(Credits: Far Out / Harry Chase / UCLA Library)
Fri 29 August 2025 14:30, UK
The world of music is a much more competitive place than many of us would hope it to be. And if you were to search for one of those serial winners who has dedicated himself to being the best, then Pete Townshend is a shoo-in.
The Who guitarist was a flagrant competitor when he was in his early days with the band. The Beatles may have been legends to a whole swathe of his generation of music makers, but for Townshend, they were just “lousy” pop singers.
When The Who found themselves sharing a line-up with perhaps the greatest guitarist of all time at the Monterey Pop Festival, one could have easily expected Townshend to have shrunk away. But, no, the presence of Jimi Hendrix seemed to enliven a sense of fierce rivalry in the British guitarist, and he set about trying to combat Hendrix’s six-string stage presence with his own theatrics.
All this is to say that Townshend did not suffer fools gladly, and very rarely did he take time out of his day to share his appreciation for his contemporaries when in the throes of The Who’s explosive emergence onto the music scene. However, there was one guitarist whom he saw not only as a gifted player but as a remedy to the multitude of British guitarists that were bursting into existence in London.
Joe Walsh’s position as one of the most underrated players of his generation cannot be argued with. He’s certainly gained his fair share of fame, being a part of the Eagles will do that to a man, and the record sales that have come with it mean his fortune is in a healthy state too. But owing to the band’s soft rock stylings, Walsh’s ability on the guitar is too often forgotten. But Townshend has always seemed keen to remind the audience of his talent.
In 1975, The Who man told Rolling Stone: “Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There’re not many like that around.”
Five years later, he again paid tribute to Walsh, “I feel Joe (Walsh) is a very expressive guitar player. He has brought out a lot of expressiveness in the other guitar player in the band, Don Felder.” And it would seem that Townshend has been a huge fan of Walsh for decades.
Joe Walsh performing live. (Credits: Far Out / Jim Summaria)
Speaking to Jimmy Kimmel, Walsh explained their first meeting and how a little slice of fortune would start a lifelong friendship: “I was about 21. We, completely out of luck, got to open for The Who in Europe when they premiered ‘Tommy’. (They found me in) Pittsburgh. They played ‘Tommy’ in Pittsburgh and we opened for them because the promoter was our manager. Pete Townshend just happened to come early that night and heard 20 minutes of it. We became really good friends, I became really good friends with the whole band.”
Walsh explained how much faith Townshend showed in him and how The Who guitarist would ditch his usual comabtivness to offer up advice for the young upstart: “They took us to Europe and that’s really what broke the James Gang. He taught me how to play guitar in a three piece band: guitar, drums and bass. The thing he taught me was to play with an attitude, just the attitude is the whole thing.”
Walsh represented something unique to Townshend but also reminded him of himself: “He really identified with what we were doing. Pete’s a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn’t think I was that good. Pete and I really hit it off. We had the same frustrations about working with a three-piece group.”
Townshend would then start his unusual tactic of not lambasting a fellow player or pitting bands against one another. Instead, he would take the route of sharing his love for the guitarist. “The next thing I knew, he was saying in interviews that he had heard ‘this great guitar player from the James Gang’,” explained Walsh. “That he was America’s answer to all the English flash guitarists.”
Walsh certainly can give a whole bunch of those players a run for their money. His unique tone is drenched in melody and still possesses a fearsome power that many six-string maestros can’t seem to match. Being able to flit between James Gang and Eagles is about as simple a piece of proof for that notion as you can get.
A cynic might suggest that Townshend was still finding his way toward a fight, but just using Walsh as his weaponry as he attacked London’s music scene. But the truth is that the two men shared a bonded relationship. Walsh would perhaps repay The Who man in the best way possible, by gifting him a guitar which Townshend would use routinely throughout the recording of Who’s Next and later call the best guitar he ever owned.
So while music is more competitive than we’d all like it to be, it also breeds some of the closest bonds we can hope to enjoy.
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