10 Rock Stars Who Absolutely Hated The Music Business

2. Roger Waters - Pink Floyd

The rock industry is not really cut out for just anybody. The constant cycle of touring is going to get old for even the most enthusiastic musicians, and a lot of people sometimes turn to drugs and alcohol just to get some sort of relief from the media circus that happens every day. Syd Barrett ended up going just a little too far though, and Roger Waters has never really forgiven the music industry for it.

While Pink Floyd today would not exist if Syd Barrett were in the band, his descent into madness ended up being triggered by the constant positions that he was given as the leader of Floyd, leading to the rest of the band kicking him out for his own health. When they started to reel things back and take a look at the business they were in though, records like Wish You Were Here didn't paint the business in the greatest light, looking to exploit artists at every turn and feeling much more like a machine than any stable job.

The real dissection of the music business though is the Wall, which says a lot more than even Roger probably intended, from the sleazy promoters who will try to get their musicians on stage by any means necessary to those same musicians getting drunk with power and doing heinous things to their audience in the process. The music business can be fun in moderation, but some of the best music Pink Floyd ever made peeled back the layers of what's really going on behind the scenes.