The forthcoming Peter Frampton documentary has thrown up another fascinating ‘What if?’ moment in rock history, revealing that the guitarist was once offered a spot in the Who.

Frampton’s namesake documentary debuted at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City yesterday, June 4, and People has reported on an exchange that’s detailed in the film.

As the story goes, the talkbox-loving musician was down and out. His label had dropped him, and he was broke. Pete Townshend, hating life on the road, made a proposition.

Frampton recalls: “He said, ‘I’ve got this idea. I don’t want to tour anymore, but I still want to write and be in The Who. I’ll write the songs, and I wonder what you thought if you took my place in The Who on the road.”

In 1976, the live album Frampton Comes Alive! had turned Frampton into a legend, but his fortunes were waning by the turn of the decade. Needless to say, Frampton was tempted.

“I said, ‘Really? Have you spoken to Roger [Daltrey] and John [Entwistle] about this?” Frampton then says in the film. Townsend’s response was, “I’m gonna talk to them tomorrow about this.”

Then Townshend went quiet. Weeks went by without a call passed, so Frampton took the initiative.

“It took me about five or six calls… and I found him at the studio,” he recounts. “I said, ‘You never called me back, I got nothing going on in my career…you left me in the lurch.’ I berated him. I was feeling so perturbed at the fact that it was there, right in the palm of my hand, and [then it was] gone.”

Yet, hindsight is a funny thing. Looking back at that strange low point in his career with Guitar Player, Frampton seems glad things didn’t work out.

“I didn’t think it was a great idea,” he admits. “I was laughing as he was talking about it, to be honest. I wanted to say, ‘You must be kidding! First of all, I can’t jump that high. Secondly, I’m not you, and you’ve got an awfully large pair of shoes to fill, live.’

“I really didn’t think it would happen,” he adds. “But when the leader of the Who says, ‘I think I want you to play with the Who now,’ you go, ‘Well, that’s crazy... But I don’t have anything going on, so maybe it is a good idea.’”

Frampton has been detailing his desires to keep on playing as long as his body allows, with a new album and a tell-all documentary both soon to be released.

Since its inception in 1999, Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival has featured the crème de la crème of guitarists who, in one way or another, have earned the blues-rock legend’s respect.

Now, the seventh edition of the festival will be held on September 26 and 27 in Austin, Texas, at the Moody Center, marking the 28th anniversary of the 1998 founding of the Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug treatment facility spearheaded by Clapton himself.

Among the numerous Crossroads veterans returning this year will be Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Sonny Landreth, John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jimmie Vaughan, as well as Clapton himself, who will be performing on both nights. Meanwhile, Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage, and Pete Townshend will all be making their festival debut.

Guitar Center was also announced as the exclusive retail partner of the festival, and, in addition to onsite retail, there will also be a rare showcase of its Legends Collection. This includes Clapton’s 1956 Fender Stratocaster, “Blackie,” the 1964 Gibson ES-335 he played in Cream, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s iconic 1965 Fender Stratocaster, “Lenny.”

Speaking about the festival in a 2019 interview with Guitar Center, Clapton said, “My identity is always going to be linked to Crossroads. I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play, and also invite people that I have high admiration for in the music world.”

He continued, “I like to use the festival platform as a way of getting [musicians] to come and play to a big audience, maybe for the first time. I think it's quite nice for the other musicians to meet them, too. I like cross-fertilization. I mean, that was a fascinating thing for me, the fantasy. And it worked.”

Tickets for the event will go on sale on April 3 at 10 a.m. CDT. For more information, head to the official Crossroads Guitar Festival website.

Though obviously not thought of in this way, the Gibson ES-350 is a great instrument to use for rock rhythm guitar playing.

With its hollow body and two-pickup design, it’s similar to the Gretsch 6120, which Pete Townshend used nearly exclusively for the guitar parts on the Who’s seminal Who’s Next album. Those gigantic rhythm guitars you hear on Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baba O’Riley were, surprisingly, recorded by Pete on a 1959 Gretsch 6120.

I will often use the ES-350 in the same manner. The necks on these guitars are skinny and narrow, so the strings are actually a little closer together, as compared to other Gibsons, and it features “narrow-spaced” PAF pickups, wherein the screws are closer together.

These guitars may not be for everyone, but they’re great “power chord” guitars, and I will often use them in the studio for that purpose.

As shown in Figure 1, I put the guitar in the bridge pickup position and play through a series of single-note licks based on the E blues scale (E, G, A, Bb, B, D) before moving into three- and four-note chords played in a syncopated rhythm against the open low E string.

These guitars are great for rock rhythms because they have a great sparkle to them, and the larger hollow body allows a little bit more bass to come out, as compared to an ES-335. In Figure 2, I embellish E5 power chord accents with single-note phrases, switching to sliding 6ths in bar 2, and then move between A5 and D/A chords in bars 4 and 5.

If you turn up the amp and use distortion, these guitars will howl with feedback due to the hollowbody design, so you have to mute the strings as necessary.

Figure 3 offers a long, 13-bar example that begins with power chords in bars 1-7. The single-note riff in bar 1 gives way to syncopated chords played against the open A string in bars 2-6, as I move freely between various voicings of A5, D/A, Gsus2/A, G/A, Dsus2 and Esus4 up and down the neck, pounding out the open-A pedal tone in steady eighth notes.

Pete Townshend was a master of devising rhythm parts played with this kind of “pedal tone against shifting chords” approach.

In bars 7-9, I switch to single-note lines based on the E blues scale, and then in bars 10-13, I move into fast, solo-type phrases based on E minor pentatonic, (E, G, A, B, D), and the E blues scale, with the inclusion of the 2nd/9th, F#, in bar 10.

