Roger Waters’ refusal to back down from his controversial remarks about the late Ozzy Osbourne continues to generate backlash, with the dispute now drawing in additional high-profile voices from the rock and metal community.
As previously reported, the former PINK FLOYD bassist revisited his comments during a recent appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, where he reaffirmed that he has no regrets over statements he made shortly after Osbourne’s death in July 2025. Those original remarks quickly ignited widespread criticism and led to an ongoing public feud with the Osbourne family.
At the time, Waters said: “Ozzy Osbourne, who just died, bless him in his whatever state that he was in his whole life. We’ll never know. Although he was all over the TV for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense. The music, I have no idea. I couldn’t give a f**k.”
He followed up with: “I don’t care about BLACK SABBATH, I never did. Have no interest in biting the heads of chickens or whatever they do. I couldn’t care less, you know.”
The remarks drew an immediate response from Ozzy’s son Jack Osbourne and later escalated when Ozzy’s widow Sharon Osbourne delivered a blistering rebuttal during the return of the family’s podcast: “He has no charisma, okay? He looks like Frankenstein. The guy is sick in the head… Nobody likes him. This is not just us. Nobody likes this man unless you’re a fascist. He’s one of those… He’s just pathetic.”
Weeks later, the dispute intensified further when the Osbourne family released a T-shirt depicting Ozzy urinating on a copy of The Wall, accompanied by the phrase “another prick in the wall.”
During his interview with Piers Morgan, Waters was challenged on whether his harsh comments conflicted with his frequent calls for empathy and human rights. Addressing the criticism, he said: “Those comments, I’m not denying that I said them, came in the middle of a long interview… Do I have to like every rock group there ever was in the world or people who bite the heads off bats?”
When Morgan questioned the timing of the remarks, Waters replied: “Obviously I had no idea that Sharon Osbourne would be watching a podcast by a very well-known and respected cartoonist in-conversation.”
Asked if he would apologize to Sharon Osbourne, Waters responded: “Yeah of course I will, If I caused — not that I have any time for Sharon Osbourne. She’s a raging Zionist and in consequence… she’s constantly accused me of all kinds of things because she is part of the Israeli lobby.”
However, when pressed on whether he would apologize to the Osbourne family more broadly, Waters declined: “not really.”
He then addressed Jack Osbourne directly, saying: “Well Jack. Jack Osbourne [laughs]. If he wants to have a chat, I’ll have a chat with him, I promise you, and I won’t be nasty to him. Well, I’m, you know, yeah, I’m sorry you lost your dad, Jack, but this is like, you have conversations about things and about people, ‘what do you think?’ Well, ‘not a lot.’ I was honest.”
Waters went on to slightly soften his stance on BLACK SABBATH’s music while reiterating his distaste for Osbourne’s onstage antics: “I said I didn’t like BLACK SABBATH… I’ve listened to some of it since. And the music is perfectly kind of acceptable. It was all the kind of histrionics of I don’t like people who bite the heads off bats. I just don’t. I think it’s disgusting, and I’ve said that again now. I know he’s dead, and he can’t come back and go, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry I bit the heads off bats,’ if he ever did. Who knows whether he did or not? I don’t want to talk about it.”
Pressed one final time on whether he regretted his remarks, Waters concluded: “I regret nothing in life, except that I haven’t been more successful in getting people to understand how important it is that we as a human race recognize and empathize with all of our brothers and sisters all over the world and make certain that they have equal human rights, one with another, under international law. The Osbourne family? No, I’m not that interested in them.”
David Draiman Weighs In
The controversy has now prompted a response from DISTURBED frontman David Draiman, who sharply criticized Waters after watching a segment of the Piers Morgan interview. Taking to social media, Draiman did not hold back in his assessment of the PINK FLOYD co-founder.
“@rogerwaters lost his humanity, if he ever had any, in a bottle of vodka many years ago,” Draiman wrote on X. “He only wishes he could be as beloved, respected and admired as @OzzyOsbourne. Keep his name out of your Jew hating, dictator loving, filthy mouth.”
The remark comes in the context of a long-standing tension between Waters and Draiman, dating back years and rooted in Waters’ controversial political statements and allegations of antisemitism. Draiman, who is of Jewish descent, has previously referred to Waters as “a deluded old freak” and a “monster,” criticizing the musician for his support of dictators and inflammatory rhetoric against Israel.
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