Hitler’s bomb raids inspired me to sing, says Roger Daltrey
ROCK star Roger Daltrey says Hitler’s bombing raids sparked his love of music.
The Who singer revealed he got the music bug from his parents who spent nights hiding in shelters from Nazi bombers sent by the Fuhrer’s sidekick Hermann Goring.
Recalling the Blitz spirit they passed on to him, he said: “The more he bombed us, the more we sang, the louder we sang.”
Daltrey, 74, was born in March 1944, a year before the war ended in 1945.
Discussing his best-selling memoir, Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite, he said: “After the war that singing carried on and there was singing everywhere.
“Every factory – builders on the street would be singing.
“It gave us this ambition and willingness to strive for what you wanted.
“One thing that got people through the war was singing, which Hitler could never work out.” Daltrey said that his parents were affected for years afterwards by the impact of the conflict.
He said: “You can only imagine what that must have done to the way they were in their lives. They were probably shellshocked
“Every time there was a thunderstorm – screams like a banshee. And my mum ran under the table.”
He added: “When we grew up we had very little food, everyone was rationed.” But he said: “People say we were poor but we were not.
“We were incredibly wealthy because the war had brought families very close together and they were big family units.”
Even so, there were shortages. The 5ft 5in star said: “In 1945, half of our loaf of white bread was made of chalk, to pad it out.
“And that is why a lot of my generation are very short.
“I have always blamed Hitler for my legs.”