Pete Townshend Fun Facts, Quotes and Tweets


11th July 2016

Quote: "It was written about the most incredible girl. I put my heart and soul into the song knowing that I would never be able to have the girl because although we were in love at the time, I had kids, a wife who I greatly respected and had hurt, and I wanted to try to be a good guy. When I played her the song she was pleased, but I'm happy to say she has gone on to live very happily without me." Pete Townshend on the inspiration behind The Who's You Better You Bet.


1st July 2015

Quote: "Part of me is a little snotty-nosed indie f**kwit that wants to tell them all to crawl away and die, and leave room for someone else. But there is room - f**king Ed Sheeran is 22 or something, and he just sold out three days at Wembley Stadium! So does he need The Who or Paul MCCartney to stop touring in order to do that? I don't think so." THE WHO star Pete Townshend is adamant there is room in music for young and older acts.


19th May 2015

Fact: The Who star Pete Townshend celebrated his 70th birthday on Tuesday (19May15) by releasing his politically-charged new track Guantanamo. The tune will feature on his upcoming solo album Truancy: The Very Best of Pete Townshend. The new song is about the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


28th October 2014

Quote: "Why would I need to? It might interfere with our relationship. So, best not to. I've known him for over 50 years." Roger Daltrey has no intention of reading his The Who bandmate Pete Townshend's 2012 memoir.


29th January 2013

Quote: "I got hearing aids recently and I was sitting there watching Tv. And I've now realised - you don't listen to Tv any more. You sit there and spend your whole time shouting: 'What a c**t, he's a c**t, she's a c**t, she's useless.'" The Who star Pete Townshend is not a fan of reality Tv.


13th December 2012

Fact: The Who rocker Pete Townshend turned the air blue at the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief after performing their track Tea & Theatre by telling the crowd at New York's Madison Square Garden, "Have a f**king beer!"


30th October 2012

Quote: "My ex-wife... would much rather that I'd never, ever said anything or written a single song." Rocker Pete Townshend accepts he may have been a little too candid about his past romances in the lyrics of his songs.


30th October 2012

Quote: "Something happens to me when I'm on the stage, particularly when I've got an electric guitar in my hand and a great band behind me... I become almost like an idiot dancer meets (Mikhail) Baryshnikov, meets some great athlete. I start to do things that I shouldn't be doing." Pete Townshend on his love for performing live.


20th July 2012

Quote: "Festivals would be difficult for me. When you're at a festival you get a short set and a lot of young guys covered in tattoos, sexy girls with their t**s out... Festivals could be tricky but I'm hoping we can find a way to do them because we both love them. The other thing about festivals, look at the weather here (in Britain). The thing about the Isle of Wight festival, it broke my heart. You're subject to God's whim." Pete Townshend is not a fan of festivals.


18th July 2012

Quote: "As the internet is getting faster and broadband is getting faster; the idea that people have a short attention span is just rubbish. What's actually happening is that music is becoming such a richer, deeper feel... There are kids all over the planet coming to that point in their life where they put their computer aside and they just try to sit with themselves and find out what does it feel like to sit in the rain and pray?" Rocker Pete Townshend is convinced the youth of today is tuning into more music after years of surfing the web and playing videogames.


1st July 2011

Quote: "How can I demand that he changes the way he feels about me? I couldn't give a s**t about the way he feels about me. What he feels about me is the way he feels. (If I take exception to it) then I'll do my own book, won't I?" Roger Daltrey is not bothered by his bandmate Pete Townshend's upcoming tell-all memoirs.


6th April 2011

Quote: "I was on my way to Cannes when Pete came up and said, 'I just have to tell you, I'm a huge fan. I've watched every episode three times!'" Actor/singer John Barrowman was stunned to learn The Who legend Pete Townshend is a fan of his U.K. sci-fi series Torchwood.


22nd May 2010

Quote: "I was deeply impressed by his professionalism as an actor. He seemed to be a natural. It was through performing in the role of Tommy with The Who that Roger discovered his ability to be a true frontman in a rock band. He almost invented the pseudo-messianic role taken up later by Jim Morrison and Robert Plant." Pete Townshend has high praise for bandmate Roger Daltrey's performance in Tommy.


21st February 2010

Quote: "If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows. We’re finished. I can’t really see any way around the issue." Pete Townshend confirms The Who's concert future rests on pioneering new live equipment that will help him combat tinnitus while playing live.


18th February 2010

Quote: "I've had a lot of emails from people. The word they use most is 'amazing', followed closely by 'nice hat'." Pete Townshend on the feedback he's received from fans about The Who's Super Bowl halftime performance.


11th February 2010

Quote: "I was wearing reading glasses. I like to be able to see the guitar." The Who star Pete Townshend on the spectacles he wore while performing at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday (07Feb10).


8th February 2010

Quote: "You know, you could kind of tell from the stage the crowd is really here for the game." The Who rocker Pete Townshend on playing the half-time show at the Super Bowl on Sunday (07Feb10).


