Inside Pete Townshend’s love for Joe Walsh
Throughout his career, Pete Townshend would never settle for just good enough. From his early days playing the best R&B music to come out of the British rock scene to making sweeping epics with The Who, Townshend saw his writing as more of a necessity than an art, constantly pushing his state of mind forward. Then again, Townshend always had a healthy respect for his fellow rockers.
From the early days of The Who, Townshend always spoke lovingly of some of his favourite acts, counting Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones as some of the greatest in their field. While Townshend might have gotten more focused on his group as time passed, he became friendly with an American guitarist named Joe Walsh.
Earning his keep as the main man behind James Gang, Walsh was growing into one of the premier guitar stars at the time, infusing a healthy amount of blues, funk and rock and roll into one neat package. Although he would eventually grow into a famous solo star after tracks like ‘Funk #49’, Walsh struck up a friendship with The Who during the recording of their greatest material.
When The Who was making the rounds on tour for their first rock opera Tommy, James Gang was one of their opening acts. While Walsh could have easily been intimidated by an artist like Townshend, the ‘60s legend bestowed some valuable advice about how to use the guitar to communicate his feelings.
As Walsh recalled, Townshend was responsible for teaching him how to play in a rock context properly, saying, “He showed me how to play. We call it lead rhythm, where you play rhythm guitar and lead at the same time and just kind of wander back and forth”.
When talking about his technique, Townshend spoke very highly of Walsh, recalling to Rolling Stone, “Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There’s not many like that around”. A few years before Townshend’s praise, he had also been gifted one of his signature guitars by Walsh.
As The Who were set to work on their next album, Lifehouse, Walsh lent Townshend a 1959 Chet Atkins guitar, which opened up new doors in Townshend’s playing. Though the grand rock opera answer to Tommy may have been scrapped, Walsh’s gift to Townshend is still echoing throughout rock history, responsible for the opening chords of ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.
For all of the friendly antics, Walsh did have some wariness about partying with a band like The Who. As he recalled in History of the Eagles, “One of the terrifying things that ever happened to me was when Keith Moon decided that he liked me. All those Keith Moon stories are true. This guy was full-blown nuts”.
Despite his penchant for room trashing and living the rock and roll lifestyle, Walsh’s knack for melody on guitar would only grow stronger throughout the years. Once he started making some of the sunniest music of the ‘70s with Eagles guitarist Don Felder, he became one of the most lyrical guitar players of all time, sprinkling in pieces of brilliance throughout ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Life in the Fast Lane’.
Walsh hasn’t stopped, either, releasing solo material while still going out on tour with the surviving members of the California rockers. There might be some innate brilliance to what Walsh plays, but there’s no doubt that his approach to music has been enriched by what Townshend brought to the table.
