(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Wed 26 November 2025 9:51, UK
After a childhood beleaguered by bullying, Pete Townshend found frenzied escape in music, prompting him to say, “Rock ‘n’ roll may not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them.”
It’s a pithy little quote that outdoes itself. With 17 words, he distilled the history of a cultural movement down to a single sentence. The original Black pioneers propagated the art form as a way to push through exultant liberation despite the problems surrounding them. Townshend himself has picked up that very mantle.
How can you listen to something like ‘Baba O’Riley’ and have a single care left in this whole damn world? This was something that The Who proudly brandished against the boredom of the world and the greyness they had known growing up. As Townshend put it, “You can simply decide that you’re gonna be cool, and you can be cool.” That swagger abides in each of his favourite guitarists, too.
When it comes to the heroes who have made him dance, Townshend is usually quite reticent – a meta marker of that ‘coolness’. Iconoclastic criticism, on the other hand, is his wry forte. “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy,” he once said. As for Led Zeppelin, he opined: “I don’t like a single thing that they have done, I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them.”
However, he isn’t always silver-tongued. Over the years, he has also heaped praise on the pioneers who inspired him. He might not have many favourites, but that keeps his plaudits meaningful. We’ve collated these with his five favourite guitarists below, from his early hero Howlin’ Wolf to the ever-present excellence of Jimi Hendrix.
Pete Townshend’s favourite guitarists:
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