These guitars are so lively and have a lot of “pop” to the sound, but they also have a lot of body and low-end that fattens up the single notes in a great way.

These guitars are not just for blues lawyers – you can rock with one of these! They may not be thought about that much anymore, and this is why I wanted to bring your attention to the rock ’n’ roll magic of an ES-350.

• Breakthrough is out now via J&R Adventures
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

In the late 1980s, Steve “Boltz” Bolton of Atomic Rooster fame had his life turned upside down when Pete Townshend personally recruited him to play lead electric guitar on The Who's 1989 tour.

The British guitarist had already worked with David Bowie and John Otway, and featured in the Bob Dylan film, Hearts of Fire, by the time he was approached by the famed guitar-smasher.

As Bolton recalls, Townshend had been impressed by his talents when the Who, Atomic Rooster, and Mott the Hoople shared a stage in 1971.

Prior to the 1989 tour, complications with tinnitus meant Townshend decided to pivot to playing acoustic guitar, with Bolton set to handle electric guitar duties. It was a setup that shielded the guitarist's ears from any more damage, but also one that resulted in some slight confusion.

Recounting their relationship with Guitar Player, Bolton says Townshend had told him, “I recognize myself in you,” and he even edged out Joe Walsh for the gig.

To protect Townshend's ears, Bolton experimented with a tiny five-watt amplifier, but soon reverted to what he knew best: a 100-watt Mesa/Boogie one-by-12 combo. That irked Townshend.

“We were in this huge rehearsal room in West London, which had now become small in space due to all of the gear,” Bolton says. “Pete brings along a bunch of minions with him, and one of them says to all of us, ‘Pete would like the band to run over The Overture from Tommy.’”

Townshend was positioned in a protective booth, which Bolton likens to a garden shed. “It had two speakers on the wall and a picture of the Queen. He's in there with a Takamine acoustic,” he explains.

However, when it came to playing the acoustic riff of Pinball Wizard – which Bolton had played on electric guitar during previous rehearsals in Townshend's absence – Bolton believed the returning guitar hero would assume that particular role himself. He was wrong.

“There's nothing, because I'm not playing, and he’s not playing,” Bolton says. “I look diagonally across the room, and Pete's glaring at me. He shouts, ‘Stop!’ And everyone stops.

“He then smashes the Takamine to smithereens, kicks over the front of the shed, and walks right over to me. He’s right in my face and says, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

“I pulled him by his lapels and said, ‘Listen, I thought, because you were here and you've got your guitar, you would be doing that bit. That's why I didn’t play.’

“And do you know what he said to me? ‘It’s my fucking band. I can do whatever I like!’

“Pete is a very complex character,” Bolton says, musing over his one-time bandmate all these years later. “But that's what makes him who he is.”

Earlier this year, Townsend said he has five years left in the music industry, having opened up on health issues that made preparing for the Who’s final tour a challenge.

Back in 1993, the great John Hiatt sang, “Oh, it breaks my heart to see those stars/Smashing a perfectly good guitar.”

Whether allegorical or not, Hiatt – in his song, Perfectly Good Guitar, from his album of the same name (which, by the way, rips) – put to words and music a sentiment felt by many, players and otherwise, since the Who's windmilling, creatively restless guitar-slinger, Pete Townshend, first made a ritual of reducing his guitars to hunks of wood onstage six decades ago.

It's not like it made things easy for Townshend.

“When we first came to New York, we did a thing called the Murray the K Show and we'd play four times a day,” Townshend told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in 2024.

“I only had one guitar, so I'd have to break it and fix it [by gluing it back together] four times a day. In the end, it was more glue and string [than anything else].”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Townshend's guitar-smashing antics didn't start intentionally – rather, they were a byproduct of something else he helped put into the guitar lexicon; wild feedback odysseys. Oh, and an unusually high stage, and unusually low ceiling.

In 1964, the Who were playing a gig at the Railway Hotel in London when Townshend began one of his – always very physically involved – quests for feedback and noise.

“I started to knock the guitar about a lot, hitting it on the amps to get banging noises and things like that, and it started to crack,” Townshend told author Richard Barnes. “It banged against the ceiling and smashed a hole in the plaster, and the guitar head actually poked through the ceiling. When I brought it out, the top of the neck was left behind. I couldn’t believe what had happened.

“There were a couple of people from art school I knew at the front of the stage and they were laughing their heads off,” he recalled. “One of them was literally rolling about on the floor, laughing, and his girlfriend was kind of looking at me, smirking. So I just got really angry and got what was left of the guitar and smashed it to smithereens.”

Though Townshend and his sole surviving Who bandmate, frontman Roger Daltrey – now both in their 80s – continue to play their 1965 angst anthem My Generation live (with its epochal line, “I hope I die before I get old,” unchanged), the former's guitar-smashing days seem to be long behind him.

“I haven't smashed guitars for a long time - for me, it was an expression of youth,” he told BBC Radio 2 in 2019. However, he caveated, “I am prepared to smash a guitar for charity.”

In the midst of what the Who have dubbed ‘The Song Is Over’ farewell tour of North America, Pete Townshend has opened up about his health and whether it really is the Who's, and Townshend's, final bow – at least in a touring capacity.

"I went through a period of feeling very depressed," he divulges in an interview with The New York Times. “And when I had the knee operation early this year, I got readdicted to painkillers. This is the way rock stars die, OxyContin.

“I’d gone through severe alcohol addiction for many years, then narcotics,” he continues. “I’d been clean for over 30 years. I called a close friend who’s working for a recovery clinic in Spain, and he got my head sorted out. I’m feeling really good at the moment.”

As for what the future lies for the Who, Townshend quips, “It’s in Roger’s hands. If we don’t extend, would we be in breach of contract? Would we be in swindle-land if we came back and played all those important venues we’ve left off the list, like Duluth?

