Wednesday, May 3rd, 1989

The New York Times interview Pete as The Who prepare for the Celebrating 25 Years of The Who tour. The article is entitled "The pop life: Old Grandpa Who". Pete says when it comes to touring he feels like "an 80-year-old grandfather".

 

Transcript (unverified)

The Pop Life

Stephen Holden

■ The Who is reuniting for a 25-city tour on its 25th anniversary ■ Rejuvenating rock classics

■ Donny Osmond is back, and he’s not smiling.

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Old Grandpa Who

When the Who, one of rock’s most revered bands, reunites to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a 25-city North American tour this summer, no one will be more conscious of the distance the band has traveled than Pete Townshend. It was Mr. Townshend, the band’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter, who wrote what has become its most famous catch phrase, “Hope I die before I get old,” for the 1966 teenage anthem “My Generation.”

On May 19, the author of that boast will be 44 years old. Though Mr. Townshend’s youthful bravado may have subsided, he is still an intense, philosophically minded rocker whose capacity for outrage is balanced by a sense of humor.

“Imagine an 80-year-old grandfather at a party filled with pretty girls and young nephews and nieces,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “Someone stands up to make a speech and says: ‘Here’s someone we all love. Come on, Granddad, dance!’ Then everyone stands back, and watches the old guy dance an arcane little pagan dance that isn’t done any more and that looks a little ridiculous. That’s kind of the way the Who feel.”

In addition to the tour, the band is to give two performances of the rock opera “Tommy,” the first in Manhattan on June 27 at Radio City Music Hall, the second in Los Angeles at a date and place to be announced. Two days after performing at Radio City, it is to appear at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

A section of each regular Who concert will be devoted to songs from an ambitious new solo album that Mr. Townshend recently completed for Atlantic Records and that is to be released in June. An adaptation of Ted Hughes’s popular children’s fable “The Iron Man,” it is a musical song cycle similar to “Tommy.” The record’s all-star cast features Mr. Townshend as the story’s 10-year-old protagonist, Hogarth, John Lee Hooker as the Iron Man, Nina Simone as the Space Dragon, Roger Daltrey as Hogarth’s father, and Deborah Conway as the Vixen.

“I first read the book in 1976,” Mr. Townshend said. “I was attracted to the story because it’s a wonderful modern fairy tale that is simple enough to allow a very broad range of responses. On one level, it’s an allegory of Star Wars and ecological issues. On another level, I took it as the story of a mother and father and their breakup and how it affects the child. On a more personal level, it is the story of a young boy approaching adolescence, and beginning to deal with the issues of his burgeoning sexuality and finding a purpose for his life.”

Mr. Townshend has already begun expanding “The Iron Man” from an album into an evening-length musical-theater piece, and he has sketched a scenario with 20 songs, an overture, narrative and recitative.

“I think musical theater is where I belong as a songwriter,” he said. “I don’t like writing film music, and I’m not keen on video. Though rock music sometimes works in large stadiums, I don’t think it really belongs there. I envision a show in which you have the imaginative stage sets of ‘Les Misérables,’ the wonderful production ideas of ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ but instead of music from my parents’ generation, having music of today.”

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[Photo caption:]

Pete Townshend, the Who’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter, is about to go on tour.