{"id":1252240,"date":"2025-03-26T23:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1252240"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:20:22","slug":"pete-townshend-on-the-future-of-the-who-new-solo-albums-box-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/pete-townshend-on-the-future-of-the-who-new-solo-albums-box-set\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Townshend on the Future of the Who, New Solo-Albums Box Set"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn the early days of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-who\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-who\" data-tag=\"the-who\">the Who<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/pete-townshend\/\" id=\"auto-tag_pete-townshend\" data-tag=\"pete-townshend\">Pete Townshend<\/a> gave little thought to a solo career. Writing songs for the band, crafting albums, and touring behind them occupied nearly all of his time and mental energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn 1972, however, he was persuaded to shape <em>Who Came First<\/em> \u2014 a spiritual collection of oddities and demos meant only for the ears of friends and fellow followers of Meher Baba \u2014 into an official release once bootlegs flooded the market. And five years later, he teamed up with Faces bassist Ronnie Lane for the collaborative LP <em>Rough Mix<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt wasn\u2019t until 1980, two years after the death of the Who\u2019s drummer Keith Moon, that he finally agreed to create a proper solo album, <em>Empty Glass<\/em>. \u201cThere was great pressure on me to release myself creatively from the constraints of only writing songs for the Who, a band that had become increasingly self-aggrandizing and pompous, anthem-like even, and allow myself the outlet of a solo album,\u201d Townshend writes in liner notes for <em>Studio Albums<\/em>, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.thewho.com\/products\/pete-townshend-studio-albums-8cd-box-set?srsltid=AfmBOopdMHj_bdZPJ-CqHRARxjwkTylOJzVaagSqmsFse0U4At6JDuxO\">a new eight-CD box set chronicling his entire recording career outside of the Who,<\/a> which arrives this week. \u201cAlthough here is a collection of solo songs, they could all have been Who songs in my opinion \u2026 Let\u2019s not fall into the trap that I kept songs back from The Who. I never did that. I just wrote songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tA few days before he was due to meet up with Roger Daltrey and begin rehearsals for a pair of Who concerts at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust, he jumped on Zoom with <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> to talk about his solo career. But as always happens, the conversation veered into all sorts of other realms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>John Entwistle made his <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wm0uOgh-Ttk\">first solo record in 1971<\/a>. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wOW2Sj1Yk60\">Roger Daltrey did his in 1973.<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DW98jKsnzBc\">Keith Moon followed in 1974.<\/a> You didn\u2019t do a proper one until 1980. Why were you the last?<\/strong><br \/>Because I was writing the songs for the <em>fuckin\u2019 Who<\/em>, that\u2019s why!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>That\u2019s a pretty reasonable explanation. The songs you wrote for <em>The Who by Numbers<\/em> were so intimate and personal, though, unlike anything the band had done before. Did it ever cross your mind to put them on a solo record at the time?<\/strong><br \/>No, I didn\u2019t. That\u2019s an interesting album because what actually happened with that is I\u2019d submitted 35 songs as demos to Roger, and he was the one that pretty much selected the very handful that we actually recorded with [producer] Glyn [Johns]. And quite a few of them, including \u201cEmpty Glass\u201d and a couple of others, ended up on the <em>Empty Glass<\/em> album because they were rejected from <em>Who by Numbers<\/em>, by Roger. I don\u2019t suppose he\u2019ll remember it quite that way, but that\u2019s what happened. <\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>He didn\u2019t balk at ones like \u201cHow Many Friends,\u201d where you\u2019re just pouring your soul out?<\/strong><br \/>No, I don\u2019t think he did. I don\u2019t know what he said about it in the past. I haven\u2019t tracked it, but I think he seemed quite willing to dig into those things. Remember we also had a producer, Glyn Johns, who\u2019s a pretty forceful character, so he guided us through what we were going to do.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>Jumping to <em>Rough Mix<\/em>. I\u2019ve read that Ronnie Lane wanted to write songs with you. Why weren\u2019t you interested in trying that out?<\/strong><br \/>We had already tried to write songs together, to be fair. We were close friends. He used to come to my studio and we did a few things together. I suppose I might be a bit precious about my studio time. I really love being in the studio and I like being able to experiment. I just don\u2019t think I\u2019m a very good collaborator. I\u2019m not one of those musicians that likes to gaze into the eye of the other man and connect soul to soul. