Pete Townshend is giving every indication that the Who‘s 2019 self-titled set will not be the band’s finale. Townshend is featured as the cover story for the August issue of Guitar Player magazine and spoke about the prospects for yet another Who album with Roger Daltrey.
Townshend explained, “Even to this day, whenever I ring Roger up and I say, y’know, ‘Shall we try to make another record?,’ he says, ‘You’ve got another bloody concept?’ I think also he doesn’t really want to be selling ideas that either are vague or evolving, that are unfinished. But I’m still at a place now where I want to be gambling and taking chances as a studio composer and writer. It could be tricky. And I think it’s partly because we’re getting older, and partly because this lockdown has left us flailing quite a bit.”
Regarding a return to the road after both the Who and Daltrey’s solo shows were sidelined by the pandemic and its aftermath, Townshend revealed, “I think Roger just wants to get out and use his voice. And so it feels to me like what he’ll want to do is play catch-up with touring, which is very much what we did after I took a great long sabbatical from the Who from the end of ’82 right through to ’96, pretty much. But I don’t know the extent to which I will be willing to tour the way we have been touring in recent years, although I have been finding it easy and I’ve been finding it interesting.”
Townshend went on to talk about what it entails for him and Daltrey to join forces and create a new Who album: “As far as a new record, it does take quite a lot of time to put together the 20 or 30 songs that are needed for both Roger and I and any producer that we might be working with to cherry-pick the ones that fit the times. Because you write the songs, and then two years later you’re putting them all out, and you just hope that you’re going to hit the mood of the moment. A lot of artists are now writing songs at home, recording them at home and putting them out within weeks. But our process is the old-fashioned way, and it does take a long time. So, I don’t know, but I am optimistic. And I’m certainly full of ideas.”
FAST FACTS
- The Who’s 2019 album,WHO, entered the Billboard 200 at Number two behind Roddy Ricch‘s chart-topping Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial.
- WHO hit the UK charts at Number Three — and still marks the Who’s best charting album in the States since 1978’s Who Are You — which also peaked at Number Two.
- The Who’s previous studio set, 2006’s Endless Wire, only got as high as Number Nine in Britain.
DID YOU KNOW???
- The Who has yet to top the American albums charts — with 1973’s Quadrophenia, 1978’s Who Are You, 1981’s Face Dances, and 2019’s WHO all stalling at Number Two.
- The band’s career best in their homeland was in 1971 when Who’s Next peaked at Number One.
CHECK IT OUT: The Who’s 2019 track “I Don’t Wanna Get Wise”: