Pete Townshend....ouch this is bad

[KingWalsh]

Guys and gals I don't know where to begin with this one. Hard to read and really don't see why he had to make this public. :evil: brutal.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pete-townshend-keith-moon-john-entwistle/

[CAinOH]

Grouchy old man. There's a lot of that going around... :)

[New Kid In Town]

Wow ! Terrible that he talks like that about two men who are dead and can not defend themselves. What a jerk ! CA - grouchy old man for sure. Thanks for posting KF. And, I agree KF, why state this now - all these years later.

[WalshFan88]

Pete Townsend is such a prick.

Here's the thing - I really love his rhythm guitar style, but literally after the 70s he's been a spoil sport. Then there is the child pornography thing that he got himself out of (not getting into it any deeper, just google for more info). I had the chance to see them on their last tour last year and I declined. I refuse to see someone I once admired up there either going through the motions or acting all PO'ed because he had to be there. Ungrateful to say the least. If it weren't for the fans and for your bandmates, you wouldn't be talking so big Pete. To make an intentional pun - who are you Pete? You're a famous guitarist. That's all.

He's a dirty, grouchy, and arrogant old man. Nothing more nothing less. How Roger Daltrey put up with him for so long is beyond me. IMO, Pete was the one with Lead Singer's Disease. He thought he was just so much better than all the rest. How miserable he must have been to play music with, let alone be around. People like that are insufferable and bring everyone down with them. It's still disappointing to hear it.

And this is really nothing to be upset about for 99 percent of people - but I didn't care for his guitar destruction of the 60s/70s. Yes, other people have done it, largely because HE started it (I'm looking at you Paul Stanley!). But most bands break the cheap import guitars and throw them in the crowd or try to sell them for large amounts of money as a VIP thing (still got my eyes on you Paul!). But Pete destroyed high quality Gibson and Fender guitars. Those guitars would be worth literally thousands and thousands of dollars now. They were cherished pieces. Sure, back then they were what they had and hindsight is 20/20, but there still even then when they weren't these historical pieces, no good reason to destroy them. Give them to a kid in the crowd if you want to make a moment onstage (Like Keith Urban does, love that guy!). Even if it's a cheaper guitar, give them to a young kid in the audience! Or sell them intact if you are in fact that greedy (cough Paul Stanley cough). But don't destroy a working guitar. It's just dumb. Straight up.

Two wrongs don't make a right, yada yada - but I'd rather Roger, Keith, and John be here and they can have Pete. Pete is so full of himself and unappreciative and TBH, concerning with what you can read of him. Pete takes the "get off my lawn" syndrome and takes it to a whole other level. A dirty, nasty level that is intentional. It's more than just senility/bitterness. Not just sour grapes and being jaded. This is just mean.

I won't mourn his loss!

[shunlvswx]

I don't remember the story well, but was him or Jimmy Page that Joe was mad at for selling his guitar he gave to them? Like I said. I don't remember how the story goes, but I remember something.

[WalshFan88]

I don't remember the story well, but was him or Jimmy Page that Joe was mad at for selling his guitar he gave to them? Like I said. I don't remember how the story goes, but I remember something.

It was Pete.

[FreyFollower]

Guys and gals I don't know where to begin with this one. Hard to read and really don't see why he had to make this public. :evil: brutal.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pete-townshend-keith-moon-john-entwistle/

I agree, KW, that was just downright hateful, with nary an iota of consideration for their family or fans. Maybe a "We never worked well together", or something along those lines....but saying the things he did was beyond crass.:stunned:

[KingWalsh]

I agree, FF...and everyone. I heard that story too, regarding the guitar Joe have him. I just can’t believe the disregard he has for both. It’s unreal.

[WalshFan88]

To expand on the Pete/Joe guitar thing.