“I’m 80, I don’t like being away from my family, my studios, my dogs, and my friends. I’m not looking to spend the next five years of my life waiting to drop dead on the stage.

“The end of the tour could give Roger and I permission never to call each other again. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

As the farewell tour rolls on, Townshend has also spoken out about his plan to experiment with “some one-man shows” in the near future and his conflicted thoughts on touring.

With The Who’s farewell tour now underway, Pete Townshend has opened up on his thoughts of heading out on the road one last time – and has seemingly pencilled in a year for retirement.

In May, Townshend announced he, Roger Daltrey and the rest of a new-look Who lineup will embark on ‘The Song Is Over’ farewell tour of North America, which kicked off last Saturday (August 16) in Florida.

The 15-date stint around the country will wrap up in Las Vegas on September 28, and when Townshend leaves the stage, he will bring an end to a Who touring career that he’s not always been especially fond of.

“It can be lonely,” Townshend recently told AARP of his dislike for touring. “I’ve thought, Well, this is my job, I’m happy to have the work, but I prefer to be doing something else. Then, I think, Well, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?”

Though this tour is being billed as the Who farewell, Townshend anticipates he and Daltrey will work together in some capacity in the future, whether that be “for charity and possibly for special projects”.

“We reserve the right to pop up again,” he adds, “but I think one thing is very clear: that at our age, we will not.”

As for his own health and career, Townshend reflects, “I just feel supreme. My brain is as sharp as a razor. I’m very, very creative. I’m not good with money, but I’m good at doing business deals.

“I am healthy, and I think I probably have another five years in show business. I’m not quite sure doing what. I'm very [good at] producing shows, producing artists, working with artists.”

Post-tour, Townshend has plans to keep himself busy, even if he does see himself calling it a day in five years.

“I plan to experiment with some one-man shows,” he continues. “Roger and I certainly [will] work together for charity and possibly for special projects. Together we represent all aspects of The Who legacy.

“You know, I’m the songwriter and creator, but Roger’s been the driving force, meaning keeping The Who band and his brand on track. Even with his solo work, we’ll continue to work together, even if we rarely socialize.”

It’s not the first time Townshend has discussed The Who’s farewell tour and what fans should expect, previously setting the record straight on the whole “farewell” verbiage that surrounds the spectacle.

“I’m pretty sure there will [be more shows]. I can’t really see the point of making a big deal of [last Who shows], apart from the fact that it might help sell a few tickets,” he recently said.

“When we started the last US tour the year before last, some of the seats were not filled. An easy way to fill seats is to say, ‘We’re not coming back,’ or, ‘This could be the last set of shows.’”

In other Townshend news, the guitarist recently revealed why he's not a natural collaborator – even with bandmates and fellow guitar heroes.

In recent years, Irish rockers Fontaines D.C. have gone from hardy, post-punk upstarts playing clubs to festival headliners, enjoying huge success on both sides of the Atlantic. In a fresh rig rundown, guitarist Carlos O'Connell has revealed how the preamp from an unassuming spring reverb is his secret weapon throughout that life-changing period.

There are plenty of notable names on his pedalboard, including an MXR Micro Amp for “pushing the amp a little bit,” a Strymon Volante tape delay, and an Eventide H9 Harmonizer.

But it's the pedal free of any swish design features and eye-catching branding that steals the show. It has a lineage with The Who’s Pete Townshend, but it was Radiohead’s strange-gear-loving Ed O’Brien that turned him on to it.

“It's called the Type 636P and it's made by this company called Soundgas,” he tells Premier Guitar.

Based out of Derbyshire, England, the firm is run by a group of vintage gear enthusiasts with a strong focus on vintage synths, tape echoes, and studio effects, but isn’t averse to the odd foray into new builds. The preamp is one such example of that. But they’re made in limited batches, and their £1295 (approx. $1750) price tag compounds their exclusivity.

As O’Connell explains, the pedal is based on the preamp from a Grampian 636 reverb unit. The studio rack was used by Townshend as a boost distortion on a score of The Who records.

“He figured that the gain in it was unbelievable,” O’Connell relays. “So [Soundgas] started refurbing a load of these spring tanks when they realized this thing was crazy, and they made these units. It’s a preamp, but it’s got the biggest distortion I’ve ever heard.

“It’s insanely expensive, but I saw Ed O’Brien on YouTube was showing his new ’board, he played through it and I was like ‘Wow,’” he continues. “Soundgas put it through drum machines and everything; it distorts stuff in an incredible way. I thought, ‘I need to hear it myself!’”

The sound he gets from it is akin to gravel in a cement mixer; it's disgustingly gritty, and it's very easy to see why he condemned his piggy bank to smithereens to get one. He cleans up extraneous noise with an MXR Smart Gate, and the Micro Amp keeps its animalistic nature but puts it in a more fitting suit to meet your mother in.

“This thing sounds incredible on like everything, you know?” he enthuses. “I've been using it in the studio when I produce albums [for other artists]. I have it in a chain out of the 'board and you can feed anything into it.”

Elsewhere in his interview, O'Connell also showcased how dynamic it can be, playing gently with the humbucker and single coil pickups of his Fender Mustang to usher out a fairly crystalline clean tone. On the other end, he shows how it can go “quite mad” with the dials cranked and its teeth bared.

Handily, because the pedal's face is so clean, he or a roadie has scrawled the relevant track names it's used for on it – Big Shot, Favourite, and I Love You are among the bunch.

“If you want it to be super dirty like I do with the Mellotron quite a lot, you just push the front end. It starts distorting a lot more; it squashes the sound a lot.” The sound here is well into germanium fuzz territory. “That works especially well in the studio.”

