The day Roger Waters served breakfast to Gustavo Cerati and Pedro Aznar

In the music industry, crossovers between Anglo-Saxon stars and their Latin counterparts are not very common. They arise from time to time, as part of a particular project or event. This is how the meeting between three guys with rock tonnage was born; Roger Waters, Gustavo Cerati and Pedro Aznar.

The meeting took place in 2008 . Cerati was returning from the Soda Stereo reunion tour, called you will see me come back, and wishes to resume his activity as a soloist. This is how an invitation came to him; participate in a song to benefit the ALAS foundation, led by singer Shakira, whose specific objective is the promotion of early childhood programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The initiative had the participation of Roger Waters. Due to the target audience, the participation of Latin artists was required. This is how Cerati was born. “Roger Waters received my material through the folks at ALAS. “He started composing a song about the foundation.” says the same musician.

So, Cerati packed her bags and traveled with Pedro Aznar to meet Waters in New York. “On a very humble level, we share things as equals. , as it should also be; musicians occupied with the music itself. There were contributions from many artists, in addition to us there was also Eric Clapton,” he explained.

The song was titled The child will fly. “It’s a mile-long song, 13 minutes, with a lot of Floydian air, because of the harmonies. I sang, I did a guitar solo but they already deleted it and put in Clapton’s… logically, because Clapton plays and he’s God, right? But there is also an opera singer, a children’s choir. “Roger Waters is a guy who likes to add and add and to create a body of work, beyond the song,” Cerati recalls.

Always obsessive when it comes to work, the former Soda Stereo frontman noticed a detail in the recording. And of course, he wanted to make it known. “As the song was happening and being recorded and all that, I realized I hadn’t been playing the bass on the song. , then I practically grabbed him by the lapels and said, ‘You’re going to play bass, aren’t you?’, I forced him, because he didn’t have any alternative, I guess he was going to do it, it had the whole song but no bass. So he finally did it.

Cerati and Aznar not only worked with Waters, but also stayed at his house. “He made us breakfast when we were with Pedro Aznar, I say it casually, but it’s really great -recalled the man Bridge time later-. Imagine waking up in the morning in Roger Waters’ house and asking him to make you breakfast in a bathrobe. Anyway, the best thing was obviously not that, but talking, making music with him. Fantastic. “We shared a lot of things, wine, dinner, recordings.”