Pete Townshend Admits Issues With Launching A New Who Project

Pete Townshend shed light on his current creative process, which hopefully will result in both some new solo and Who music. He spoke about hitting his home studio after the band's tour was sidelined by Covid, telling Uncut, “I went in there and did various bits of work, some for my own projects and a couple that we’re returning to, maybe looking at doing some more Who recording, Then, slowly but surely, I ran out of joy. Covid has been f***ing s*** out there for so many people who are struggling to get by. I’m grateful that I don’t have those kinds of problems, but it’s been depressing. It has got to me a few times. But I’m O.K. at the moment. Roger (Daltrey's) not having a good time though. He’s climbing the walls!”

He went on to say, “But my experience with that last album was very salutary. It was tough. I think it was tough for Roger, too. I think he and I have sort of found a common ground over it, but there is still a sense that we only just about got it done.”

Townshend admitted, “There’s a certain amount of resentment on both sides. Partly on Roger’s side perhaps, resentment that we were paid a lot of money for the album and it was all spent making it. On my side, the fact that Roger was so actively diffident at first. Now he’s proud of what he did on the record, and so he should be because he did such a great job. But our process is now just me and him and we’ve very different — politically, socially, spiritually, different in every respect. But we happen to be in this band together.”

When pressed if he was reticent about launching into another Who project so soon after the band's 2019 Top Two set, WHO, Townshend admitted, “A little bit. But I’m trying to get past it, because, ultimately, WHO was so well received. I do want to make another one and I probably will. It’s been on my mind a lot. Right now, I’m in that space where I’ve got my studio set up, my acoustic and electric guitars, a drum box, all there ready to go. There’s pages and pages of draft lyrics. So if the moment comes, I’ll go in and start. But I do feel a bit envious of people saying, 'We’ve in the studio making another album.' They’re so lucky, as once you start going it’s such a thrill. There really is nothing like it.”

Shortly before the release of 2019's WHO, Roger Daltrey admitted during a SiriusXM town hall discussion that he was unsure how to tackle Pete Townshend's new material: “Well, I've got to say to Pete's credit, he's written some fantastic songs. It sounded like the perfect Pete Townshend solo album to me. I said to Pete, 'They're great songs, Pete, but. . .' I just couldn't see me finding the way in to them and making them breathe as a Who album. But, I think we've got there. And I really think he's written something. . . I've always felt that he's the kind of writer that would write some of his best work at the age we are. And I think he's done it (laughs). So, y'know, finger crossed.”