Despite not being an outright fan of his fellow Irish guitar hero, O'Connell's main studio axe is a copy of Rory Gallagher's Strat. That led to him playing the original, heavily relic’d guitar last year, and it left him in awe.

Visit Soundgas for more info on the pedal. A new batch is expected in the fall.

The Who have announced they will be touring North America one last time, with a 15-date 'The Song Is Over' farewell tour set to kick off in August.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and co. will start their farewell run at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL, on August 16, with the final date taking them to Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 28.

The news comes after Pete Townshend, on the promo campaign for the brand-new Quadrophenia ballet, admitted that playing live “doesn’t fill my soul” anymore.

Lone-working, he recently said, is where he gets his kicks these days, though his short-lived collaboration with David Gilmour proved to be an exception to the rule. Announcing the tour, however, Townshend speaks fondly of the band’s US reception over the years and looks forward to one last hurrah.

“Well, all good things must come to an end. It is a poignant time,” Townshend says (via Louder). “For me, playing to American audiences and those in Canada has always been incredible.

“The warmth and engagement of those audiences began back in 1967 with hippies smoking dope, sitting on their blankets, and listening deeply and intensely. Music was everywhere. We all felt equal.

“Today, Roger and I still carry the banner for the late Keith Moon, John Entwistle and of course, all of our long-time Who fans. I must say that although the road has not always been enjoyable for me, it is usually easy: the best job I could ever have had. I keep coming back. Every time I do, I meet new fans and feel new energy.

“Roger and I are in a good place, despite our age, eager to throw our weight behind this fond farewell to all our faithful fans,” he continues. “This tour will be about fond memories, love, and laughter. Make sure you join in.”

“Every musician's dream in the early ’60s was to make it big in the US charts,” adds Daltrey. “For the Who, that dream came true in 1967 and our lives were changed forever.

“Rock gave us a feeling of generational rebellion,” he reflects. “To me, America has always been great. The cultural differences had a huge impact on me, this was the land of the possible. It's not easy to end the big part of my life that touring with The Who has been. Thanks for being there for us and look forward to seeing you one last time.”

Last summer, Townshend had said he “can’t really see the point of making a big deal” of the Who's swan song, but it seems sentimentality has since crept in.

Townshend has also hit out at fans desperate for him to play Who songs during his solo shows, and has threatened to turn to AI if the trend continues.

Fans can join the Whooligan Fan Club to access ticket presales.

The Who: The Song Is Over Tour 2025

Aug 19: Newark Prudential Center, NJ
Aug 21: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
Aug 23: Atlantic City Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, NJ
Aug 26: Boston Fenway Park, MA
Aug 28: Wantagh Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, NY
Aug 30: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Sep 02: Toronto Budweiser Stage, ON
Sep 04: Toronto Budweiser Stage, ON
Sep 07: Chicago United Center, IL
Sep 17: Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, CA
Sep 19: Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, CA
Sep 21: Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre, CA
Sep 23: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC
Sep 25: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA
Sep 28: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV

Pete Townshend may have had an illustrious career as part of a band – the Who – who, despite fraught internal relationships, managed to forever make their mark on rock 'n' roll history.

However, the veteran guitarist has recently admitted he's far from a natural collaborator – in fact, he was largely the Who's principal songwriter – and also revealed that performing is not something he particularly enjoys.

 ”Most musicians are not like me,” he tells Spain's RockFM. “Most musicians do two things that I don't really do or don't enjoy doing.

 ”One is they love performing. I don't love performing. I don't like being on a stage. I don't mind being on a stage. I don't hate it, but it doesn't fill my soul in the way that you see some performers, [where] just their soul is filled through being on the stage. That's not me.”

He continues, “For me, collaboration is something that I find very difficult. If I was in a studio, like with a really, really great musician, or with a group of really great musicians, I think I would find it very hard. I find it very difficult looking in the eyes of another musician. I find myself looking to my own energy to express myself.”

However, this doesn't necessarily mean he's not open to collaborating in other art forms. Townshend points to his recent work Quadrophenia, which is being turned into a ballet, as an example.

“I think one of the things about that is that that kind of degree of collaboration is an exploration of the human body, of dancing,” he ponders. “With music, I find myself wanting to stay in my box for a while. I've always made demos in my studio of songs that I want other people to record.”

Asked whether there's any musician who would tempt him into making an exception, he replies matter-of-factly, “After what I just said about collaboration, it's not what I would want to do.

 ”I'm playing with Roger [Daltrey] next week at the [Teenage Cancer Trust] shows at the Royal Albert Hall, and I think that's gonna be enough for me for this month…

“I mean, I loved working with David Gilmour on my White City album and we co-wrote together some songs, but that was an uneasy collaboration.

“I actually made it clear I'm not a natural collaborator. And I really enjoyed working with Eric Clapton back in 1973 when we did the Rainbow Concert together.”

“I think it's interesting ’cause so many musicians, so many new musicians that I really respect want to work with me,” he adds with a laugh. “And I wish I was more open to it. I could have fun with some of the greatest musicians in the world.”

Interestingly, Townshend did recently collaborate with up-and-coming Dutch artist Inge Lamboo – imprinting a quintessentially ’60s-style solo on her latest record.

As a Pete Townshend connoisseur, The Smithereens' Jim Babjak knows a thing or two about The Who's hefty repertoire – and the nuts and bolts of what makes the Townshend guitar sound.

In fact, the New Jersey pop rockers released their own homage to the British band – 2009’s The Smithereens Play Tommy, covering highlights from The Who’s 1969 concept album Tommy – while continuing to build on The Smithereens' knack for releasing cover albums that still sound, well, quintessentially Smithereens.

