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Pete interview from 1994
Hi all. I recently came across an interview with Pete that appeared in a
1994 issue of Playboy. (I read it for the article I swear!) Anyway, the
interviewer asked Pete questions about his "bisexuality." Here is an excerpt:
"Playboy: What was behind all the reports of your coming out?
Townshend: It was that song (Rough Boys), which is ironic because the song is
actually taunting both the homosexuals in America---who were, at the time,
dressing themselves up as Nazi generals---and the punks in Britain dressing
the same way. I thought it was great that these tough punks were dressing as
homosexuals without realizing it. I did an interview about it, saying that
Rough Boys was about being gay, and in the interview I also talked about my
"gay life," which---I meant---was actually about the friends I've had who
are gay. So the interviewer kind of dotted the t's and crossed the i's and
assumed that this was a coming out, which it wasn't at all. But I became an
object of ridicule when it was picked up in England. It was a big scandal,
which is silly. If I were bisexual, it would be no big deal in the music
industry. If I ran down a list of the men who have tried to get me into bed,
I could bring down quite a few big names in the music business. And no, I
won't do it.
Playboy: In the recent unauthorized biography of Mick Jagger, he was said to
have had affairs with almost every pop star there is.
Townshend: Yeah, and if you ever tried to pin him down about it, I don't
think he would disclaim it because he's smart enough to know there's value in
that mystery. In my roasting of the Stones at their induction into the Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame, I joked about the fact that I am one of the few people
lucky enough to have slept with Mick Jagger [laughs]. So when it all came
out about me, I fought like hell not to comment.
Playboy: Do you like to keep people guessing?
Townshend: No. But I don't want to let anybody down. I don't want to let it
be known that it is in any sense an important part of my self-image to be
thought of as a breeder. I don't want to deny bisexuality as if I were being
accused of child molestation or murder, as if it were some crime or something
to be ashamed of, because that would be cruel to people who are gay. But I
was bitter and angry at the way the truth had been distorted and decided
never to do interviews again. Not because I had been manipulated but because
I didn't trust myself to be precise about what I was saying."
So there's another spin on the subject. I always think of a line from
Psychoderelict when I read stuff like this: "The facts don't always reveal
the truth."
Mike