis via Getty; Todd Williamson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Drake, Roger Waters, The Weeknd
Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters is airing his feelings on some of today's biggest music stars — and the weight of his own musical contributions.
The musician, 78, told The Globe and Mail that he doesn't "listen to much music" nowadays, but believes that his musical legacy far outweighs that of current superstars like The Weeknd and Drake.
"By the way, with all due respect to The Weeknd or Drake or any of them, I am far, far, far more important than any of them will ever be, however many billions of streams they've got," he said. "There is stuff going on here that is fundamentally important to all of our lives."
The conversation began after the Globe and Mail reporter told Waters that he'd been assigned to cover a Weeknd concert in Toronto the same night Waters was in town on his This Is Not a Drill arena tour.
The English rocker responded by explaining that he doesn't actually know who The Weeknd, 32, is.
RELATED VIDEO: Fans React to The Weeknd's 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Performance as Maze Moment Becomes Viral Meme
"I have no idea what or who The Weeknd is, because I don't listen to much music," he said. "People have told me he's a big act. Well, good luck to him. I've got nothing against him."
The Weeknd, for what it's worth, had the most-streamed song of 2020 with "Blinding Lights," which went on to become Billboard's longest-charting song in history. He also headlined Super Bowl LV in 2021, and released the No. 1 album Dawn FM in January.
Drake, meanwhile, released his seventh studio album Honestly, Nevermind in June. The "Nice for What" rapper's record debuted atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, and marked the 35-year-old star's eleventh No. 1 album.
RELATED: Pink Floyd Joins TikTok on 50th Anniversary of First The Dark Side of the Moon Recording Session
Waters co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965, and the band is widely considered one of the most influential groups of all time thanks to psychedelic space-rock hits like 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall in 1979.
Everyone from David Bowie and Radiohead to Queen and Foo Fighters have cited Pink Floyd as an influence, and the rockers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
They've sold more than 250 million records, and Waters previously held the Guinness World Record for highest-grossing tour as a solo artist for The Wall Live, which toured from 2010 to 2013 and grossed $458,673,798.