The covers album had been a long time coming. Townshend is, unequivocally, Babjak’s lifelong guitar hero – and the band had already dipped their toes into covering Who tunes during their first national tour back in the ’80s.

“Dennis [Diken, drummer] and I went to many concerts during our teen years and besides seeing the Kinks about 30 times and tons of other bands, we saw The Who perform a few times while Keith Moon was still alive,” Babjak told Clifford Meth in a 2010 interview.

“After seeing them live, there's no doubt that Townshend made a huge impact on me during my learning years. It's still very much in our blood and will probably be there forever. So by the time we met Pat [DiNizio, guitarist and vocalist] in 1979, I already had this aggressive style of guitar playing, which was also fueled by the punk movement of the late ’70s.”

He continued, “Dennis Diken and I started playing together when we were 14 years old. We would practice playing songs like You Really Got Me by The Kinks, Summertime Blues by The Who, Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix…

“These songs give you an idea of how we started out. Then, around 1973 we got a little more ambitious and started playing songs off of The Who's Tommy album and whatever little snippets I could play off of Live at Leeds.”

Fast forward to 1986, and the band's version of The Seeker, from The Who's 1971 compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, was a key part of their setlist, and even appeared on MTV's Live at the Ritz, and a live EP released in 1987.

So it was only natural that The Smithereens' 10th studio album would be a love letter to one of the bands that helped shape their sound. “On the Tommy album, I used a Les Paul with P-90s that I borrowed from Kurt's [Reil, of New Jersey band the Grip Weeds] wife, Kristen,” Babjak explains in the latest edition of Guitar World.

“I wanted to keep it simple and use only one guitar, make it more Live at Leeds. I played bass on Tommy Can You Hear Me? That's me playing a Hofner with a pick.”

After all these years, did Babjak ever manage to meet his hero? “No, no no…” he confesses.

“I once had an opportunity to meet Pete Townshend. We were rehearsing at SIR in New York, and he was in the next studio with the people from the Tommy play. My guitar tech ran in and said, ‘Hey, you want to meet Pete?’ I was too scared. I heard he could be a real curmudgeon so I didn't want to ruin it!”

Babjak's Who-inspired approach would prove to be influential in itself – Nirvana's Nevermind was based on the Smithereens guitar sound, according to producer Butch Vig.

Speaking of Townshend, the veteran guitarist recently guested on a track by emerging Dutch artist Inge Lamboo.

For more from Jim Babjak, plus new interviews with Kiki Wong and Heart's Nancy Wilson, pick up issue 591 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.

Pete Townshend is lending his guitar chops to the next generation with his latest feature on a song by emerging Dutch singer-songwriter Inge Lamboo. The song, Call Out Your Name, was released on March 28 and showcases The Who guitarist delivering his quintessential soloing style on the young artist's record.

“It was an honor to be asked to play guitar on one of Inge Lamboo’s new tracks,” wrote Townshend, a statement that was then reshared on Lamboo's social media.

“I follow her work on Instagram and she is making terrific Indie-style music with some really smart twists. The guitar work on her tracks is perfectly wonderful without me, so I decided to throw some mud at the wall – in the old ’60s style, and amazingly it worked. Inge is a special talent, we should ALL look out for her.”

As for how this unexpected link-up came about, well, it was all thanks to the algorithm gods. As an ambassador for Pride in Amsterdam, Lamboo wrote the anthem Like a Phoenix, which she later performed on a popular radio show in the Netherlands.

As an encore, she decided to give listeners a taste of her specialty: song mashups. The performance spread like wildfire – going viral on social media and, lo and behold, catching the attention of a certain Pete Townshend, who ended up sending a private message: “You're really good. Looking forward to more.”

“Do I dare ask him to play on my new album?” she writes on her official website. “I spent two weeks thinking about it.” She finally gathered the courage and sent what she deems “her most indie song yet” – Call Out Your Name.

Two weeks later, the veteran guitarist responded with his contribution to the track – a blazing, quintessentially Townshend guitar solo.

The result is a quasi-call-and-response solo, with Lamboo very much holding her own on guitar, and with the two different solos panned to the left and right, respectively. As she sums it up, “His playing is very recognizable, rhythmic, and full of attitude.”

Speaking of Pete Townshend, the guitarist recently threatened to turn to AI if fans don’t stop asking him to play The Who’s hits.

Pete Townshend has hit out at fans that are “irritated I won’t just play Who hits till I die” and has mused that AI impressions of his work may satiate their hunger for more music from the band.

The Who are by no means dead and buried, but in 2025, the guitarist has his fingers in various other pies – he opened a teaching and creative centre, the Townshend Studio, at the University of West London in Ealing late last year, and a solo career to keep him occupied. Not to mention that Quadrophenia is now a ballet.

As such, he feels irked that certain factions of his fanbase continue to circle back to his main band.

“It is a tremendous irritation to Who fans that I don’t just stick to the old catalogue and do it until I die,” Townshend tells UK newspaper, The Times, insisting he doesn’t want to succumb to the nostalgic whim of his fans.

Instead, his Times talk turned to artificial intelligence, referencing how Paul McCartney used the technology to turn an old John Lennon demo into one final, Grammy-winning song, Now and Then. That seems to have got him thinking.

“If I told AI, ‘Write a load of Pete Townshend songs like he used to in 1973,’ a lot of Who fans would be really pleased,” he muses.

As ever, it’s hard to tell whether Townshend is being totally sincere – we suspect he may have had his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek as he uttered those words.

AI in music has proven a divisive topic in recent times. The Beatles have, albeit controversially, showed its possibilities.

Alex Van Halen reportedly wants to go down a similar route when it comes to brushing-up old Eddie Van Halen demos. Steve Lukather has even confirmed his involvement in the project, and an infinitely generating AI overdrive pedal plugin has also caught the eye.

