Pete Townshend lashes out at sixties acts

Pete Townshend says that the days are numbered for '60s bands touring the world. Townshend, who's in the middle of a three week break in the Who's U.S. tour, told Rolling Stone that it's the fans who encourage the bands to hit the road, explaining that, "This fan thing is very powerful. I don't think that the big boomer bands are going to be able to do this much longer. I really don't. We're fucking lucky to be able to do it, but I don't think we'll be able to do it much longer."

Townshend went on to say that, "I don't want to go out and see Bob Dylan. I don't want to go out and see the (Rolling) Stones. I wouldn't pay money to go see the Who, not even with new songs. I wouldn't pay money to go see Crosby, Stills & Nash. They fucking make me sick. When I say that, what I mean is I'm ageist about it. I don't want to look at these old guys in their self-congratulatory mode."

He added that despite his reservations about 60-somethings hitting the stage, he has experienced some transcendent moments performing on the current tour: "Some of our live shows have taken this function of mine to a place that it seems no mere CD could ever reach. At Madrid, for example, as I played my guitar toward the end of the show, I felt like a triumphant liberating giant come to release a million captive children. Could make me a little vain."

Pete Townshend told us that he stopped writing songs for the Who for many years because he felt that he could never match their greatest work: "When the Who stopped making records in 1982, I felt that I just couldn't do it anymore. I felt that what the Who had done was triumphant, huge, innovative, groundbreaking, massive, unsurpassable, and that there was no reason at all, no way that I could ever come close again."

On October 31st the Who will release Endless Wire, their first studio album since 1982's It's Hard.

They'll kick off their next set of U.S. dates on November 4th, at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl.
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