Pete Townshend (Extended)
The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert
CBS
4.4 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
GRAMMY- and Tony-winner Pete Townshend sits down for an extended conversation with Stephen Colbert that touches on The Who's farewell tour, Pete's difficult childhood, the incredible amount of unheard music in his vault, and the origins of works like "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia." Pete's latest musical adventure, "Quadrophenia, A Rock Ballet," is at New York City Center this Friday through Sunday.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Late Show Potshow with Stephen Colbert. |
| 0:06.0 | My goodness. |
| 0:11.0 | Thank you. |
| 0:12.0 | Oh, I wish you were all here. |
| 0:14.0 | Welcome back, everybody. |
| 0:16.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, Monsieur and Madame. |
| 0:20.0 | My next guest is Pete Townsend. |
| 0:27.9 | Thank you. |
| 0:28.6 | Thank you for being here, Pete. |
| 0:30.1 | You've been over there sitting in with the band all night. |
| 0:33.0 | I couldn't even read the prompter. |
| 0:34.7 | I didn't hear a word Jonathan Carl said. |
| 0:36.5 | I've just been waiting to get you over here. Have you having a good time with Lewis in the band? Oh, wow. Yeah, |
| 0:41.8 | they're great. They're great. You know, really good. You know, it sounded incredible. When I arrived, |
| 0:48.6 | I thought I was going to have to teach them some stuff and they just, they taught me how to do it. |
| 0:54.4 | Well, you just finished up the Who's Farewell Tour in North America with Roger Daltry. |
| 1:00.2 | Yeah. |
| 1:00.6 | Ended in Palm Springs on October 1st. |
| 1:03.2 | Now, this is, farewell tours tend to be farewell, but I attended one of your earlier farewell tours. |
| 1:10.6 | I believe in 85 or something, and that was your, I think that was your second farewell tour, |
| 1:15.6 | because you also had a farewell tour in 82, which ended in Montreal. |
| 1:19.8 | No, no, no, no. Let me correct you. |
... |
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