18th January 2010

Fact: Rocker Pete Townshend's daughter, Emma - a gardening columnist for Britain's Independent on Sunday, has written a new book called Darwin's Dogs, in which she suggests Charles Darwin's relationship with his pets helped form the basis of his historic theory on evolution.


24th November 2008

Quote: "I don't want to be pejorative about The Who. It's what pays the rent and it's who I am, to a great extent. But The Who format is very rigid, very Groundhog Day." Pete Townshend on the repetitiveness of playing in legendary rock band THE WHO.


10th September 2008

Fact: Country legend George Jones, Morgan Freeman, Barbra Streisand, choreographer Twyla Tharp and The Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey will receive the Kennedy Center Honors for 2008. The stars will be honoured in Washington, D.C. in December (08).


24th July 2008

Quote: "The show felt clunky to me because I find it hard to mix work and pleasure, and so much of it was about mixing with people and accepting their good wishes... I was rusty on guitar. I felt like I was holding a spade." The Who rocker Pete Townshend wasn't happy with his performance at the recent VH1 Rock Honors show in Los Angeles.


23rd July 2008

Quote: "Electric guitar and arm-swinging is not what I do between dogwalks and arthritis." The Who star Pete Townshend admits he's not the windmill-armed rocker he once was.


26th March 2008

Fact: Pearl Jam star Eddie Vedder has written the foreword to rocker Pete Townshend's higly-anticipated new biography, WHO ARE YOU: THE LIFE OF PETE TOWNSHEND.


21st December 2007

Fact: Lou Reed will follow The Who's Pete Townshend and serve as the keynote speaker at the 2008 South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas in March (08). Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, Daryl Hall and Sire Records founder SEYMOUR STEIN will also address music fans at the annual mix of seminars and concerts.


12th December 2007

Quote: "I pulled out of the AHMET ERTEGUN benefit the day I heard LED ZEP were performing. They really don't need me." The Who star Pete Townshend on why he pulled the plug on his performance alongside the reformed Led Zeppelin in London on Monday night (10Dec07).


10th May 2007

Quote: "Keith's main pal in the band was John Entwistle. They were hysterically funny together, and shared an apartment for a while. One got the impression that they did almost everything together, including having sex with girls. It must have been mayhem." The Who guitarist Pete Townshend on late bandmates Moon and Entwistle's hellraising days.


17th March 2007

Fact: The Who rocker Pete Townshend surprised fans at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas by joining Scottish rockers The Fratellis on stage to perform yesterday (16MAR07).


14th December 2006

Fact: The Who rocker Pete Townshend will give the keynote address at the 2007 South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas in March (07).


30th October 2006

Quote: "Somebody gave me tickets for Marlene Dietrich's last concert in London, and apparently she came out and she looked fantastic under the lights, but you know that she's an 80-year-old woman held together by glue and string." Pete Townshend missed out on silver screen icon Dietrich's last UK concert.


29th October 2006

Quote: "I thought he was gay." The Who star Pete Townshend is shocked to hear singer/songwriter James Blunt is dating supermodel PETRA NEMCOVA.


28th October 2006

Quote: "I wouldn't pay money to go see The Who, not even with new songs. I wouldn't pay money to go see CROSBY, STILLS + NASH. They f**king make me sick... I don't want to look at these old guys in their self-congratulatory mode." Outspoken The Who star Pete Townshend isn't fond of old rockers.


12th October 2006

Fact: A new book of never-before-seen photographs of Pearl Jam, with accompanying essays written by Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Michael Stipe, Ben Harper, Cameron Crowe and Tim Robbins, is released this week (begs09OCT06) and can be bought from the band's website.


20th September 2006

Quote: "He's such an intelligent man. I completely understand, I just understand." The Who star Pete Townshend can relate to the erratic behaviour of Babyshambles frontman PETE DOHERTY.


23rd August 2006

Fact: Author Irvine Welsh, Pete Townshend and Damon Albarn will contribute liner notes to a new The Clash singles box set.


4th June 2006

Quote: "It's an exciting sound to my ears. Not old-fashioned at all." Guitarist Pete Townshend insists The Who's new 11-minute single Wire + GLASS - the band's first release in 23 years - is going to be a hit.


26th May 2006

Quote: "JOHN ENTWISTLE and Keith Moon aren't there so it's obviously half the band. They're The Who 50 per cent." PRIMAL SCREAM star Bobby Gillespie insists his favourite rock band just aren't the same, much as he worships surviving members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.


30th March 2006

Quote: "Looking back, I don't know why we needed it to be quite so loud all the time." The Who's Pete Townshend, a tinnitus sufferer, regrets blasting out the group's hits.


1st February 2006

Quote: <p>"I'm a big admirer of Pete Townshend. In fact it was one of those rare times when the whole of Floyd agreed on something when we all said we wanted Pete to induct us into the (UK Music) Hall Of Fame." Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason insists the infamously-feuding band have agreed at least once. </p>


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