Roger Waters Shares New Version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” Featuring Palestinian Singer Mona Miari

In an interview with WIRED, the Pink Floyd co-founder and bassist has said he hopes that people hearing the song would resonate with it a decade from now. “I hope they’ll hear that it was prophetic—there is a right and a wrong,” he said. “This is not complicated, and this song is on the right side of history. I hope they’ll go, ‘Phew.’ They were part of the resistance, and we are part of the resistance. Ṣumūd.” Ṣumūd is an Arabic term associated with Palestinian steadfastness and remaining on the land in the face of occupation and displacement.

Miari added, “I hope 10 years from now, whoever listens to “Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined” could also experience a free Palestine and look back at it as a testament about the truth and what happened, and just cherish that sense of resistance and urgency for freedom.”

 Waters also addressed the accusations of anti-Semitism that have surrounded him in recent years. “I don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in my body,” he said. “I never did and I never will have. I couldn’t give a shit what your religion is, frankly. I’m not interested in it.” Waters has repeatedly denied accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing that his criticism is directed at the Israeli government and Zionism rather than the Jewish people.