Pete was struggling to find the sound in the studio for what became the "Who's Next" album. You know, the album that had the CSI theme song on it. :lol:

He was using Gibson SG Specials (with P-90 pickups) and Hiwatt 100 watt stacks. Hiwatts were basically modified Marshalls to be a little less distorted sounding at high volumes than a Marshall. Still crunchy but not as grungy sounding. He was getting tired of this guitar and amp combination. He'd used it on Tommy and the record before that and was looking for a new sound to help him write parts or whole songs with.

So his buddy Joe hooked him up with a Gretsch 6120 guitar and a Fender Tweed era 1958 Narrow Panel Bandmaster with 3 10 inch speakers in a combo cabinet. That was the guitar sound on Won't Get Fooled Again, Bargain, etc. That open yet crunchy guitar tone/sound. Big sounding open guitar chords! Those guitar sounds are insanely great on that album. That big opening to Won't Get Fooled is one of my fav intros.

Pete SOLD the Gretsch guitar. Didn't even offer it to Joe to buy, let alone do the right thing and give it back! I think Pete did keep the amp, or at least it was never said that he sold it nor has Joe said anything.

In recent years, Joe's said he doesn't miss the guitar but the amp was the best amp that he ever had and regretted giving it to Pete and so he had Dr. Z make him a clone of what a Tweed Bandmaster was using the same circuit, transformer manufacturer, and finding speakers that sound closest as possible to a 50s amp. So basically Pete sold the guitar which Joe said he didn't miss, and kept the amp which Joe wanted. The Dr. Z amp became the Joe Walsh signature amp with Dr. Z. I don't own that model yet, but I own a Dr. Z, and I can tell you they are the best amp company going right now other than my vintage collection.

Yeah, Pete's not a cool guy. And yes, it does make my "Who" listening experience a bit soured - even before this latest comment - which is probably a whole new low for him. I've been a combination of annoyed and squeamish at/with him for years now but this is a whole other level. If everyone around you is hard to work with, maybe it's time to find the common denominator and the running theme. That's you, Pete!

[KingWalsh]

Man congrats to owning a Dr Z amp Walshfan88. 🎸 I have a Line 6 Spider amp. Ha ha it serves its purpose for basement jams.

So now Pete is back peddling and trying to save face. Ugh 🤦🏻

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pete-townshend-keith-moon-john-entwistle-comment/

[FreyFollower]

However he spins it, there's no way he can make his statements OK. If he truly wanted forgiveness, he would actually apologize. Being impatient or unfocused doesn't rationalize it, and simply calling his statements "careless" doesn't begin to cover how insensitive they were.

[sodascouts]

What an awful thing to say. At least he's back tracked but... wow.

[UndertheWire]

It doesn't seem so bad to me and his own clarification on Facebook his expressed well. Remember that interviews can be misleading with questions that provoke answers that haven't been properly thought out.

Over the years, I've mention a book called "Roadwork" which was written by an old friend of Pete Townsend, Tom Wright, and has lots of stories about The Who and other bands. What I remember is that the guitars that Townsend "wrecked" during concerts were glued back together and used again. Generally they broke in ways that could be fixed. And, of course, Keith Moon had many other uses for the glue.

As for the child porn incident, I remember his explanation being that it was research to try to understand what had happened to him when he was younger. As "Tommy" is the story of a sexually-abused boy, it's clearly something he sees from the side of the abused.

[WalshFan88]

As for the child porn incident, I remember his explanation being that it was research to try to understand what had happened to him when he was younger. As "Tommy" is the story of a sexually-abused boy, it's clearly something he sees from the side of the abused.

You would think he would want to distance himself from that "information". So much for PTSD!

Personally, I think you can do "research" on that kind of thing without downloading videos and photos of it actually happening to your computer. I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. I think at the very least he's a creeper.

I do realize that Tommy has that topic as it's theme. I still don't excuse him for downloading the actual footage of it to his computer. Read about it all you want Pete, watch videos talking about the subject - but there was no legitimate excuse for having the actual content on his computer at least in my mind even if it was in his mind to research what happened. You'd think that you'd want to avoid trauma and flashbacks.

