Woah. Things escalated quickly!
Roger Waters has fired back at David Draiman after the Disturbed singer accused him of a “massive betrayal” to “Jews everywhere” and said he’d “punch” him if they ever met.
The comments came during Draiman’s recent appearance on Billy Corgan’s podcast The Magnificent Others, where the conversation turned to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Draiman, who is Jewish and openly pro-Israel, didn’t hold back.
“I grew up on Pink Floyd. I loved Pink Floyd,” he said. “It was such a massive betrayal, not just to me, but Jews everywhere when he went in the direction that he did… Roger has a penchant for dictators — the worst people on planet earth, Roger just cosies right up to them.”
When asked if he’d ever sit down with Waters, Draiman added: “I’d have to punch him first, but yeah.”
Waters didn’t let that slide.
An open letter to @Billy:
Dear Billy Corgan
How are you? It’s been too long. @davidmdraiman Someone forwarded me this chap’s appearance on your podcast. I’d never heard of him. Anyway, it turns out he has heard of me. It seems he has a problem with me standing up for human… pic.twitter.com/gZyN1TmM3Y— Roger Waters ✊ (@rogerwaters) April 16, 2026
Posting on X on April 16, he responded directly to Corgan after being sent the clip. “I’d never heard of him,” Waters wrote of Draiman. “Anyway, it turns out he has heard of me.”
“It seems he has a problem with me standing up for human rights, particularly the human rights of my brothers and sisters in Gaza,” Waters said, before unleashing a string of insults aimed at Draiman, calling him “a psychotic racist Nazi pig” and referencing reports that the singer had written messages on bombs used by the Israeli military.
Waters added he would continue to “demand equal human rights for all human beings, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity or nationality.”
Draiman answered back, “And here I was open to dialogue, even with someone I so deeply disagree with,” he wrote. “It’s disappointing, but predictable. Be brave Roger. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? I’m always willing to try. We must all continue to try. Even with you.”
You’ve seen this before – Draiman has taken shots at Waters in the past, calling him “anti-Semitic to his rotten core” in 2024 and previously blasting him over calls to boycott Israel. Waters, for his part, has repeatedly denied accusations of anti-Semitism tied to his pro-Palestinian stance.
In 2023, a documentary titled The Dark Side Of Roger Waters reignited the controversy, which Waters dismissed as “a flimsy, unapologetic piece of propaganda.” He argued it relied on a definition of antisemitism that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish sentiment.
The legal side followed. In early 2025, a UK High Court issued a preliminary ruling that Waters had defamed journalist John Ware over comments made in an Al Jazeera interview.
Waters has also gone after other artists, including Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, insisting “there is no argument to be made,” and pushing back on criticism from Nick Cave, who called his stance “embarrassing” and “deeply damaging.”
Meanwhile, Radiohead and others have found themselves pulled into the broader debate, whether they wanted in or not.
Bottom line: this isn’t cooling off anytime soon.
