Editing Roger Waters (section)

===Departure and legal battles===
Amidst creative differences, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and began a legal battle with the band regarding their continued use of the name and material.{{sfn|Povey|2008|pp=240–241}} In December 1985, Waters issued a statement to EMI and CBS invoking the "Leaving Member" clause in his contract. In October 1986, he initiated [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] proceedings to formally dissolve the Pink Floyd partnership. In his submission to the High Court he called Pink Floyd a "spent force creatively."{{sfn|Povey|2008|pp=221, 237, 240–241, 246}} Gilmour and Mason opposed the application and announced their intention to continue as Pink Floyd. Waters said he had been forced to resign like Barrett had been years earlier, and decided to leave the band based on legal considerations, saying: "If I hadn't, the financial repercussions would have wiped me out completely."{{sfn|Blake|2008|pp= 312–313}}

Waters did not want the band to use the name Pink Floyd without him. He said later: "I would be distressed if [[Paul McCartney]] and [[Ringo Starr]] made records and went on the road calling themselves [[the Beatles]]. If [[John Lennon]]'s not in it, it's sacrilegious ... To continue with Gilmour and Mason, getting in a whole bunch of other people to write the material, seems to me an insult to the work that came before."<ref name="Simmons-1999">{{Cite journal |last=Simmons |first=Sylvie |date=December 1999 |title=Danger! Demolition in progress |journal=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]}}</ref> In December 1987, Waters and Pink Floyd reached an agreement.{{sfn|Povey|2008|pp=240–241}} Waters was released from his contractual obligation with O'Rourke, and he retained the copyrights to the ''Wall'' concept and the inflatable ''Animals ''pig.{{sfn|Manning|2006|pp= 139}} Pink Floyd released three studio albums without him: ''[[A Momentary Lapse of Reason]]'' (1987), ''[[The Division Bell]]'' (1994) and ''[[The Endless River]]'' (2014).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/roger-waters-reminds-curious-fans-i-am-not-part-of-pink-floyd-20141002|title=Roger Waters Reminds Fans: 'I Am Not Part of Pink Floyd'|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=1 April 2018|archive-date=1 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401212740/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/roger-waters-reminds-curious-fans-i-am-not-part-of-pink-floyd-20141002|url-status=live}}</ref> According to a 1999 interview with Gilmour, Waters declined an invitation to perform ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' with Pink Floyd at [[Earls Court Exhibition Centre|Earls Court]], London.<ref name="Simmons-1999" />

In 2005, Waters said the period of his departure had been a "bad, negative time", and that he regretted his part in the negativity: "Why should I have imposed my feeling about the work and what it was worth on the others if they didn't feel the same? I was wrong in attempting to do that."{{sfn|Blake|2008|p=395}} In 2013, Waters said he regretted the lawsuit and had failed to appreciate that the Pink Floyd name had commercial value independent of the band members.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 September 2013 |title=Pink Floyd star Roger Waters regrets suing band |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-24160584 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160228034159/http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-24160584 |archive-date=28 February 2016 |access-date=10 March 2016 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>