Pete Townshend recently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and admitted he felt scared of Roger Daltrey in their early days.
The Who was founded in London in the early 1960s. When Fallon asked Townshend to explain how he joined the band in the first place, the guitarist replied:
“He [Roger Daltrey] challenged me to be in the band. He was a short kid. He was. He’s still short, of course, but he was… [Laughs] He was a short kid. And he claimed that he’d been bullied a lot at school. And so, his system for dealing with bullying was to become a fighter. And he was a really good fighter in the playground. And became a tough kid. And I was pretty scared of him. He threatened me once with a belt. I said something cheesy about him, and he threatened — He didn’t hit me, but he threatened me.”
Townshend Encountered Daltrey At School Once
Then, he recalled one of their memories:
“Anyway one day — So I was kind of wary of him. And he left the year before I did. I was 16, I think, 15 or 16, and I was standing with our form teacher, who’s a guy I really admired, in the corridor, talking about a course that I wanted to take, which was for draftsmanship, drawing, for heavy metal drawing, and he walked in. Roger walked in, with his hand– he had a guitar that he’d made himself.”
Daltrey Asked A Question To Pete
The guitarist went on to reveal the rest of the story:
“He interrupted the teacher, and the teacher looked down and said, ‘Mr. Daltrey, welcome back.’ You know, like that, because he was pretty famous. And Roger said, ‘I just want to ask this bloke a question.’ And so he said, ‘You play guitar?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ And he said, ‘I hear you’re not bad.’ And I said, ‘No, I think I’m okay.’ He said, ‘My house, 7:00 tonight.’ I didn’t know the address or anything [Laughs]. Anyway, so I went and I got hired that way. And, since then, I feel like I’ve had the necessary protection.”
After a career of over five decades, the Who might go on a farewell tour to end their journey on the rock scene. Townshend recently told the New York Times that he wanted to tour to make money, although he doesn’t enjoy performing with the band much anymore.
Watch the rest of his talk with Fallon below.