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI think my writing process has crept up on me since the beginning. I\u2019m not 100 percent sure of what I\u2019m doing when I set out to write a song. Sometimes it starts with a catchphrase, sometimes with a complete lyric or poem. Sometimes it might be an essay idea. Other times it might be some goofy sound that I produce on a synthesizer. So the collaboration aspect of music for me has been limited because the Who were not a collaborative band, except when they were onstage. In the studio, we were very much guided by Kit Lambert as our producer. And we didn\u2019t jam, for example, in the studio, as we did on the stage. The only Who album that you\u2019ve got where you can hear the band jamming is <em>Live at Leeds<\/em>.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>When you wrote the songs for <em>Empty Glass<\/em>, were you in the mindset of creating work for a solo album?<\/strong><br \/>There may have been a couple that I wrote around the time of the album, but the backstory of this is that a lot of people close to the Who, and on the boundaries of the Who, were worried about my mental health. They blamed the lack of emotional, creative support I was getting from not just the members of the Who, but also from Kit Lambert, the manager of the Who, who had been a great ally of mine up until that time. And they figured that it was really important for me to express myself as a solo artist. I don\u2019t know that they were right, to be honest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI think the reverse happened. By setting me up with a record deal for a set of solo albums over a period of time, at the same time that the Who did a huge record deal, just added to my mental illness issues. It was just overwork, and too much pressure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>You made four albums in three years. That\u2019s a lot on your shoulders.<\/strong><br \/>It is when you consider that I was writing the songs, doing the demos, doing the PR around it all, and still continuing to do Who shows. I remember one of the guys at Warner Brothers who signed me called me lazy because I wouldn\u2019t tour [my 1985 solo album] <em>White City<\/em>. I\u2019ve never really liked touring very much, with or without the Who, so as a solo artist, I wasn\u2019t exactly going to run towards touring. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe <em>Empty Glass<\/em> period was a really exciting period for me. I look back at it with great affection. I got a great offer from CBS, which I turned down. I went with Doug [Morris] at Atco. I was incredibly well-supported by them. I found a great producer in Chris Thomas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI had a good time making the record, but I think what suffered was my family. It\u2019s just one of those situations where as soon as I had time to breathe on my solo project, I was then having to fill in time with the Who. And that led to a decision, which I made in 1982 with the second solo album <em>[All the Best Cowboys Have] Chinese Eyes<\/em>, where I left the Who. In a sense I was blaming the Who, or blaming the general malaise of the rock industry, as it applied to me. That was a mistake. I should just have said, \u201cListen, I need more time. I need to take things more slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThere was also this phenomena that all the other members of the band loved to tour, and I didn\u2019t. So in a sense, there was this feeling, \u201cOh, Pete\u2019s gone to his studio to write songs for the next album, and it\u2019s going to take as long as it takes.\u201d There was this sense that I was indulging myself. Whereas the way that I saw it, was that it was a place where I could be at home, do my job, and be close to my family. When I got home after tours with the Who, there would be emotional wreckage dumped at the front door. Touring with the Who was no fun. It wasn\u2019t a joy. It wasn\u2019t a rock &amp; roll, Led Zeppelin, shagging virgins exercise.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>When I hear the song \u201cEmpty Glass,\u201d I can\u2019t help but think I\u2019m hearing from a pretty unhappy person dealing with some serious addiction issues. How much of that is me projecting from what I know about your life, or was it indeed a reflection of your pain at that time?<\/strong><br \/>I don\u2019t know that it was reflecting it, but it has to be a realization, doesn\u2019t it? It came from the heart. But also, since 1966 or 1967, I was realizing that I was going to embark on what I describe as a spiritual journey. I knew that it would have its ups and downs. And this was not something to be undertaken lightly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt\u2019s not, \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to become a hippie, and do meditation, and dig into mindfulness, and light incense.