Then there’s the applications in things like the Spark 2 amp, which can help users create tones with AI, and it could present a bright future in terms of guitar tuition. However, it is not welcomed across the board, particularly when it comes to songwriters.

Jimmy Page has written an open letter to the UK Government imploring new laws to put artists first, and tech firms second; a sentiment Brian May has echoed.

Either way, those opposed to AI muscling in on the music industry may do well by stopping their requests for Townshend to play My Generation again...

2024 Year in Review: It’s no secret that the Who guitarist Pete Townshend tends to stick with the more old-school guitar designs – from Strats to Les Pauls and SGs, not to mention Rickenbackers.

What he’s not known for is playing heavy metal speed machines made by companies like Jackson.

But that all changed at the beginning of the year. In an interview with Guitarist, he explained how he’d been impressed by the light-gauge strings, double-locking tremolo system and whammy bar on his latest acquisition.

“I was playing faster, no question,” he said. “I was playing at three times the speed I normally play at… because these guitars are built for a particular kind of thing. So I’m still learning and I’m still having fun with guitars.”

With the Gibson Les Paul Junior celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2024, it’s hard not to immediately think of Leslie West – arguably the most influential Junior player who ever lived. The legendary Mountain co-founder and guitarist wielded his instantly recognizable TV Yellow and Sunburst models throughout his career.

In an excerpt from a 1993 interview, which was published in the latest edition of Guitarist, West reflects on his love affair with the Les Paul Junior, and recalls how he ended up giving one to Pete Townshend.

“Felix [Pappalardi, Mountain's bassist] gave me the first Junior that I used in Mountain,” he says. “It was basically a hunk of wood with a pickup on it, the cheapest guitar that Gibson ever made. But it was all I needed. It had one pickup, a tone control, and a volume control.

“When I started Mountain with Felix I used an SG Junior and the thing would never stay in tune. So he had this old beat-up Junior and he said, ‘Try this thing,’ and I never gave it back.”

West ended up giving the guitar he got via Pappalardi to The Who's Pete Townshend after he was summoned to play on the 1971 record Who's Next.

“I played on Won’t Get Fooled Again, Baby Don’t You Do It, and Behind Blue Eyes. They came over to the States and they were at the Record Plant in New York. Kit Lambert [The Who's record producer and manager at the time] called me up and said, ‘Pete wants to record an album, but he doesn’t want to overdub; he wants you to play lead.’ So we went down and we did it.”

These takes, which are a great example of two guitar legends collaborating, didn’t make the final cut – but were eventually released as part of the deluxe edition. However, West had built a good rapport with Townshend, so much so that he gave him a few trinkets from his collection.

“When I finished the sessions I gave Pete my Junior and an old Tweed Fender Champ and he wrote me a really beautiful letter. I had the greatest time seeing how they recorded because that was a unique group, I’ve got to tell you.”

The Who guitarist wasn’t the only individual West converted into a Les Paul Junior disciple. When Mountain supported Jethro Tull in the States, West, wielding his Junior, caught Martin Barre’s eye, inspiring him to adopt one himself.

“I ended up buying a Les Paul Junior, like everyone else who met him did. I had a really old ropey Fender Strat, but basically Aqualung was all recorded on the Les Paul Junior.”

For more about the history of the Gibson Les Paul Junior, plus new interviews with Marcus King and George Benson, pick up issue 518 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Session guitarist Andrew Synowiec's work is imprinted on some of Hollywood's highest-grossing movies, including Disney phenomenon Frozen and its earworm anthem, Let It Go. However, one gig Synowiec never expected to land was a last-minute session on a Who track.

“The phone rings, and I can see it's this kind of major contractor in town,” Synowiec tells Vertex Effects. “It's just somebody that works in the office. ‘Hi. We were wondering if you play clawhammer nylon.’ In the space of a millisecond, I'm thinking, ‘Clawhammer nylon?’”

Despite being an experienced session guitarist, Synowiec had no idea what technique they were referring to or what exactly they wanted, but decided to bluff his way into the job.

“I know what clawhammer banjo is. I mean, it's kind of like fingerpicking, so presumably that on a nylon string guitar. I guess I could do that,” he reasons.

“I immediately respond, ‘Oh, sure, yeah, no problem. I know exactly what that is. By the way, what's it for?’ And they go, ‘The Who, I guess it's a rock band or something,’ and I'm like, ‘What?!’”

Later that afternoon, Synowiec received an email detailing the job – The Who were working on a record, and there was a song that Townshend's brother Simon had written, with a guitar part in a style that The Who’s guitarist doesn’t typically play. Therefore, they needed someone to step in and play the part as Simon had intended.

“And then there's just one other kind of bone of contention here. ‘Would you mind recording just a little snippet of video for them to see you before, you know, we officially hire you?’ And normally, I would kind of be like, ‘Really? Come on!’ But for The Who, I'm like, ‘Hell yeah!’”

There was one minor problem, however – Synowiec still didn’t know what playing style was expected of him. “When you're in that situation, you're just thinking, ‘I gotta get this session, man, like, what can I do?’” he explains. “So at the time, that acoustic style of playing where you're tapping the guitar and hitting it, like Kaki King, was really popular, and I'm thinking, ‘Clawhammer or not, is that what they mean?’”

He decided to improvise, incorporating King’s style in his playing, alongside “fast fingerpicking” with a dash of blues in his audition clip.

Thankfully, he passed the legendary band’s test, and quickly found himself, along with his Peacewalker nylon guitar, at the producer’s home studio to record the part – which turned out to be one of the album’s final missing puzzle pieces.

