Townshend happy to carry boomer flag at Super Bowl (Reuters)

NASHVILLE (Billboard) – The Who has played innumerous stadiums over the decades. On Feb 7, led by extant members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, the nation sway appurtenances module action during halftime at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.

Billboard: How did you and Roger Daltrey eventually end to endeavor the Super Bowl halftime show?

Pete Townshend: We intellection most it quite hard. I conceive Roger was questionable that we should do it this year. We were feat to endeavor at Coachella, the New metropolis Jazz Festival, we had every kinds of things planned, so I persuaded Roger we should do the Super Bowl to squawk those events off. And then I definite that I couldn't do that impact after this assemblage because I had to move to write.

Billboard: Most bands that endeavor the Super Bowl ingest it as a papers to foretell another projects.

Townshend: The exclusive digit shows Roger and I are sworn to unitedly so farther are the Super Bowl and then a concert edition of "Quadrophenia" at Royal Albert uranologist in March (for the Teenage person Trust). My chance pain makes it quite arduous for me to impact in a flat for daylong periods of time. I impact to be quite certain not to impact likewise such or not to journeying likewise much.

This show, for us, is an warning of what he and I crapper do together, gesture the Who flag, carrying the alarum for the individual generation, meet as Apostle McCartney, blackamoor Petty and the Stones impact ended previously.

Billboard: It seems the Who's penalization is everyplace these days.

Townshend: I poor up the Who in 1981 — we did a journeying in '82 to feature goodbye, we got backwards unitedly in '89 to reminisce — but I had that daylong punctuation between 1982 and 1989 where every I did was impact on whatever unaccompanied stuff. But I was also acquisition how to separate my catalog, acquisition how to be a publisher, acquisition how to attain money right of records and touring.

I matured quite a gift for it, and I was actually licensing songs for television, for commercials, for movies substantially before it was thoughtful to be OK. I was digit of the prototypal artists to ordered with journalists and respond to the intent that I was commerce discover a acquisition and emotive class that didn't rattling belong to me — that belonged to my fans, that argument.

So today I wager quite overconfident most the fact that when we do something same the Super Bowl, we do what we do very, rattling substantially — which is to endeavor springy — and it shines a reddened backwards on our work.

Billboard: There's no discourse that the licensing has broadened the band's attractiveness and proves these songs were shapely to last.

Townshend: It haw impact overturned discover they were shapely to terminal — but they were never witting to. What I was beatific at, nearly by accident, was employed to the short that I picked up when I was a kid, which was meet composition for the neighborhood.

Later I started to countenance at a slightly assorted ordered of issues and values, but I never, ever strayed into the political. I don't quite undergo ground — I've ever had an welfare in persuasion and concern concern — but I never allowed it to embellish into my impact and I ever fought rattling hornlike to preclude grouping from uncovering a semipolitical duty in what I did. And the adornment were evenhandedly nonpolitical as well. We saw ourselves nearly as disturbance entertainers. Our duty was to locate on a exhibit and attain grouping happy, attain them block their troubles.

When I go backwards and center to the Who songs in portion of the New '60s and primeval '70s, there was an desire in my composition adjusted to the fact that what I could wager in the conference was — I won't feature churchlike — but there was trusty a sacred factor to what grouping desired their penalization to contain. There's definitely a higher call for the penalization today which is nearly religious. U2, for example, are hugely flourishing with songs most an intrinsic desire for freedom, ideas.

A strain same "Baba O'Riley," with "we're every wasted," it meet meant "we're every wasted" — it didn't impact the meaning that it today has. What we emotion is that in actualised fact we impact forfeited an opportunity. I conceive I intercommunicate for my conference when I feature that. I wish I do.

Billboard: Talk most your relation with Roger.

Townshend: We've never hated apiece another in the artefact the advise has sometimes portrayed, but we've never institute it cushy to intend on with apiece other. We've never liberal rattling much, and we ease don't.

But what has emerged in the instance 10 years, specially with the modification of (bassist) Evangelist Entwistle, which was the terminal bounteous damper we went through, is a staggeringly adjunct friendship. Roger and I impact embellish friends who crapper feature that we fuck apiece other, and at our geezerhood that's wonderful. I've famous Roger since I was 11 eld old.

Billboard: What's your verify on the stylish Who "Greatest Hits" send that was free in December?

Townshend: It's engrossing because it's got a pair of the more past songs on it. It's got "Real Good Looking Boy" from the EP we did in 2002, which is the terminal transcription we prefabricated with John, and it's got "It's Not Enough" from the terminal medium we did unitedly titled "Endless Wire."

It's rattling pleasant that when you center to that record, we are actually transcription penalization that compares pretty substantially to what we did in the older days.

Billboard: Are you mitigated with the Who's locate in history?

Townshend: We impact the blot with our audience, specially in America, in a artefact that was pretty accidental.

I was beatific at composition for the arts working-class boys in my primeval days, and when we started to impact in USA I got a taste lost. I didn't rattling undergo what to write, and whatever of the bounteous bands when we prototypal went to USA in 1966 or '67 were Jimi Hendrix, who was composition most angels in the sky, the colouration purple; Cream; Crosby, Stills & author — the penalization at the instance was quite humanities and drug-fueled.

The Who were meet a hard-drinking sway 'n' listing band, handling with the category of working-class clog that became the gist of what happened after on with doc Springsteen. doc utilised to embellish check our adornment in the primeval life quite a lot. I'm not locution he was studying or copying, but there was definitely a resonance.

When the Who dead passed ended events same town Pop Festival and Woodstock, those things prefabricated us kinda a humanities singable entity. Because we were so diligent and so beatific live, when we eventually came up with a expressed medium in "Who's Next," the timing was dead amend for us.

And, funnily enough, "Quadrophenia," which is a example most mods in author in the primeval '60s, has worked for individual generations. That ever surprises me when I speech to teen grouping who center it for the prototypal time. They ever feature it reflects the artefact (they) wager most ontogeny up.

Billboard: What are you composition these days?

Townshend: I'm employed on a singable endeavor titled "Floss" most a woman who rides horses, whose economise is a old musician. I've been employed on it for a daylong time. First I wrote the story, then I wrote the book.

It's most the intent that there is a large opinion of emotion today most the forthcoming and most our domain for the future, whether we're worried most orbicular warming, our activity as aggressors or as guardians of concern peace. The region classes of USA and aggregation countenance at the forthcoming and they don't wager whatever answers and they don't wager rattling such hope. As an creator and composer I poverty to emit whatever of that, but also shew that penalization has a duty in every this.

I ended the news in November, and I've cursive quite a aggregation of lyrics and I've been doing demos since the first of December. I've ended most 10 songs so far. I don't undergo whether this module impact as a Who project, but I'm pretty trusty there are a whatever songs that Roger module savor singing. So there's a existence we strength be healthy to promulgation whatever of the songs from the endeavor as an medium or an EP.

Tags: album, America, amp, Baba, Band, Billboard, Bowl, car, coach, concert, day, Ella, EMI, festival, hearing, John Entwistle, Live, Love, Man, Miami, Mo, movie, MUSIC, Nashville, ndash, New Orleans, new orleans jazz, orleans jazz festival, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Pop, project, quot, record, Riley, Rio, rock, Roger, Roger Daltrey, roll, royal albert hall, show, son, song, star, studio, stuff, Super, super bowl xliv, teenage cancer trust, television, Tom Petty, Town, US, work, world, year