Re: Pete's testimonial

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@akrobiz.com>]

> Someone who I know VERY well is very active in AA/NA.  He told me that he 
> recently heard an audio recording of Pete Townshend speaking at an AA 
> meeting about his battles and victory over booze.
> I have very mixed feelings about this.  I am simultaneously curious and 
> repulsed.  How much information is too much?


Well, if I recall correctly, around the early 90's Pete was saying in interviews that
he had stopped drinking.  "I haven't had a drink since 19......." etc., etc.  But I 
think that all stopped around the time of the PSYCHODERELICT tour.  When I
saw him at Jones Beach in 1993 he was drinking beer on stage (green bottles - 
Heinekin?  Rolling Rock?).  He even remarked towards the end of the show that
the stage resembled a concert parking lot with beer bottles strewn about everywhere.

Then in the mid-90's I remember Pete saying in an interview that he *was* drinking
again partly because he didn't want his son to grow up with a father who didn't have
a soul.  Really.  A friend of mine at the time who was in AA found this remark re-
pugnant.  He even went so far as to tell his "group" about it.  So, I don't think Pete
is a any kind of a hero within the AA community.


- SCHRADE in Akron