“I sat down and pulled out my chart so I could have a clue. And they're like. ‘Uh, let's just check the headphones, and you'll hear eight clicks, and then you start playing.’ I get the headphone mix real quick, and kind of sit in front of the mic. And then, sure enough, I heard eight clicks. And I start playing the thing.

“And I'm looking at my chart, and I[‘m] [thinking], ‘This is the first time that I'm hearing anything besides just guitar. And I think this is where the verse happens.’ And then, sure enough, we get to bar nine or whatever. And on my headphones, I hear for the first time Roger Daltrey singing this song. And it's like a crazy, crazy feeling.”

The song, Break The News, ended up on the tracklist of The Who’s 12th studio album, Who (2019) – the band’s first new record in 13 years and the second spearheaded solely by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. The album was a commercial success, clinching the number two spot on the Billboard 200.

In recent news, Pete Townshend has reflected on the realities of touring in his golden years and clarified whether he and Daltrey plan to retire anytime soon.

Caleb Quaye left the music business in the ‘80s, after a career spent inheriting assignments slated for Jimmy Page and palling around with Pete Townshend and Elton John. “But I kept playing,” he tells Guitar World, “in a Christian band for my church and at evangelistic events.”

In the ‘70s Quaye was an ace whose licks enhanced tracks ranging from Harry Nilsson’s Coconut to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer. He was a full-time member of John’s band and also lent his talents to Lou Reed, Hall & Oates, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, Peter Criss.

It’s his days with Elton John that mean the most. “I was easy in the studio,” he recalls. “Elton might say, ‘I want it to sound like this.’ We all knew what ‘this’ meant – we could creatively turn on a dime.

“We understood his influences. Elton and I spent a lot of time in those early days listening to music, playing and spending all our money at record stores buying all kinds of import albums.”

Despite being out of the business for over 40 years, Quaye’s legacy looms large. One can’t help but wonder what it might have looked like if he’d stuck around – but he has no regrets.

“I’m proud of my contribution to music history. The whole journey in life has been grea,” he says..

“I’ve come to see that it was orchestrated by God. There’s a delusion in the industry, where people become successful and think it's all them. Real freedom comes when you discover it’s not all about you.

“It’s a blessing to bless others with music. I get emails that say, ‘Your work and playing meant a lot.’ It gives me peace. It’s wonderful to have been able to do that.”

What got you into studio work?

“A friend of mine, Billy Nicholls, was signed to Andrew Oldham’s Immediate label. Billy would come in with demos and I would engineer for them. When Billy recorded his first album at Olympic Studios, he wanted me to play on it because I’d helped with his demos.

“Back then everything was union musicians; there was a contractor in the studio, David Katz, and his brother, Charlie. Charlie would be the booker for the strings, and David would book the rhythm section.

“I was there on a rhythm section date; I was maybe 16. After we finished, David said, ‘Caleb, I like what you’re doing. I’ve got all this work lined up for Jimmy Page, but he doesn’t want to do it anymore.’ Jimmy was a top studio guy, but he’d had a meltdown, got fed up and joined the Yardbirds.

“David said, ‘Would you like to do it?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir – I would love to.’ He said, ‘First, I need you to join the Musicians’ Union.’ I ran down the street to the MU office and signed on. All the work lined up for Jimmy Page went to me.”

Was it challenging to measure up to Jimmy’s sound and style?

“I was free to do it as I would do it. Nobody ever said, ‘We need you to play like Jimmy.’ Like most sessions, if there was something specific in the arrangement I’d play it. But outside of that, I was free to do it as I wanted.”

One of your early credits is with Lou Reed on his debut record, featuring Steve Howe. What was that like?

“The recording was spread out over a few days. They used different guitar players, but Steve and I weren't in the same room at the same time. This would have been ’72; I remember using my ’64 Fender Strat going through my Fender Deluxe.”

Around the same time you worked closely with Pete Townshend on a song called Forever’s No Time at All, where you played bass, drums and guitar.

“That was great fun. I remember it well to this day – it was with Billy Nicholls, who wrote the song. We cut the track with Billy on acoustic and doing a guide vocal. Then I played drums and added bass and electric. I used my Fender Strat going through the Fender Deluxe.

“The bass was one of Pete’s; it might have been a Gibson EB-0. He had it hanging on the wall in the studio. Pete engineered the session, and he was having a field day! He loved engineering and he was like a scientist. We had a great time.”

Did Pete give much guidance?

“He just let me do what I do. There was an interview with Pete back in those days that's recently been unearthed. He talked about the session and graciously said he thought I was a genius!”

Why do you think Pete liked your playing so much?

“It was the jazz influence. I remember taking a tea break; we went upstairs into the kitchen area, and there was a guitar up there. I was noodling around, and Pete was standing watching me. He said, ‘Wow – I wish I could play like you.’ I was thinking, ‘I wish I could come up with the three chords you take to the bank!’”

One of your most memorable credits is Coconut from Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson. How did you end up in that session?

“It was just crazy. That was me with Nilsson and Richard Perry. Unfortunately, they were out of their minds on cocaine and LSD. That tune is made up of one chord – C7. I was playing my trusty Gibson J-45, and they kept stopping and starting.

“It got really frustrating – it took 16 hours to record! Finally, they got what they needed, with a whole bunch of editing. That was not one of my highlights.

“But when the album came out, Rolling Stone and the Melody Maker said, ‘Oh, this is a work of genius!’ I’m reading these reviews, going, ‘No – you guys need to talk to me!’ It was absolutely unbelievable.”

What did your rig look like when you recorded Madman Across the Water with Elton John?

“That was still my Strat. I would have used that on Tiny Dancer, Levon and those songs. Those recordings were a lot of fun to do.”