\u201d I knew it was going to be tough because I wanted to do it properly. And it wasn\u2019t a very good landscape in which to try to do such a thing. Instead of opening my hotel room door and inviting in a beautiful groupie, I was sending them away, and having them bang on the door until I let them in. And then sitting them down and saying, \u201cListen, I will talk to you, but I won\u2019t fuck you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThat was the weird anomaly lifestyle that I was living in. Eventually, that world of attempting to balance spiritual values in terms of moral behavior that I felt was appropriate to what I was doing as a spiritual person was weighing on me very heavily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI think \u201cEmpty Glass,\u201d though, is a fantastic song\u2026. The idea is that you set yourself challenges right at the moment that you need the most guidance. I got guidance when I was really young. I was 19 or 20 when I met Kit Lambert. He was exactly the right kind of guy to help me. He was gay. He didn\u2019t treat me as a commodity. He appreciated my talent. He helped me as an editor, but he also helped me as an educator. He helped me learn about life and about society and the way that the industry works. He treated me with the most incredible respect. That wasn\u2019t how the rock industry treated me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe main thing was that I realized after a few tracks of <em>Empty Glass<\/em> came back off the speakers was that I was making a great record. And when you get that feeling, it\u2019s a real buzz. Nothing can stop you then. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>Did you see \u201cLet My Love Open the Door\u201d as a possible hit song that would connect to a mass audience or did that surprise you?<\/strong><br \/>It surprised Atco, but it didn\u2019t surprise me. I knew it was a hit song from the moment that I started it. It\u2019s very lighthearted. It doesn\u2019t have a lot going on for it, but I think that\u2019s also why I knew it would be good. As I was performing it, I liked the way that it felt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhat was so funny when I played the <em>Chinese Eyes<\/em> tracks to Doug Morris, he said to me, \u201cSo where\u2019s the \u2018Let My Love Open the Door?&#8217;\u201d And I said, \u201cDoug, you tried to get me to take \u2018Let My Love Open the Door\u2019 off the <em>Empty Glass<\/em> album. You said that it wasn\u2019t rock &amp; roll enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI think it was Noel Gallagher who said it so well recently. \u201cThe audience doesn\u2019t know what it wants until it gets it.\u201d They didn\u2019t know that they wanted the Beatles, they didn\u2019t know they wanted the Stones. They didn\u2019t know that they wanted Bob Dylan. And in a sense, that\u2019s what happens with music. You don\u2019t know that you are going to love it until you get it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe journeys that you take, the ways that you find the artists and the creators that you really love, it\u2019s often a clumsy stumbling journey. But what a lot of people don\u2019t realize is that creative artists, musicians in particular \u2026 Elton John is a pain in the ass on it, isn\u2019t he? He\u2019s such a musicologist fan. He just seems to love everything that there is out there. To the extent that his very existence is an embrace of what\u2019s good about the music industry. We are all fans. We listen to music.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>A lot of people heard \u201cRough Boys\u201d and felt it was you basically coming out of the closet.<\/strong><br \/>I think it was that, in a sense. I think what\u2019s misconstrued is the fact that I was ever in the closet. I had had a few gay experiences and just decided really that it wasn\u2019t for me. But there was certainly a period when I was a young man hanging out with Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert. I look back and I realized I really wanted to be gay, but for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tNot because of a love, a physical love for men, but because it was cool. Because it was illegal. Because it was dangerous. And for all those reasons. That song emerged as a cat call to the \u2026 it\u2019s interesting now, of course that the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/village-people-trump-maga-ymca-1235261779\/\">Village People are saying<\/a> that \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d is not about being gay. But \u201cRough Boys\u201d is a piss-taker at \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d Basically, the idea that we dress in these uniforms of gayness and homosexuality, but in actual fact what we\u2019re attached to is the dangerousness of it. The edge of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>Why did you call the next album <em>All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes?<\/em><\/strong><br \/>I think it was just about the look. I had a photo in my mind of Clint Eastwood in a movie. And that\u2019s it. Just about a look. Trying to describe a look in a poetic sense.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>\u201cSlit Skirts\u201d is my favorite one from that record. It starts with \u201cI was just thirty-four years old and I was still wandering in a haze.\u201d Did you feel old at 34?<\/strong><br \/>I did. I think everybody does. I think it\u2019s one of those transition periods. You think 30 is going to be difficult, and I think it is. But I think that the years leading up to 30 are terrible for people. Because you expect a doorway to come down and it doesn\u2019t. And what actually happens is that the readjustment is one of being on a track where the next significant birthday is going to be 40, which feels, in a sense, if you halve the actual average life, it\u2019s less than 80. So you are on the way to being halfway through life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe thing that I was going through at the time was punk. That must be clear to anybody looking at the way that I operated. I was pissed off about two things. One, that I was too old to be a part of it, but two, the fact that they stole my fuckin\u2019 idea!