Pete Townshend: Who I Am

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the greatest and most admired rock n’ rollers of all time talks about his long and fascinating life in music. Pete Townshend, guitarist and songwriter for The Who, now 79 years old, describes the band’s formation in high school and the tension in his relationship with frontman Roger Daltrey. He recounts how he became the original smasher of guitars. He openly discusses the emotional and sexual abuse he suffered as a child, and considers how it affected his life as an artist. And he speculates on why his rock opera “Tommy” connects today with audiences, 50 years on (it has to do with COVID). Oh, and he drops plenty of f-bombs! Hey, it’s rock n’ roll.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	How would you describe Pete Townsend? I think as an artist, as a conceptual artist. I think I see everything as a concept. I can't write songs anymore without having an
0:17.5	underlying theme of some sort, a storyteller.
0:21.7	Pete Townsend is the original smasher of guitars, a songwriting master,
0:28.4	and a rock and roll legend who helped usher in the British pop revolution of the 1960s with his band The Who.
0:37.8	He is 79 years old now and as outspoken and thoughtful as ever.
0:44.0	Maybe more so.
0:45.3	Pete Townsend is our guest on this episode of What It Takes,
0:50.1	a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
0:55.6	I'm Alice Winkler.
0:58.0	I had a maid, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:04.4	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity and you don't take it, you may never have another
1:10.2	child.
1:11.2	It all was so clear.
1:12.2	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
1:15.0	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light,
1:22.0	death over life.
1:23.3	Every day I wake up and decide.
1:26.0	Today I'm going to love my life.
1:28.8	Decide.
1:30.7	My advice is, if they're gonna break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there.
1:35.0	And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you better not miss him.
1:48.0	Pete Townsend was only 23 when he wrote the Rock Opera Tommy. The story in a nutshell is about a boy who
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Academy of Achievement, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Academy of Achievement and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.