Roger Waters calls upon the human race to “change or die”

Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has released a video to discuss his North American summer tour titled This Is Not A Drill. The video announcement features him rehearsing ‘Comfortably Numb,’ ‘Sheep,’ and his solo song ‘The Powers That Be’ with his band.

“As the clock ticks faster and faster and faster down to extinction, it seemed like a good thing to make a fuss about it, so that’s why I’m going on the road,” he said. “To be blunt, we need to change the way we organize ourselves as a human race or die. This tour will be part of a global movement by people who are concerned by others to affect the change that is necessary. That’s why we’re going on the road. That’s why speak to each other in pubs. That’s why this conversation should be on everybody’s lips, constantly, the whole time, because it’s super important. So I hope you’ll all come to the shows. This is not a drill.”

The timing of the tour so close to the American Election Day is no accident. Waters’ last trek was politically charged, with imagery mocking Donald Trump and his dangerous rhetoric set to hits he wrote for Pink Floyd. He used songs like ‘Money’ and ‘Us and Them’ to demonstrate the ways he sees the powers that be ripping people apart and reminding fans that people can work together toward an ideal future.

“[The new tour] will be even more political than Us + Them was — political and humane,” Waters told Rolling Stone in 2019. “We were listening to songs and looking at setlists today. We were talking about, what should we call it? I shouldn’t be giving this away, but I don’t give a shit because it will probably all change, but imagine the iconic helicopter that normally comes before ‘Happiest Days’ and ‘Brick 2’ — that noise that we all know and love — and imagine a megaphone, somebody abused this device before, I know — but, ‘This is not a drill.’ I thought that could be a good title for the show: This Is Not a Drill. The ruling class is killing us.”

Watch the full video below.

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