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Rocker Daltrey helps make history extreme - More from Gastonia, NC



http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/local/6513469.htm

Myrtle Beach?
Where the hell was Mark L. ????

Kevin in VT


CELEBRITY
Rocker Daltrey helps make history extreme
Educational show films in Gastonia
By Joe DePriest
Knight Ridder

'History was dull as dishwater when I was in school. They made it so boring
and it turned me off. But this show is trying to find new ways to present
history. It's about people, not dates.'

Roger Daltrey


GASTONIA, N.C. - Rock icon Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the legendary band
The Who, came to Gastonia's Schiele Museum to eat ant eggs dug up with an
antelope horn.

The star of the rock opera "Tommy" also made fire by rubbing two sticks
together and floated around the museum pond in a bamboo raft.

As host for "Extreme History," a new History Channel show about surviving epic
adventures, Daltrey, 59, spent 2= days last week filming at the Schiele's
Aboriginal Studies Center, where he learned how people got by in prehistoric
times.

Producers picked the Schiele for the episode because of museum expert Steve
Watts, who heads the aboriginal center and was a consultant for the 2000 Tom
Hanks movie "Cast Away" about a man stranded on a remote island.

They call "Extreme History," which will have its premiere Oct. 5, a hip,
hands-on show. Each week, Daltrey will meet experts who show him survival
techniques. So far this summer he's hiked the wilds of Montana to discover how
Lewis and Clark stayed alive, he's hunted buffalo, and hung out with cowboys
on the Chisholm Trail and Indians in Wyoming.

In later shows, he'll zip around the streets of New York in a firetruck and
experience racing thrills inside a car on a NASCAR track in Atlanta.

It's unknown when the show filmed at the Schiele will be shown, but it
probably will be early in the season, producers said.

"This summer has been a boy's own adventure," said Daltrey. "History was dull
as dishwater when I was in school. They made it so boring and it turned me
off. But this show is trying to find new ways to present history. It's about
people, not dates."

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Daltrey made rock history fronting The Who,
earning the reputation as a violent, guitar-smashing bad boy. On "My
Generation," The Who's biggest hit song, Daltrey roared the famous lyrics,
"Hope I die before I get old."

Today, nearing age 60, he's trim, muscular and mellow.

"Rock 'n' roll keeps me young," said Daltrey, who has squeezed in a little
performing while on the road for "Extreme History."

He recently was in the Hollywood Bowl's concert version of "My Fair Lady" with
Melissa Errico, John Lithgow and Rosemary Harris.

During the Gastonia shoot last week, Daltrey and crew worked long hours in the
woods, mostly out of the public's view.

Tom Ray, a social studies teacher at York Comprehensive High School in Rock
Hill, joined Watts in teaching Daltrey about primitive survival techniques. He
showed Daltrey how to hunt with a sling made of natural fibers. The rocker
used it to hurl a lemon instead of a rock and came close to hitting a stuffed
rabbit several times.

For the TV camera that morning, he'd dined on ant eggs dug up with such
primitive tools as an antelope horn and pig's jaw supplied by Watts.

"We found some mysterious beetles but we wouldn't eat them," Watts said.
"Roger is a lot of fun. He's really interested in this."

"Extreme History" began as a pilot History Channel documentary called "Mess
Kit" about the types of food members of the Lewis and Clark expedition ate on
their journey.

Producers Matt Ginsburg and David Leepson, partners in New York-based Boom
Pictures, said the History Channel liked the pilot so well it wanted to expand
its scope to include other historical periods and also explore all aspects of
survival.

Leepson said Daltrey was perfect for the role of host.

"He's smart and creative and very captivating on camera," Leepson said. "He
loves history, and he also knows how to hunt and fish. He's been put into some
precarious situations - hiking up cliffs and capturing a rattlesnake. But he's
totally game."
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