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Fwd: Recent Pete Interview
THANKS MOM!
--- Scott Schrade <schrade@akrobiz.com> wrote:
> To: "THE WHO" <TheWho@igtc.com>
> From: "Scott Schrade" <schrade@akrobiz.com>
> Subject: Recent Pete Interview
> Date: (No, or invalid, date.)
>
>
> Here's a nice little Pete interview Mom Schrade snagged for me from one
> of the local rags. I guess it's taken from Rolling Stone magazine but as I
> don't read Rolling Stone magazine because it blows so horribly bad, it was
> all new to me. Maybe it's new WHO for you, too. Sorry. Well anyway, on
> to the interview & a big round of applause for Mom Schrade......
>
>
> WHO'S BUSY? Pete Towshend, That's Who
> By Jenny Eliscu
>
> During his recent performances at London's hoity-toity Sadler's Wells theater,
>
>
> there was little chance Pete Townshend would smash his guitar to bits. He was
> playing an acoustic for one thing - & the shards would have gotten all over the
> London Chamber Orchestra, which was accompanying him for the premier of
> LIFEHOUSE, the rock opera that Townshend intended as a follow-up to TOMMY.
> Several LIFEHOUSE songs sufaced on WHO'S NEXT back in 1971, but this Feb-
> ruary the whole thing was released as a six-CD set. Townshend is a busy man
> these days: He's about to appear on VH1's "Storytellers;" he's putting out a single-
> disc digest of LIFEHOUSE; then, in June, The WHO saddle up once again for
> 20 U.S. dates.
>
> Q: What are the best & worst things about being Pete Townshend in the year 2000?
>
> A: It's all pretty good. The worst thing is having a failed marriage. I regret that. Although
> we've been separated for a long time, I think this is the year we've finally properly given
> up on it. The good thing is that I'm in a relationship now with a woman whom I work with
> quite a lot, who's an orchestator. It's the first time since I've been separated that I've
> been out with an English-woman. I've mainly gone out with American women.
>
> Q: During the WHO years, did rock & domestic bliss seem incompatible?
>
> A: No. I've lived in a bit of a fantasy, I think. I always wanted there to be a kind of
> Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward story, but they're one of the great exceptions.
> I did hold Paul McCartney in high esteem because of the way he conducted his re-
> lationship. I have those kind of old-fashioned family values. And that has infuriated,
> to the point of hysteria, certain American rock critics & musicians, who think that once
> you've thrown a TV through a hotel window, that's you for life & you don't actually
> have a home to go to - you just grow a long beard like ZZ Top & live in a Greyhound
> bus or something.
>
> Q: Is your relationship with your audience different these days?
>
> A: When I appear as a solo performer, even the staunchest WHO fans know that I'm
> going to do what I want to do & that it might be quite mischievous. So that gives me
> great freedom. Because with LIFEHOUSE, I felt I'd taken a terrible risk. Some things
> Paul McCartney has done have turned out to be disastrous for him critically, whereas
> I thought he was very courageous, trying to write symphonic pieces. It's not pretentious.
> It's no more vain than doing a rock tour.
>
> Q: When The WHO play now, do you get a time-warp feeling?
>
> A: There's a bit of a time-warpy thing, simply because of the huge chunks of time when
> we haven't done it. It's weird - it's like the music takes its place in the great time clock.
> But you know what's really weird? In '96 & '97 we were just playing QUADROPHENIA,
> & one day there were a couple of girls out in the audience with leather jackets & blond
> hair. And they were kind of shouting, "The WHO," & I thought, "A couple of rock-chick
> WHO fans, just like the old days. It's great that they've turned out for something as in-
> tellectual as QUADROPHENIA." Then I realized that they were actually shouting, "Be
> The WHO! Be The WHO! Be The WHO!" And I thought, "That's weird. We are The
> WHO." What they meant was, "Pretend to be The WHO. Pretend to be who you used
> to be."
>
> Q: Your voice sounds amazing. Did you ever want to shove Roger aside?
>
> A: I always had quite a nice voice, but I never owned it until 1980, when I did my first
> solo album, EMPTY GLASS, with (producer) Chris Thomas. He said, "Why don't you just
> sing?" And I said, "Because I sound like Andy Williams." And he said, "So?" And I sound
> like Andy Williams - I've got a beautiful voice.
>
> Q: I don't know if I would have said Andy Williams.
>
> A: Well, I can do a fantastic impersonation of him. And....oh, God, this is going to sound
> really weird, but I wasn't prepared to be that beautiful. I could definately do the thing with
> the pretty girl, you know (in coy voice), "Have you ever noticed that I have blue eyes?"
> I knew where a lot of my beauty lay, but I didn't really want to own it. I suppose it's a bit
> like
> wanting to hide behind that male thing. I hid behind using the guitar as a machine gun. And
> it kept me safe. I've never been beaten up, & that's a good thing to say when you're a man.
> And maybe, as I'm becoming a frail old fellow, it's probably not a very good time to shove it
> off, & I probably will get beat up next week.
>
> Q: Are you reluctant to hand over new songs to The WHO now that you've been playing
> your own songs all these years?
>
> A: Well, if I sat down tomorrow & wrote ten great songs, what would I do with them? I cer-
> tainly don't want to make a solo album. I certainly wouldn't go on tour. I don't want to be
> that lonely. So today, if I wrote songs, I would probably look around for some vehicle, for
> some way to use them. And at the moment, I'm hoping that the shared experience we've
> had will lead us to write songs we feel we're not letting go of or giving away by putting them
> into the WHO pot but that are actually being generated by it, demanded of it. And the other
> thing is that I'm not afraid to look good now, & I think it looks good me going & doing some-
> thing with Roger & John. It looks good, it feels good, & it is good to value the friendship
> above the craft.
>
>
> - SCHRADE in Akron
>
>
>
>
>
=====
"We all know success when we all find our own dreams and our love is enough to knock down any walls" - Pete Townshend
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