[NightMistBlue]

If you read Roger Daltrey's autobiography (or even better, listen to the audiobook, which he narrates himself), he defends his friend and nemesis so passionately of this charge that I very nearly believe Pete is innocent. "Of COURSE he'd defend Pete!," I can hear you shouting, "that's his tour income and musical legacy on the line as well." And you are correct. But apparently it has been established as fact that Pete never downloaded any images from the web site; he simply entered his credit card info.

It's very unfortunate what Pete said about his departed band mates, and he's apologized to their children. He says regrettable things, and certainly doesn't come across as the most charming guy in the world. It can't be denied that he's a musical genius though, surely one of the best songwriters of the rock era.

I saw The Who (what's left of 'em) for the first time in concert 3 months ago, and they were amazing. I don't know how it's physically possible for a 75-year old man to sing with the power that Roger does, but somehow he does. And Pete is just brilliant as a guitarist, writer and singer.

[WalshFan88]

NMB - In an ideal world I'd love to believe it too. But it seems awfully fishy to me. It seems like a convenient out for him and his legal team. A good lawyer can get you out of what seems a lot. To an extreme example, look at the Caylee Anthony case. And to think of all of what went on behind closed doors with Casey and that attorney makes me sick. He knew she was guilty! Defense lawyers want one thing - make $.

If it is in fact true that he didn't download it, that's good, but still - why put your credit card info on a child porn site for "research"? He says he was trying to expose some bank thing. To me it's a lame excuse. I think he probably quickly backtracked and got caught. How far deep in the well he got before he thought 'oh crap' is minutia. I think he was cleared on charges, but there are a lot of innocent people in jail and a lot of bad people running free. Michael Jackson was another who got off his charges too easy IMO. Vince Neil's negligence (to put it mildly) in the 80s killed another person and was lightly punished. Not very fair.

I've read Roger's book as well. I still think Roger and Pete will stick up for one another. It's like brothers. They hate and love each other. I do think despite their differences they are in many ways inseparable. Just like Mick and Keith and Steven and Joe. They need each other more than they'd admit. Some songwriting partnerships are volatile and the dysfunction of it is what at least partly made/makes it great.

And yes, it's still very icky to me and to me Pete is an insufferable character. Being a songwriting genius doesn't mean it's ok to be a miserable person to everyone around you. He's a malcontent. I could name others (and you can probably guess who), but I won't. ;) That's leaving the creepy stuff out of it. He's just a jerk and while he's brilliant, that doesn't enable him to say those things. Apology my hind end! You mean it, and then quickly backtracked. I'm one who forgives people the first time but repeat offenders are wasting their breath trying to apologize to me for the umpteenth time. Save it for someone else.

I would love to know how they in fact know he didn't download anything. Was the server hosting that stuff checked for download activity on his IP address? Because computers can be cleaned and hard drives destroyed. Forensic computer technicians aren't as good as you'd think they should be. There is some seriously powerful software out there that will wipe a hard drive beyond any recognition (same software and formatting style used when the government gets rid of hard drives/computers), and you can take it a step further and destroy the drive by crushing it (which he didn't likely do that part!). But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't download anything. Still, he put his own CC info on that website that was obviously for what it was. What did he think he was going to solve by doing that?! Absolutely nothing.

Leave the criminal detective work to the investigators Pete, stay off the dark web, appreciate what you've been given, be kind, and play your damn guitar. Maybe then you'll be worthy of my respect again.

[EagleLady]

I love The Who but Pete has always came off to me as a standoffish, arrogant person. and You're right Austin, He could've found other ways to explain what happened to him as a boy and not try to obtain child porn.

[KingWalsh]

Ya, that is so odd, the whole "internet search".....I feel bad for the trauma he experienced, however he seems so unlikable and it makes it hard for me listen to the Who sometimes for I am torn . He might regret playing with Moon and Entwhistle, but they are regarded as legends. Nobody played like either one of them, many probably listened to the Who for these two giants! It's almost like he's jealous they got the recognition they did. I'm glad he apologized, but I wonder if he would if he didn't get the backlash that he did.