The Who’s legacy as rock ‘n’ roll musicians extends far beyond their discography and into their commanding, aggressive, and physically violent stage presence, thanks to the guitar-smashing, microphone-cord-lassoing, drum-exploding antics of their members: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and Keith Moon, respectively.
John Entwistle, for whatever it’s worth, opted not to engage in this destructive schtick. “Someone has to play,” the bassist once said. “I once got very paranoid because the kids weren’t screaming my name. One night, I had a few drinks and came on-stage moving, and they started screaming my name. So, I thought, ‘Okay. I’ll go back to standing still. They scream at anything that moves.”
But for his bandmates, physical aggression was part of the rock ‘n’ roll process. Sometimes, that aggression turned inward toward one another. This was especially true in the contentious relationship between Daltrey and Townshend. During one particularly nasty fight, Daltrey landed Townshend in an ambulance. Ironically, given the sequence of events, Daltrey accompanied Townshend all the way to the hospital as a sign of support and concern.
Such is the way of bandmates.
Roger Daltrey Still Feels Bad About This One Fight With Pete Townshend
The Who has had its fair share of fights over the years, often fueled by drugs, adrenaline, or a cantankerous combination of the two. Roger Daltrey often cited his bandmates’ substance use as one of his key grievances, as it made it difficult to do his job, which was to glue the whole song together with his lyrics and vocal performance. During one such fight, Pete Townshend attacked Daltrey with a tambourine, who proceeded to beat Townshend so aggressively in response that the band fired him for about a month. Fortunately for Daltrey, the cymbals of the tambourine didn’t nick his eye like they could have, and he was able to walk away from the fight without an ambulance trip to the hospital.
Townshend wasn’t so lucky. In another fight, the guitarist was reportedly attempting to hit Daltrey over the shoulder with his guitar. “If you break a Gibson SG over someone’s shoulder, it’ll f***ing hurt,” Daltrey told Classic Rock in 2025. The singer said he responded with a single punch, but that was enough. “Unfortunately, it hit him when he was off-balance, coming forward after throwing a punch at me, which I dodged. It was his own fault, because he told the roadies to let me go. But I’ve always felt bad about it, I don’t know why. He did go out cold, and the next thing I know, I’m sitting in the f***ing ambulance, holding his hand.”
Daltrey and Townshend’s decades-long career is a testament to their ability to get over their fights in at least a reasonably healthy way. We suppose enemies fight and part ways, but friends fight and ride in the ambulance together afterward.
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