The 'French Grasshopper' Interview

[Jim M]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin and Tania O'Neal"

> >Why couldn't he have reached this blessed understanding
> >while Entwistle was still alive.
>
> Ohhhh, I hear you Cousin.
> It's a shame.
> A great dream derailed.
>
> >It makes me feel sad.
>
> One of us goooone.

Haaa!  I was getting ready to tease Schrade about unwittingly (I think)
paraphrasing Tea & Theatre, but you beat me to it!  For anyone still not
convinced (including Pete!), it's the history of The Who.  The events and
people are different, but it's the *emotional* history of the band.

> >Sad because I feel like we missed out on a bunch of great Who
> >music that Pete could have given the green light to in the '80s &
> >'90s.
>
> Yeah, perhaps.
> His head wasn't on right.
> We have to allow him the right to be that way.  To live his live true to
his
> feelings.

There was that interview he gave recently where he talked about John's death
making it easier for him to imagine doing a new Who album.  I can see why a
lot of people were uncomfortable with that, but I can also see exactly what
Pete meant.  The loss of John was the end of "The Who" as it once was.
Anything that came later, despite the use of the same name, would be
something entirely different.  With John still there, the new album *had* to
follow the same hard rock formula.  Pete felt the fans wouldn't accept
anything else.  This pressure of expectations stopped him from being able to
create something for The Who for 24 years.

> >> ....I don't regret ending the Who in 1982, but I do regret
> >> the reason I ended it. I closed the door too tightly, and it
> >> has been hard for me to accept that although the Who were
> >> in creative trouble in 1981, we weren't quite beaten. We
> >> might have survived.
> >
> >There's that honesty we all admire in the man....
>
> Yup.

That's the irony...it took the loss of John and the notion of what The Who
were to allow Pete to feel free enough to write the album he had inside him
at the time.  But, now that's done, he feels like the 'old' Who could have
been doing it all along.  Man, it sucks being complex!  Sure, it would have
been great to have more Who albums with John   But, that wasn't going to
happen as long as Pete was overwhelmed by the burden of expectations.  And
the event that broke that barrier was the loss of John.  That makes it so
sad indeed!

Jim M