As the guitarist who will forever be associated with guitar smashing, Pete Townshend has recently reflected on how fans still expect The Who to treat them to a raucous live performance. He also sets the record straight about whether there are any Who retirement shows in the works.
“I’m pretty sure there will [be more shows]. I can’t really see the point of making a big deal of [last Who shows], apart from the fact that it might help sell a few tickets,” he says in a new NME interview.
“When we started the last US tour the year before last, some of the seats were not filled. An easy way to fill seats is to say, ‘We’re not coming back,’ or, ‘This could be the last set of shows.’
“What I would prefer was that the band adjusted itself to the audience that wants to see it, rather than just saying, ‘We need to fill arenas in order to go home with enough money to make the whole thing worthwhile.’ The story of the end of The Who is gonna be when either Roger or I drop dead or can’t function anymore on the stage.”
He also discusses the realities of being a touring 79-year-old musician, especially one known for his onstage antics, and the pressures that come with that showmanship.
“A lot of the time when we’re on the stage together, it’s not all that comfortable and you can see that. And it’s sad to say that a lot of dedicated Who fans come to every show in order to see Roger hit me in the face again, for me to smash him over the head with a guitar or for one of us to drop dead.”
As for Roger Daltrey's comments that he is “happy” that “that part of my life [referring to the band] is over”, Townshend says, “I think it’s been over for a long time. The Who machine died when [bassist] John Entwistle died, because we were hanging on by a thread in a sense.
“Roger and I had a decision to make as to whether or not we would try to keep the flame burning, the brand going, when he died, and we were about to do a tour so we decided to do it. And that tour worked out to be quite successful.”
The Who's concept album, the 1973 Townshend-composed and produced Quadrophenia, is being transformed into a ballet set to tour the UK in the summer of 2025. It also marks Townshend's first foray into ballet after being involved in opera productions and literature.
