Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshendis an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the rock band The Who. His career with the Who spans more than 50 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 20th century...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth19 May 1945
CityLondon, England
bush ended felt original
I felt that The Who had ended because we'd lost touch with our original Shepherd's Bush audience.
art collect five guitar listen players playing properly records until
I didn't start to collect records and listen to guitar players properly until I went to art school, when I'd already been playing for five years. So my style was already formed, and that's why I think it's so unique.
chord incredible lethal looking order picked visual whereas
I used to try and make up visually for what I couldn't play as a musician. I used to get into very incredible visual things where, in order just to make one chord more lethal, I'd make it a really lethal looking thing, whereas really it's just going to be picked normally.
almost distinct everybody exactly learned pop quite reflect
What we learned quite early on is what was really important to early British pop that we produced-and this is where we were distinct from almost everybody else in this respect-is that it had to reflect exactly what the audience wanted us to say.
common low mass money paid people performers
I don't view the fans in the way that most performers do. As a mass of people who have paid money, I know what they want. It's a very, very, very, very, very low common denominator.
music mind opening
The day you open your mind to music, you're halfway to opening your mind to life.
mistake perfect trying
Respect yourself. Try to remember that not everything in life can be perfect. You will make mistakes. That's inevitable. But you are not ugly. You will only be ugly when you behave in an ugly way.
hearing trouble deaf
I have terrible hearing trouble. I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf.
moon glasses doors
Keith Moon, God rest his soul, once drove his car through the glass doors of a hotel, driving all the way up to the reception desk, got out and asked for the key to his room.
rocks inspirational-music might
Rock 'n' Roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them
guitar funny-music
I smash guitars because I like them.
guitar years weapons
I played the guitar for ten years before I realized it wasn't a weapon.
color interesting entertainment
When I grew up, what was interesting for me was that music was color and life was gray. So music for me has always been more than entertainment.
rock-and-roll mirrors rocks
I felt that the elegance of pop music was that it was reflective: we were holding up a mirror to our audience and reflecting them philosophically and spiritually, rather than just reflecting society or something called 'rock and roll.'