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>It\u2019s true.<\/strong><br \/>The Who was supposed to self-combust within six months. Instead of self-combusting decently and honorably and getting out of the fuckin\u2019 way, we went on and on and on at tedium. Performing like fuckin\u2019 monkeys, smashing guitars and swinging microphones and doing the Keith Moon routine. And what happened with punk was that they took my original manifesto and put it in practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut the other thing was it echoed with the New Romantics, where I felt just about young enough to be able to get away with backcombing my hair again like in the mod days. I\u2019m a fashion victim. I grew up in a mod neighborhood and I had loads of friends. But when the Who were in their mod phase, in the High Numbers era and the very early phase, I loved being a mod and loved being a part of it. But it was so brief.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cSlit Skirts\u201d is about the New Romantic era. It was about feeling like I could just about be a part of it, but literally was just a couple of years too old to get away with it. So that sense of being embarrassed about what it is that one wants.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong><em>Chinese Eyes<\/em> was released just a few months before <em>It\u2019s Hard<\/em> and the Who\u2019s farewell tour. There weren\u2019t many singles, even \u201cSlit Skirts.\u201d It kind of got buried. Do you think in hindsight it should have been shelved until 1983, when the Who were done touring?<\/strong><br \/>I didn\u2019t have those choices. I had contracts. A lot of people felt that what I\u2019d needed after Keith Moon\u2019s death was a solo album career. So I had a solo career, and it turned out to be not the fit. It wasn\u2019t what I needed. I was quite content writing for the Who. What I needed was better time management. Not two record deals on top of each other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhen <em>Chinese Eyes<\/em> was done, I didn\u2019t go into rehab. I wanted to stop drinking and using drugs, and I did. But I went into therapy for a few years. I decided that, and my therapist agreed, that the best thing for me was to take a rain check on the Who. And it was interpreted as me leaving the Who when we did the \u201982 tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt wasn\u2019t me that said, \u201cThis is the last tour.\u201d It was the Who\u2019s manager. And he did it because it was a \u201cka-ching\u201d moment. We sold out an arena tour. It wasn\u2019t a very smart thing to do. I should have really protested, but I didn\u2019t. But I felt we could go, \u201cI don\u2019t care what the manager says, I don\u2019t care what the record company or the promoter says. If we want to get back together on a tour again, we fuckin\u2019 will.\u201d It just took a long time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnd it took a long time because the alternative life for me, what I found, working as an editor at Faber and being able to rebuild my family life, was really great. I had a peaceful few years.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>In the new liner notes to the box set you wrote, \u201cI handed the stadium stage to Queen and U2, and of course to Bruce Springsteen. That wasn\u2019t a bad thing. But we should have been a part of that Post-Punk legacy act resurgences that those acts enjoyed?\u201d Can you elaborate on that?<\/strong><br \/>The Who invented Stadium Rock. We gave it away. Our timing was terrible. When we did Live Aid, we could barely fuckin\u2019 play. Queen were in the middle of a tour, walked out there, took the whole thing, and turned it into an advert for themselves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI never really appreciated what Queen was about, to be honest. I liked ABBA, but I didn\u2019t really connect it with the lighthearted pop diversity of Queen\u2019s catalog. I\u2019m a huge fan of Bruce, of course, and a big fan of U2, and very happy to see the way that they took the stadium mantle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut with songs like \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again\u201d and \u201cBaba O\u2019Riley,\u201d I fuckin\u2019 nailed it. There\u2019s no question. And I gave that instrument away. But it would be wrong to say that I regret it, because I don\u2019t. I have to look back and say, \u201cWell, what is, is.\u201d But where it really bit for us all was financially, because that moment was one where instead of playing places like the Fillmore and the occasional arena, the big acts were playing consistently huge venues.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>Years after the Who broke up, John Entwistle said being in the Who was like having a winning lottery ticket, but being unable to cash it in.