Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters gave a firmly negative response to Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2” in an upcoming ad for Instagram.
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Speaking at a forum in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as reported by Rolling Stone, Waters read out an email he claimed to have received from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg requesting the right to use the song.
“It’s a request for the rights to use my song, ‘Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2’ in the making of a film to promote Instagram,” Waters said.
The letter allegedly said that the team at Facebook “feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is”.
“¡Vete a la chingada!”: @rogerwaters a Mark Zuckerberg. El músico contó que le ofrecieron “una gran cantidad de dinero” por permitir el uso de Another brick in the wall II para promover Instagram. Lo narró en un acto por la libertad de Julian Assange (@Wikileaks)#VideosLaJornada pic.twitter.com/gEVqaor8Eo
— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) June 12, 2021
“So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me,” Waters continued, “[which] arrived this morning, with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money, and the answer is, ‘Fuck you! No fucking way!’
“And I only mention that because it’s [their] insidious movement to take over absolutely everything.”
“So those of us who do have any power,” he continued, “and I do have a little bit – in terms of control of the publishing of my songs I do anyway. So I will not be a party to this bullshit, Zuckerberg.”
Waters has recently found himself in dispute with ex-bandmate David Gilmour regarding Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals.
Waters claimed that Gilmour wanted the liner notes of the remastered album to be kept a secret so that Gilmour could allegedly “claim more credit […] than is his due”.
Unsurprisingly, Gilmour has also recently poured cold water on rumours of a reunion of the band, saying in March, “It has run its course, we are done.”