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October 31st, 2026 · 1:00pm GMT
For much of his existence, it seemed as though Keith Moon was quite literally living the dream.
After a chance encounter with the future members of The Who at a low-key gig in London Town, the percussionist quickly found himself at the epicentre of a British rock institution, and he certainly made the most of his time. There was always, however, one group that could sway him away from all of that.
Moon was, of course, an essential part of The Who, and his anarchic, amphetamine-fuelled tendencies certainly seemed to align with the similarly youthful and rebellious output of the mod rockers during their early years. As time went on, and The Who only grew larger and larger, the drummer even got a chance to set a plethora of standards for how a rock and roll drummer should act, both behind and away from his drum kit.
A trail of demolished hotel rooms, blown-up drum kits, and television sets falling from windows seemed to follow in the wake of Keith Moon; it is no surprise, for instance, that he was the primary inspiration for The Muppets’ ‘Animal’. Yet, if you were to explore the drummer’s record collection, you might be surprised by how mellow many of his listening habits were. His all-time favourite group was, after all, The Beach Boys.
As undeniably excellent as Brian Wilson’s group were, it is fair to say that The Beach Boys, with their fresh-cut, all-American, upbeat surf-pop sound, were about as far away from the rebellious rock and roll of The Who as it was possible to come back in the mid-1960s.
That didn’t seem to bother Keith Moon all that much, though. In fact, all of The Who were indebted to Brian Wilson’s outfit in one way or another. In fact, as Roger Daltrey once told The Guardian, “The Who were certainly influenced by the Beach Boys.”
There was never any doubt, however, that Moon’s appreciation for the band went beyond normal confines. “Our drummer Keith Moon would’ve been in the bloody Beach Boys given half a chance,” Daltrey recalled, going so far as to claim, “He would have left the Who even at the height of our fame to join the Beach Boys. If you listen to early Who records you can hear a lot of influences from the Beach Boys.”
Further reading: From The Vault
Every self-respecting music obsessive has their few favourites but, even still, it is difficult to envision an adoration so profound that Keith Moon would consider putting behind him one of the greatest rock bands Britain has ever produced to become essentially a stand-in for Dennis Wilson.
In the end, Moon would never get a chance to so much as audition for The Beach Boys role, passing away tragically in 1978, five years prior to Dennis Wilson’s similarly tragic death.
Moon did, however, get the odd chance to espouse his adoration for The Beach Boys during his time with The Who, including leading the band in a few ramshackle rehearsals of the surf-pop outfit’s 1965 single ‘Barbara Ann’, with Moon himself taking on lead vocal duties alongside his characteristically anarchic percussion style.
