Roger Waters says Bob Ezrin “lied through his f**king teeth” about David Gilmour’s iconic Comfortably Numb guitar solo being his first take
“James Guthrie was there and David did umpteen takes.”
Image: Dave M. Benett / Getty Images
Roger Waters has slammed producer Bob Ezrin for allegedly lying about David Gilmour’s legendary guitar solo in Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb being his first take.
Last year, Ezrin surprised fans after revealing in an interview that the iconic part was “actually a first take” by Gilmour.
Now, Waters has refuted those claims, arguing that the producer was not even present when Gilmour recorded the solo and that he’s “lied through his fucking teeth” about the incident.
Speaking in a recent YouTube Q&A session, the former Pink Floyd rocker was asked if he’d interjected his “opinions or criticisms on David’s solos” while recording The Wall, to which he replied: “Of course I expressed my opinions, because I was producing the record and so was he.”
“And so was, who else… Who was it? Ezrin and James Guthrie. So we would all stick our oar in,” Waters said, adding that the group would “sometimes leave him alone to do a few takes”.
“When you read my memoir, you can read various peoples’ stories about what happened,” he said. “Ezrin has lied through his fucking teeth about it for years and years. It’s wonderful.”
“The end of Comfortably Numb for instance – and if I’m getting this wrong, James Guthrie will correct me – Ezrin waxes eloquent in interviews that he’s done since about how incredible it was that David did it in one take, and how moving it is and universal and blah, blah blah…”
“The only problem with that story is he wasn’t there. Bob Ezrin was not in the studio when Dave did that. Guthrie was there and David did umpteen takes, and then he went away and James Guthrie edited the best bits of all the takes and stuck it together.”
Waters also clarified that he “like[s] all Gilmour solos” and that “there’s nothing wrong with Dave’s solos. There’s nothing wrong with his solos on The Wall, or his solos on Animals, or his solos on The Dark Side of the Moon, or Wish You Were Here, or The Final Cut, or any of the work that I did with him.”
“I’m a fan. They’re great.”