My love for the band is still there. It hasn’t changed, maybe that’s why it’s so painful these days.
I don’t have any illusions anymore. The illusion that rock ‘n’ roll could change anything – I don’t believe that. I’ve changed. Who would have ever thought that I’d end up saying that I want to be an all-around entertainer? But that’s what I want to be.
I call it fan fatigue. I went to see Bob Dylan last year, who I think is absolutely incredible, but he suffers from his audience.
I always used to develop a cold going into the studio.
I think if Keith Moon was here today and you asked him to recall most of his early life or most of his life, he wouldn’t be able to recall it.
We lived the life with Keith Moon. It was all Spinal Tap magnified a thousand times.
I was the original pop star, knocking off as many birds as you could get in one night. Pete’s got a bit of a chip, because I used to get all the girls.
Part of the early Who career was all about knocking people’s confidences out.
We weren’t wealthy but we definitely weren’t poor. We were incredibly rich because there was a wonderful community in Shepherd’s Bush, where I grew up. All my friends were into villainy and crime.
Well, for the My Generation album, there was nothing to be nervous about in them days. We used to take every day as it came. Every day was just a gig and I think we did the recording between gigs literally.
I have to tell you, and I don’t mean this as sour grapes or anything, but it is hard to play for fans who see you all the time, makes it much harder.
I don’t want to stop and I don’t think Pete (Pete Townshend) does. We’re at the pinnacle of our decline.
I wanted to be in a band that shared ideas and were in it together.
I don’t think there’s any way it could have failed. We don’t know failure in this band. We didn’t know failure. We got to know it a little after awhile but at that time there was no such word.
It was fun to sing somebody else’s song.
I know without our fans and the devotion of our fans we wouldn’t be here. I don’t mean to put them down, but I’m just stating a fact that it is hard to play to people that see you all the time and it takes a lot of fun out of it in some ways.
In those days I don’t think they were even demos.
Monterey, I remember, but I seem to remember the Fillmore West, that we played the week before Monterey. That was much more memorable for me. The first time in San Francisco. They were good gigs.
[on The Who’s performance at Woodstock] It was the worst gig we ever played.
We were too rough at the edges to be a pop group.
But contrary to what some people seem to think, I was never a bully. I was just a hard man.
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