Pete interview in Mercury News

[Brian Cady]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/15944383.htm
 
ONLINE EXTRA: EXPANDED INTERVIEW
Who: what, where and why
TOWNSHEND REPORT SUMS UP 40 YEARS OF SUPER GROUP'S LOSSES AND NET GAINS
By Shay Quillen
Mercury News
Pete Townshend wouldn't sit down for a phone interview before the Who's San Jose show, but he agreed to take a few questions via e-mail.
 
What we got back was better than we hoped for: five pages of sharp, insightful, thoughtful prose on topics ranging from the evolution of the Internet to the "magic" of the Rolling Stones.

The 61-year-old songwriter and guitarist is sharing stages with singer Roger Daltrey again as the Who, touring the United States in support of "Endless Wire," the band's first album of new material in 24 years. The tour hits the HP Pavilion on Wednesday.

Here is the complete text of the online interview with Pete Townshend of the Who that ran in a shorter form in Tuesday's Mercury News.

Q No one who went to your show at Shoreline Amphitheatre just a few days after John Entwistle died will ever forget it. What are your memories of those first few shows back on the road after his death?

A I sit now in Los Angeles in the very room I first got the news of his death from Who manager Bill Curbishley. Roger came over about an hour later and was visibly shaken. I think I had been expecting it, I was less shocked than when Keith Moon died as Keith had been working on a rehab program of sorts.
Bill and I had had a number of conversations about how we might be able to help guide John to look after himself a little better; we had also been concerned that touring to help him pay his debts (pretty much the only reason I went out on the road with the Who from 1998 to 2002) might not help him at all in the long run.

So a dozen issues were running though my mind. Roger left the decision about going on to me, and after a sleepless night pacing this room I decided to go on. The first shows were actually quite amazing. Pino Palladino stepped in on bass, he was here with us ready to work within hours of us deciding to go on. John was hugely evident by his absence -- his sound was so big, fluid and rich -- that in a way we didn't miss him at all: He seemed to be with us on stage at the Hollywood Bowl.

It's all coming back to us today because our longtime keyboard player John Bundrick's wife is seriously ill in hospital and he will not be performing with us this weekend at the Bowl, so again we find ourselves adapting to changes life brings and feeling grateful we have our health.

Q How has your relationship with Roger Daltrey changed now that the Who is just the two of you?

A John's death made us both re-evaluate what we wanted from each other. I think prior to that we focused mainly on what the band meant to each of us. Afterwards we realized we had spent 40 years together on and off playing music and we had a deep and loving mutual respect.

But we had our differences. I was angry with John for not looking after himself better; Roger celebrated John's rock 'n' roll lifestyle as the best way to go through the "Mirror Door." But we knew we both loved him, and we became aware that were it one of us who had gone, that love would also figure largely.
Creatively everything became quite a bit simpler for me. John was never a difficult person to please with songs -- Roger is tougher. But when he was alive the Who hard-rock mythology lived most powerfully in his sound I think, so Roger and I felt our work together in the future might be less encumbered by the Who's heavy rock history. This has turned out to be only partly true, but the new CD demonstrates that the two us can go in directions that would have been tricky had we still been working with John's massive, stunning bass playing.

Q Since you're coming to Silicon Valley, it seems appropriate to ask about your interest in the Internet. You wrote about "the Grid" on "Lifehouse" in the early '70s. What did you think when the Internet came into prominence?

A In the '70s I had no idea the global hook-up would take so long to incorporate pure entertainment as one of its primary functions. I thought art and music would be the beginning, not the afterthought it is proving to be. I thought we would share music and experiences, even a form of physical contact (through VR).

Like many early users of the Internet I found the text-based world rather cold. As images began to appear I began to get uneasy because -- as with video recording -- pornography purveyors seemed to be the first people to harness and drive the technology. I quickly lost any vision that the Internet might lead to the higher level of human congregation I had dreamed of in the '70s.

But suddenly today, art and music is taking over the Internet, and some of the biggest statistics relate to searches of video and music in which any salacious images are usually humorous or ridiculous in some way in order to maintain their interest. It's fun to surf the Internet now, there is so much to enjoy as well as to learn. I'm not saying porn has lost its grip, but most Internet users are bored by it now, and concerned only to protect the people behind the images displayed -- which has always been my passionate concern.

Vint Cerf said the Internet is a mirror of society. We get both good and bad. But my concern back in the '70s was that when art and music did surface on some kind of global "Grid" like today's Internet it would be the media "Barons" who controlled the content. Today it is they we must look to for moral guidance, and too many billions of dollars are driving this issue. The Internet is the new "oil"; it's a Gold Rush. That makes people forget what is morally correct, and where morality is guided rather than policed.

Q Did you feel prescient?

A You bet. But a lot of credit must go to my teachers at Ealing Art School in 1961, to Roy Ascott and Harold Cohen, both of whom saw that in the future computers would change the way we speak, the way we communicate and finally the entire function of art itself. I've traveled through life knowing this was going to happen one day as surely as I know that when some crazy dictator gets a big nuclear weapon he will use it. Listen to me.

Q Have you put "Lifehouse" to bed now after the release of the six-CD set, or might it still pop up in another format?

A This is a cyclic idea by its very nature, I suppose it might keep going round and around forever as long as I am a writer. Far from putting it to bed I want to bring what was good about it to life. The last chapter is the place you might go to sit for your own individual authentic musical portrait. Today that would be a Web site and a big concert. Very soon I will bring that Web site to the world, as a functioning music producer, composer and artist, not as a loony visionary.

Q I've been reading about Method Music, but I don't quite understand it. In what way do participants "sit" for a musical portrait? How much interest have you received so far?

