#54 Pete Townshend (The Who) 1996 Interview

In this episode, we have a founding member of The Who, Pete Townshend. At the time of this interview in 1996, Townshend was 51 years old and was promoting his greatest hits record. In the interview, Townshend talks about his plan to no longer make records, the remixing process of Quadrophenia, what’s now important to him, and finding a Jimi Hendrix master in his warehouse. 
The interview is conducted by Steve Harris. To learn more about Steve please check out our podcast-only interview with him, which is out now.
Full transcript
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Start of Pete Townshend interview
01:38 - His non-defined image of himself
04:19 - His ability to write story-oriented albums
05:41 - Why it’s very hard to write songs
06:51 - His plan to no longer make records
08:26 - Why he is releasing a compilation album
09:33 - The notion that he hates the Japanese
11:30 - Developing Quadrophenia for a concert theater piece
12:57 - Which album he thinks is The Who’s best
15:08 - The backstory of when The Who revived ‘Quadrophenia’ for Prince’s Trust Concert
18:58 - Remastering old Who albums
20:23 - Writing chamber plays
21:32 - The difficulty of working in movies
22:26 - His lack of enjoyment for music theater
23:28 - What connects music from the ’50s and animation
24:37 - What’s important to him now
26:12 - The remixing process of Quadrophenia
26:57 - The previous poor mastering process of Who records
28:36 - Finding a Jimi Hendrix master in his warehouse
29:38 - The unfinished rock opera “Lifehouse”
32:04 - The mods 30 years later
33:35 - What he found hypocritical playing Black music
37:39 - Chapter 25
39:01 - The songwriting that went into “My Generation”
41:32 - Kurt Cobain and the song “My Generation”
43:18 - Seeing Jimi Hendrix a couple of weeks before he died
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