The Who returning with first album in 13 years
Townshend reflects on The Who’s halcyon days as he joins Daltrey to unleash a new album
“Who are you?” songwriter Pete Townshend asked defiantly in The Who’s 1978 anthemic song of the same name.
Turns out the legendary lead guitarist and brilliant tunesmith of the seminal British rock band wasn’t sure anymore himself as he took a year off and sat down to write The Who’s first album in 13 years, Who, released Friday.
It’s also only their second disc in 37 years after a prolific and loud ’60s and ’70s period that began with their 1965 debut disc, My Generation, and ended with 1982’s It’s Hard. Their last album was 2006’s Endless Wire.
“I look back to when I was young — between the ages of 18 and 25 — and I just don’t recognize that young man,” Townshend, 74, tells Postmedia.
We caught up with Townshend down the line from the “sunny” British countryside to discuss the new disc, recent comments that got him in hot water, and his relationship with The Who’s singer Roger Daltrey, 75.
Q You recently apologized on Facebook for saying in Rolling Stone you were glad
The Who’s original drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle (who died in 1978 and 2002, respectively) were gone because they were hard to play with. What do you think of the ensuing hullabaloo?
A I don’t give a s--t, to be honest. I actually don’t. If somebody wants to take something I say in a conversation and use it for a headline, there’s nothing I can do. But, you know, I’ve done 60 interviews since August and occasionally you slip up. One thing about doing interviews today is that you can’t afford to make a mistake, so it’s exhausting. It’s like being interrogated by the FBI. I should spend the whole of this interview saying: “No comment, no comment, no comment, no comment.”
Q You’ve written about both the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp (Ball and Chain) and the Grenfell Tower Fire in London (Street Song) on the new record for which you said you purposely avoided being nostalgic. How come?
A To put it really, really bluntly, Roger and I are at the end of our lives. We’re not in the last quarter we’re in the last tenth. So nostalgia — it doesn’t quite have the ring of wonderment, say, when you’re looking back say 25 years to when you were young. What I meant was I really didn’t want to get nostalgic about the sound that we created and I didn’t want to re-create a feeling of those halcyon years of the ’60s because I just don’t think that they really can be created again.
Q Why not?
A If (Led Zeppelin’s three remaining members reunited) they would have to come out of their (respective) boxes and be 30 years old again. It’s so difficult to live up to a reputation. And for those musicians like the Stones, who’ve just kept going, going, going, it appears to be — what’s the word? — a straighter path.
But they also don’t seem to see much sign of creative development. I’m also very friendly with Mick (Jagger) and I know he’s frustrated about the fact that it seems very difficult for them to come up with new material.
Q So what inspired you?
A I wanted to write songs for Roger Daltrey’s voice. For Roger Daltrey as a singer that he felt he could align with. Roger allows himself a bit more nostalgia than I do. He exalts the history of The Who. And I think I don’t. I think what happens with me is I look back and I think, “Phew, I’ve made it out alive.”
Q How is Roger doing after his most recent surgery to have his throat scraped and remove precancerous cells?
A Yeah, he’s come out and he’s good. He regularly goes. He’s now got a week of silence. But, no, his voice is great.
Q How would you characterize your relationship with Roger now?
A We’re having lunch, we’re getting together next week when he gets his voice back, with some of our crew members. We see each other occasionally. We spend so much time together on the road these days and have done for the last 15 years that it feels as though we have become a lot closer. But we live at other ends of the greater London area. But, no, the real thing is that we’re very different.
Q How are your band responsibilities divided?
A I do all the deep thinking, and go up my own a--hole (to write), and he puts the tours together and gets the (set) list together and sings the songs, and together it works. And I think what we’ve both done recently is we’ve realized, we will cross paths, we will disagree about something, and it can get quite explosive. But there are no fights. There are no big arguments. There’s only love and friendship now. It’s all we’ve got, really. Like I said earlier, we may not be around forever now, so we’re lucky to be in this place. It’s so sad that we don’t have our two original members, although it might well be that we’d all be dead if they were still around.
Q Because of their lifestyles?
A Yeah. I think John Entwistle was a very, very hard-living classic rock ’n’ roll star. He was very Ozzy Osbourne, in a sense. He had houses with suits of armour. He bought all his food from Harrods. He entertained on a lavish scale. And he died (from a heart attack due to a cocaine overdose) in very, very terrible, ill health, which I think he was in denial of. Keith Moon, ironically died (from an overdose of sedatives to relieve alcohol withdrawal) when he was in rehab from alcoholism. It was an accident, really. I’ve often said, although I miss them terribly, for me, the relationship with Roger is so much easier than being in a band. With those two members gone, Roger and I have been able to draw a much more leisurely course.
Q What’s next for you two besides 2020 tour dates?
A I think the next step would be for me to sit with Roger and try to really fathom exactly what he feels deep in his heart he wants to say (in songs). That may challenge him too much (laughs), I don’t know, but it’s an opportunity now. It does feel like I know how to do this. Instead of writing for The Who, writing for Roger Daltrey. I’m hoping that Endless Wire will line up a little better now that we’ve put this album out. I think people might go back and listen to it now and find it less awful than they originally thought.