“An incredibly painful period”: Roger Daltrey discusses the lowest point of his career
From The Beatles to The Smiths, finding a major rock band that hasn’t endured a degree of acrimony is difficult. The blinding light of fame and the average rock star’s hedonistic lifestyle appear conducive to disarray. Hence, in spite of on-stage chemistry, bands will often encounter personal qualms and creative dissonance behind closed doors. The Who, led by guitarist Pete Townshend and frontman Roger Daltrey, was no exception to the rule.
Pete Townshend and John Entwistle set out as budding jazz musicians in a schoolboy band, The Confederates, in the 1950s. When the pair eventually fell in love with rock music, they brought their jazz virtuosity into the equation. Entwistle, the only classically trained member of The Who, would become one of the most virtuosic and celebrated bassists of all time. Meanwhile, Townshend became legendary for his rhythm guitar prowess and knack for conceptual songwriting in his famous rock operas.
With the explosive and dynamic vocalist Daltrey and drumming hero Keith Moon in their ranks, The Who certainly weren’t short of talent. This crowding of talent was both a blessing and a curse for the band. Since each understood their indispensable role within the band, they could throw their weight around in the knowledge that only severe circumstances could part them.
Much of the strain in The Who appeared between Townshend and Daltrey through the years. Of course, Moon’s infamous proclivity for mayhem threw a few wanton spanners in the works from time to time, but between Daltrey and Townshend, there was creative dissonance and a power struggle of sorts. Consequentially, the pair see one another more as co-workers than close pals.
Although relations within The Who hit the ropes on a near-constant basis, 1970 proved to be a particularly tough year. At the time, Townshend was working on his ambitious rock opera Life House. Townshend neared the brink of insanity as he grappled with the concept, and his bandmates became increasingly alienated. As Daltrey reflected in Anyway Anyhow Anywhere – The Complete Chronicle of The Who, they “were never nearer to breaking up”.
As we know, The Who abandoned Life House and instead swept remnant material into the masterpiece album Who’s Next. This resounding success bought the band several more years, but even these would be marked by heady peaks and disastrous lows. For instance, in 1973, while working on Quadrophenia, Daltrey gave Townshend a concussion with a blow to the face.
The Who’s path is also littered with tragedy. Following Moon’s death in 1978, the band never quite managed to recapture their former strength, and Townshend entered a difficult period with drug addiction. Through thick and thin, the brand has endured, and despite the setbacks, Daltrey has no regrets. “I can’t regret any of it,” he told Classic Rock in 2021. “I’ve made huge mistakes, but I don’t regret any of it because it’s turned me into who I am now.”
Of all the physical and mental troughs Daltrey has encountered during his career with The Who, he regards Townshend’s 2003 arrest as the “lowest point”. In his 2023 interview with Far Out, Townshend revealed that he had been arrested twice in his life. While the first was for stealing “Observer books of various sorts” in his youth, his second was on much more serious charges.
In January 2003, The Who guitarist was arrested on suspicion of making and possessing indecent images of children as part of Operation Ore, an FBI-led investigation into internet-based child pornography. “Not only did I know it was completely out of character for Pete, I felt for everyone affected by it,” Daltrey reflected on the difficult period. “I know how it affected my family, and I thought about his family and the people that love him. It was an incredibly painful period for all of us.”
After a four-month investigation, Townshend evaded the charges. London’s Metropolitan police stated that he “was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images”. However, he was found guilty of accessing a site that contained child pornography in 1999. In his admission, Townshend claimed that he only accessed the site for research purposes while writing about his experience of sexual abuse as a child in his autobiography.
Though Townshend was acquitted, the police noted that it was not a defence “to access these images for research or out of curiosity”. As a precaution, the authorities took Townshend’s fingerprints, photograph and DNA sample and placed him on the national sex offenders’ register for five years.