<\/strong><br \/>I think that\u2019s well put. We set it up, and then we walked away from it. And of course, it wasn\u2019t just us. We were really, really lucky to have done that first big stadium gig we did in Anaheim in 1976. What the shock was is that nobody had ever thought about doing it with anybody. You could have done it with Grateful Dead, you could have done it with a whole load of other acts, but nobody thought of doing it. Nobody thought there was a band that could hold the attention of a football stadium or a soccer stadium or an ice hockey stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnd we were able to do it. But once it was proven, it then became a given, and then it was something that everybody could use. But yeah, we\u2019d had a struggle making money. And we\u2019d also been ripped off in a lot of ways, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>You poured a lot of energy into your 1993 solo album <em>Psychoderelict.<\/em> You even toured behind it. Why do you think it didn\u2019t find a big audience?<\/strong><br \/>Well, because it was really weird. I was working on the theater production of <em>The Iron Man<\/em> with Ted Hughes, and working with Des McAnuff on a new book for the <em>Tommy <\/em>show on Broadway. I wanted to have my own little, crazy theater show. At first it started as a radio play. I got into a bit of a muddle with it, and I was very active supporting the <em>Tommy<\/em> productions, because it wasn\u2019t just a Broadway show, it was also a tour in various places.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMy old high school friend Barney got involved, and helped me turn it into a comedy. \u00a0As a comedy, it became deeply and almost like <em>King Lear<\/em>-type ironic. It worked on stage really well. But on the album, it just didn\u2019t work. The fact that in the box set, you\u2019ve got a version with music and with the play, and a version without, that\u2019s insane. It was never ever meant to be a collection of songs. It was meant to be a play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>Why did you stop making solo albums after that?<\/strong><br \/>I don\u2019t know that I did stop. I continued to write music. Nobody came and offered me a deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>When I was a teenager in the 1990s, I feel like the Who were often mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin. I get the feeling that\u2019s no longer the case, and young people aren\u2019t as aware of your work as they used to be. Do you think that\u2019s true? Do you care?<\/strong><br \/>I think you\u2019re right. I think they may not be, and no, I don\u2019t really care that much. I think because we\u2019re dealing in mythology now, which has actually been fed by social media and by streaming. It\u2019s a vacuous world. The Stones don\u2019t help themselves do they, really? I think they\u2019ve made so many really interesting albums, which they\u2019ve in a sense, disowned. I think the whole process of disowning albums when you\u2019re a mythological band is not a good move.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMy favorite Stones album is still <em>Aftermath<\/em>. Brian Jones was still alive and kicking and had ideas. It felt to me that they were in an incredibly interesting art school creative space. A bit hippy dumb, but it was interesting. The Beatles just didn\u2019t last long enough. And the same thing happened with the Beach Boys. Once the Beach Boys had done <em>Pet Sounds<\/em>, you could have a conversation with Brian Wilson, \u201cCome on, Brian. Why didn\u2019t you make another <em>Pet Sounds<\/em>? What happened, man?\u201d \u201cWhat actually happened is I went <em>fuckin\u2019 insane<\/em> is what happened!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI wonder whether kids who think that Jimmy Page is the best guitar player in the world have heard <em>Pet Sounds<\/em>? Not that it\u2019s got anything to do with guitar playing, but it\u2019s where the myths begin and end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>The corporate entities behind the Beatles and Zeppelin and many of these other bands work very hard at keeping the brands alive with biopics, documentaries, museum exhibits\u2026 They are always working to keep the flame going. You seem less interested in that.<\/strong><br \/>I wonder though whether it\u2019s about exploiting the brands. You see this certainly with the ABBA avatar musical, whether there\u2019s something more to wring out of it. And a couple of times recently I\u2019ve been asked why that is. I spend so much time talking about and focusing on it, and trying to wring more out of stuff in my career that I feel has been neglected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBecause as one gets older, it\u2019s harder to come up with new bright ideas. And so I think, well, I\u2019ve already got some bright ideas that I came up with when I was 25 that have been neglected. And I think so much about the success of <em>Quadrophenia<\/em>, for example, is that it\u2019s about an era that\u2019s very, very interesting sociologically. Have you come across this new TV series called <em>Adolescence<\/em>?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>I keep hearing about it, but I haven\u2019t watched it yet.