Pete Townshend

Who? Of all the questions Pete Townshend gets, that’s probably not one of them. As the guitarist for legendary rock band The Who, Townshend is a music icon. Along with the band’s last surviving original member, vocalist Roger Daltrey, Townshend is taking The Who back on the road again, launching a new leg of the band’s nearly year-long, jetsetting world tour. He participated in an e-mail question-and-answer session with The Fresno (Calif.) Bee.

Q: What keeps you guys touring? Hunger? A love for traveling? Money? Knowing there are cities you’ve never played? A: Money does have something to do with it, perhaps not for the reasons most people would imagine. I have never amassed money. I live well, and so do all my dependents and a number of lovable freeloaders. So I suppose I must have a hunger to stay connected to people at street level. A lot of my spare cash goes on what others might describe as charity, but it feels more like an engagement with real life to me because I usually try to do things that give me an actual personal role.

Q: When you’ve performed a song so many times — as you guys have with many of your hits — how do you keep it fresh and not get bored with it? A: It’s not about us; it’s about the audience. It’s not that we feed on their energy, at least I don’t; it is more about feeling that we have a function — all of us gather on stage and in the crowd to connect, to align, to focus and to celebrate our survival and our hope for the future. If this ever got boring I would have to stop, and that has happened to me in the past. At the moment, I am having fun on stage with The Who for the first time.

Q: What do you say to fans who are sketchy about seeing the show since it’s only half of the original band? A: Wait a little longer; Roger and I will both die, then you’ll be able to save even more money relying on your ancient memories.

Q: How do you re-create the chemistry of the band with replacement members? A: That’s not what we are doing. We are reinventing, revisiting. Zak Starkey is a disciple of Keith Moon, but he is, in my opinion, a better conventional drummer. Pino Palladino makes not the slightest attempt to sound like John Entwistle. That sound, that definitive four-man Who sound of “Live at Leeds,” died when Keith died.

Local Who trivia As far was we’ve been able to determine, The Who’s first Oklahoma City performances were Aug. 23-24, 1968, at the Wedgewood amusement park. Guitarist Pete Townshend, singer Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon played from the tiny roof of the park's concession stand. During the first show, Moon celebrated his birthday by throwing cake down on the audience, according to a colleague who was there. The decibel record-setting band played to a much larger audience March 25, 1976, at the former Myriad Convention Center, now known as the Cox Convention Center. — Gene Triplett

IN CONCERT

The Who n Where: Ford Center, 100 W Reno. n When: 7:30 tonight. n Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com (check availability). n Information: 235-8288.

Q: As a band with so much history, how do you go about amassing a concert set list? A: I leave it to Roger. He needs to put a list together that works for him, his voice and his sense of what the audience needs.

Q: Humor me here: There’s always much debate about the idea of who is the greatest rock band of all time. Yours is always in the mix. So, if you were making the call, who is the greatest rock band of all time? A: A lot depends on when we draw the straws and whether we make the judgment based on concerts or recordings. Every band has its day. Every band at least has its moment. Rock is such a simple form; everyone should be able to do it well at least once. The Who seem to have had a number of good days, but few of them were on record. The Band had many good days on record, some quintessential. They were almost pre-rock in some ways, and when they worked with Bob Dylan, they became subject to his desire to constantly reshuffle the pack. A British band called The Pirates was probably the best band I’ve ever seen live. Just three guys, driving the stage out through the crowd like it was on wheels. I never claimed we were the best. Some tour promoter came up with it. Probably the same guy who made the claim for the Stones the week before.