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Mon 15 December 2025 20:00, UK
Where would the realm of rock and roll be without Pete Townshend?
From the mod-rock rebellion of The Who’s early days, to their explorations of rock opera, or the elder rock statesman persona he has adopted in more recent years, the guitarist has been on the upper echelon of rock and roll for over half a century, rarely shying away from discussing the quality – or lack thereof – of emerging outfits.
You could certainly forgive Townshend if he had simply buried his head in the sand around 1973 and never paid any attention to any other up-and-coming artists for the rest of his days. By that time, after all, he had already cemented The Who among the definitive bands of both the 1960s and the 1970s, as well as spawning a litany of younger groups endlessly indebted to the inspiration provided by his songwriting. Ultimately, though, that simply didn’t fit with Townshend’s tireless artistic mind.
Without that artistic drive, The Who could have easily found themselves forgotten about by the time that the 1960s drew to a close. It was only Townshend’s knack for development and sonic diversity that kept them going into the new decade, newly inspired by the world of rock opera and proto-metal live performances. In fact, the heavy sounds contained on live records like Live at Leeds helped set the stage for the hard rock and metal boom, which dominated future decades in rock.
Although Townshend and the band weren’t out to lay the foundations of heavy metal – and, either way, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were already dominating the airwaves by that time – that didn’t stop the songwriter from keeping a watchful eye on the emerging metal landscape throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Much of the metal scene had devolved into superfluous hair metal by the time the 1980s rolled around, and neither hairspray nor skin-tight stage outfits were held in particularly high regard by Townshend. There was, however, one guiding light of rock and roll greatness during that time, in the form of Metallica.
“I’d always thought of Metallica as ‘shredders’, you know, about being (fast) and they are shredders, they’re brilliant guitar players,” Townshend told Apple Music in 2021, but the extent of the band’s appeal didn’t begin and end with their six-stringed skills. “They’ve done an incredible amount of developing different ideas,” he continued.
Adding, “They used an orchestra before we did, they didn’t have it for the whole show and it was very successful. So actually looking a band like them, I certainly think ‘Wow” This is the definitive band.’”
High praise indeed, particularly coming from somebody like Townshend, who formed an inarguable influence on James Hetfield and the gang going back to their earliest musical experiences.
While Pete Townshend wouldn’t appear, at first glance, like a massive Metallica fan, his appreciation of the American metal giants is a good indicator of the effort The Who guitarist has made to stay on top of emerging bands and scenes over the years, rather than resigning himself to the blinkered life of some of his elder rock statesmen contemporaries.
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