<\/strong><br \/>My wife and I just watched it yesterday. It has been produced and directed in single-shot camera episodes, four episodes. It\u2019s just about a young boy that gets into trouble. And the first incident at the police station, he\u2019s asked to be strip searched in his father\u2019s presence. And his father refuses it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhat\u2019s interesting is this is a story about a young boy who gets into trouble in the social media age. And then you look at the pre-echoes of that going way, way back to Marlon Brando and James Dean and very, very early Elvis Presley. It\u2019s images of the guy in the leather jacket, trying to look tough, but actually really looking wimpish in a sense, and behaving in a wimpish manner. That story hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhat\u2019s changed is what we hang it on, where the conversation begins and ends. What happens now is that we draw lines. When I put this box set out \u2026 well, that\u2019s a fuckin\u2019 joke, because I didn\u2019t put this set out. I didn\u2019t even know it was coming out until about four weeks ago. I sold my solo deal material to Universal, and they\u2019re just cashing in. They\u2019re trying to recoup on their investment. I bought a boat, they\u2019re buying a solo deal.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>The Who are playing the Teenage Cancer Trust events at the Royal Albert Hall later this month. What will those shows be like? Who will be in the band?<\/strong><br \/>It\u2019s going to be a stripped down band. It\u2019s going to be me, my brother, a keyboard player, a bass player, Zak [Starkey], Roger. That\u2019s it. And we don\u2019t really know what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re starting the rehearsal on Saturday. I\u2019m hoping to keep it simple. We shall see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI\u2019ve got no idea what it\u2019s going to be like. I\u2019m actually nervous. And I think Roger\u2019s nervous as well. We\u2019re both in our eighties, beyond our eighties, in Roger\u2019s case. I\u2019m 80 in May. And I\u2019ve just had a knee transplant, which it was nothing to do with being young or virile. It was to do with having an accident years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThat kind of stuff gets harder as you get older. It gets harder to recover from surgery, to recover from taking loads of codeine and all of that stuff, the brain fog that\u2019s involved in it. So we\u2019ve got a list of songs. We\u2019re looking at them, and I\u2019m going, \u201cWhich are the easy ones?\u201d But it\u2019s sold out. I could go out and just play a fuckin\u2019 kazoo. I\u2019ve made the money for the charity.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>I\u2019ve never had the chance to see you play solo beyond a couple of quick shows at Joe\u2019s Pub years ago. There are so many fans like me that have seen the Who a bunch of times, but have never seen you sing songs like \u201cSlit Skirts\u201d and \u201cThe Sea Refuses No River.\u201d Do you think you\u2019ll ever do a solo tour again and play them?<\/strong><br \/>I\u2019d love to sing them again, yeah. I do think about it sometimes. But I think if I was going to spend a lot of time with Simon Phillips, for example, I think he and I could make a great album together. I wouldn\u2019t want to play old stuff. So I\u2019d want to use the fact that there would be a dynamic energy between us that could probably crack open some new veins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI think we\u2019re at an interesting time. And I think for the Who, it\u2019s probably not as interesting as it is for some other people. I think what we call the Who is just Roger and me. And we can exchange e-mails and we can sit and nag at each other about various political things on which we agree or disagree. But the fact is that we have this legacy, and it\u2019s a Black Swan legacy, which is that we\u2019ve been lucky.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<strong>For you guys to still be doing this band in your 80s that you started in 1962 is pretty remarkable.<\/strong><br \/>I\u2019ve got maybe 10 years left as a creative. So I\u2019m doing all kinds of interesting things, theatrical projects, art projects, book projects, working. I\u2019ve done four record productions in the past couple of years. I\u2019ve just done a thing with my friend, Reg Meuross, a song cycle about Woody Guthrie called <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/regmeuross.bandcamp.com\/album\/fire-dust-a-woody-guthrie-story\">Fire and Dust<\/a><\/em>. I did <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pfxDpNdxsoc\">an album with the Bookshop band.<\/a> They write songs about books. I produced an album with a young indie band called <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/wild-things-pete-townshend-the-who-1378769\/\">the Wild Things.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI\u2019m really active on music and doing stuff and trying to keep myself fueled up. I think if I was a journalist\u2026I\u2019m not suggesting I want the job because I hate deadlines\u2026but if I was, fuck I wouldn\u2019t know where to begin. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rollingstone.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 O artigo anterior foi obtido e traduzido do site internacional da celebrity.land   \u2019 Source Link <\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the early days of the Who, Pete Townshend gave little thought to a solo career. Writing songs for the band, crafting albums, and touring behind them occupied nearly all of his time and mental energy. In 1972, however, he was persuaded to shape Who Came First \u2014 a spiritual collection of oddities and demos [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1252241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1252240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}