A The Web site is still operating with a small beta group of testers, and the results are encouraging. Some of my own sittings have produced music that amazes me. Not sure I like it. I fancy myself as a piece by Henry Purcell. I sound more like a rather sad Terry Riley. Still, pretty impressive for a piece of software. I will launch next year I think.

Q You've been playing about 12 songs a night from a new album that (up till now) few have heard. How is the new material going over?

A Really well. I've been amazed how well. The mini-opera section has beautiful video images with it; that helps. But songs like "Man in a Purple Dress" (just Roger and me on acoustic guitar) are as powerful to play as the big classics, received not so much respectfully as intently, with full engagement.

Q Some have criticized you for giving the "CSI" shows the right to use Who songs. Is "Mike Post Theme" aimed at those critics? What point are you trying to make in that song?

A The song has nothing to do with the "CSI" deals. I am conscious that every song I license to TV or movie -- especially the good ones -- even to certain commercials, keeps Who music in the public mind.
Remember Who music has always been used to sell products through the advertising on radio which we did not control. We are always paid a small amount when our songs are played on radio, so we have always been a part of that often unethical but commercial advertising business, just as a journalist is who writes for a journal that sells advertising space.

"Mike Post Theme" is about something a little higher I think. TV series, and their theme tunes, do two impossible things: They defy time and ageing by allowing us to live forever vicariously in the characters we watch, but they remind us that time is passing, show by show, week by week.

When I first came to the U.S. in 1967, "I Love Lucy" was always on TV somewhere. When I saw her pretty face, I was reminded how much older she must have become, how much younger I was (then) than she. Today the same shows remind me I have overtaken her TV persona. There is a valuable poignancy there that is not sentimental in any way, and yet reaches to the heart of human vulnerability.

Mike Post's theme from "Hill Street Blues" reminds me that once I associated the sound with a cop who couldn't deal with his drink problem. Now I hear it and I remember a brother, for pretty soon I was facing the same problem.

Q Doris Day lives just down the road from us in Carmel. Have you had any communication with her about her inclusion in the list of dead artists on "Mirror Door"?

A No. I am of course delighted that news of her death was greatly exaggerated. I included her in what was otherwise quite a serious list of front-line artists who lived pretty hard or had endured tough lives. She was meant to provide a balance, someone shinier and happier. Of course the very fact that her life was less tough than the others might be the very reason she has survived into old age.

She deserves her place in my cast of legends, dead or alive. I'm sending "Dog" to bring her in so she can be in our video as an usher at the foot of the stairway to heaven rather than one of those waving from its summit, and I suppose she should really receive a copy of the Who CD.

Q What's with the Tom Waits-style singing on "In the Ether"?

A What's with the question? That's me singing. I'm 60 years old pretending to be 80. My voice is an instrument I can't always control. I love Tom Waits, but listen to him, he sounds like gravel being hauled through an oil can. I just sound a teensy bit gruff. Tom is the man. There is really no such thing as Tom Waits "style" singing.

Q The visitors to our Web site, mercurynews.com, are all abuzz about your non-interview with Howard Stern. Would you like to give your side of the story? Did you not know what you were getting into?

A My partner Rachel is working for Sirius presenting collateral for the Who Channel. I was invited to play some live music on Howard's show and to record some more for Rachel's Who show. I am a distant friend of Howard through his partner Beth, and I know his show.

I would not agree with reports that I "stormed out" of the interview with Howard Stern; I would say that I walked away before the show when I heard Robyn saying they were going to ask me about my sexual history. I am not angry with Howard or his team, and they have a perfect right to discuss my sexual past whenever they choose; I am a public person. I decided not to join what was threatening to be a lighthearted inquisition of sexual subjects that cause widely felt discomfort when not seriously addressed.
The story of my life is as yet untold. Until I complete my memoirs I rely on my family, friends, fans and colleagues to believe in me almost unconditionally. Anyone unwilling to wait for my story must address the facts at hand and make their own decision.

I was cleared of all charges brought against me in 2003. The caution I received was mandatory because I admitted using a credit card as part of a wider research exercise (begun in 1998) intended to gather evidence to present to various finance and Internet companies to persuade them to try harder to prevent the use of children in the pornography industry. These are the facts. For the record, I no longer lobby publicly about this issue, but I continue to underwrite organizations that support adult "survivors" of childhood abuse.

Q You and your peers -- Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ray Davies, et al. -- are entering into uncharted territory, using rock 'n' roll to write about life after 60. What's your impression of the work so far?

A It's strange, and much the same. We were all waiting to either die or to be deposed. Neither has happened, so we get grouchy and continue. In my case I get carried away sometimes and say and do things I regret, but when I'm songwriting I feel all the good and bad I've lived through adds value to my work. That's true of all the artists you mention and many others.

In the past I suppose we have watched many aging but still cherished C&W artists go through what we are now going through -- we can learn a lot from them.

Q The Stones are playing the Bay Area three days before the Who. We're inviting readers to weigh in on which is the greater band. How do you vote? Why?

A The Stones are "greater." But the Who are probably best musically right now. We carry less baggage, but as a result we may also convey less magic. Simply seeing Mick and Keith standing on a stage together rocks my world.

Both bands are far too old and successful to even worry about all this, but I think perhaps we do. Mick is competitive I know. But he is also incredibly supportive; he has called me during this tour, brought me in to work on his solo records and has been to see the Who play a number of times in the past 10 years. Keith writes his friends get-well cards these days.

I will always be a fan of the Stones until the day I die. They helped to shape me; remember that when I was 16 at art school in Ealing they did their few shows in London at the Ealing Club nearby. The word was out two years before I wrote my first song.
 
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com



 
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