Pete Townshend says Roger Daltrey doesn't understand his creative process

Pete Townshend says that although he and Roger Daltrey are united artistically within the Who, Daltrey still hasn't fully grasped the intricacies of how Townshend's creativity flows. Townshend spoke to The Associated Press about the process behind the band's first album in 24 years, titled Endless Wire, which is due out on Tuesday (October 31st).

Townshend, who wrote all of the new material, explained that, "Roger would say, 'All we have to do is get in the studio and play and the music will happen' and I'd have to say to him, 'No, Roger, it won't'... He doesn't understand that you have to write every day and suddenly you'll come up with something good. He tends to describe things as magic. If he only knew."

Despite their long history of personal differences, Townshend says that the pair are closer now than they've ever been while touring behind the new material: "I think we've arrived at a good place and it's very good to be working with him at the moment. He's doing a fantastic job."

Townshend told us that after five decades of working with Daltrey, he's only recently found the proper way to present his new material to him: "And Roger just said to me several times, 'Y'know, I'll support you in whatever you want to do, let's take some real chances. And I kind of stamped around the room saying, 'Well that's all very well in words but when it actually comes to it and I deliver him my big ideas, he doesn't want to get behind them, or he doesn't do this or do that ...' And then actually when it came to it, I realized (that) as long as the work I was delivering him was finished, he would simply make the choice of an editor or a performer."

The Who's Endless Wire album features their ten-song mini-opera, Wire And Glass, as well as a song called "God Speaks To Marty Robbins," which Townshend first wrote and demo-ed as an instrumental back in 1984. His bare-bones acoustic recording of the song was first issued on Townshend's 2001 solo collection, Scoop 3.

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