How did you and Davey Johnstone divide up the guitar-related labor?

“A big factor was that we were friends in those days. There was relational chemistry, because we all grew up listening to the same music – the British Invasion and the stuff from the West Coast like the Beach Boys. We’d have listening parties and soak up all that music from Motown to Memphis.”

You were with Elton from the start. Did you think he would eventually blow up?

“No, we didn’t. We knew we were doing something that was quality; knew it was different, and that we could be on to something. Early on, the word went out, ‘You need to get down to the studio and hear what they’re doing with this guy, Elton John.’

“Different musicians would stop by and listen and say, ‘This is great!’ It was a process – and it eventually came to fruition.”

Why did you and most of Elton’s band leave at the height of his fame to work with Hall & Oates?

“Elton was huge by then; he was dealing with his own issues and had a bit of a meltdown. He put the brakes on everything and needed a rest. We were doing a lot of touring, all stadium stuff. He put the brakes on just before the last concert at Madison Square Garden.

“Kenny Passarelli had gotten to know Hall & Oates, who had come to see us, probably at Madison Square Garden. Kenny pitched it to us that they’d like to work with Elton’s very tight rhythm section. So, Roger Pope, Kenny and I auditioned for their new band, and that’s how it happened.”

That led to you working with Robert Fripp on Daryl Hall’s debut solo record, Sacred Songs, in 1980.

“Our styles were so totally different, so polar opposite, that it actually worked! Robert used to say to me, ‘I can’t play blues.’ I’d play blues left and right and he’d say, ‘I can’t do that; I just do this.’ Robert has incredible technique, but he’s not a pocket player. He doesn’t come from that, the blues thing – he has a more scientific approach.”

Were you still using your Strat and Fender Deluxe?

“It was my Epiphone Riviera and a Mesa Boogie Mark I by then. The Epiphone was a cool guitar to play, with great action. I developed a fascination with humbucking pickups, and that guitar was fatter on the lower end.”

Why did you switch to Mesa Boogie?

“You could get sounds dialed in nicely. I had the second batch of Mesa Boogies ever made – the first batch went to Carlos Santana. I got mine while I was on tour with Elton in 1975, and I took them with me when I joined Hall & Oates.”

One of your final credits came on Peter Criss’s third solo record, Let Me Rock You. How was that?

“I’d say there was a certain fun aspect to it. I knew the guys playing on it, and the producer, Vini Poncia, knew a friend of mine. That’s how I ended up on the record. I was never a Kiss fan; it was just another session. But it was fun to do and went smoothly.

“Peter was okay. I wouldn’t consider him a really great drummer, like some of the guys that I know. He’d already left Kiss and was going through a transition, so he was pretty mellow. He didn’t come in with any big rock star attitude. I didn’t even recognize him because Kiss was always painted up on stage!”

Why did you leave the music business in the mid 80s?

“It’s very simple: I became a Christian.”

The two things couldn’t coexist?

“Not the way things were. Through becoming a Christian, I got set free from drugs and everything. It’s a whole different worldview and mindset. It gave me the peace I was looking for. It sorted out the personal baggage I’d carried since childhood. The greatest thing I’ve ever done is say ‘yes’ to Jesus.”

• Follow Caleb Quaye on Instagram and X.

Conjure an image of The Who’s axeman and songwriter Pete Townshend, and you’ll most likely picture him leaping through the air whirlwind strumming a Gibson SG or shoving a guitar headstock-first through a Marshall 4 x 12 cab.

However, Townshend’s innovations as an electric guitarist are mirrored in his acoustic work. Check out the powerful, dynamic strumming of Pinball Wizard, the sophisticated use of moving triads in Substitute, or the delicate and classy 12-string picking on Sunrise, and you’ll hear a guitarist who took the acoustic in a new, untapped direction in the 1960s.

Townshend was born into a musical family in Chiswick, London on May 19th, 1945. His first musical inspiration was American rock and roller Bill Haley while his first forays into performance and writing came at age 11 when he received his first guitar.

At school he formed a group with future Who accomplice and bassist John Entwistle, and the pair were inspired by the trad jazz and skiffle stars of the day, like Lonnie Donegan and Acker Bilk.

It wasn’t long before rock and roll took over, though, and Townshend and Entwistle’s sounds soon became far heavier. But you can’t dismiss the influence Donegan’s strummed skiffle style must have had on Pete’s rhythm work on both acoustic and electric.

In 1961 Entwistle and Townshend joined singer Roger Daltrey in his group The Detours; three years later drummer Keith Moon (surely the blueprint for Muppetts’ skinsman, Animal) joined the band and The Who came to be. Originally playing covers by the popular groups of the day such as The Shadows and The Ventures, when they signed their first record contract they pursued a heavier sound influenced by The Kinks.

The band’s third single, My Generation, gave them a massive hit and propelled them to superstardom. Legendary albums Live At Leeds and Tommy followed, providing the band a legacy that established their position within rock royalty.

Townshend contemporaries Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton became known as lead guitar masters but Townshend often eschewed soloing in favour of creative, driving rhythm playing. He’s a great player to study if you want to get more interesting chord ideas into your vocabulary or want to develop a more powerful, uptempo rhythm style.

This month’s study examines three facets to Pete’s playing: the folk inspired fingerpicking that opens the track, his big strummed open chords, and his creative use of triads moving up the treble strings against a pedal tone, as here the open fourth string.

While there’s just enough time in the track to pick up a guitar pick after the fingerpicking, my video shows how you can tuck the pick in between the fingers when fingerpicking then quickly grab it to move to strumming.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 3, Bass 7, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

The acoustic most associated with Townshend, although he’s pictured here with a Martin D-35, is the Gibson J-200 that can be heard on tracks like Pinball Wizard. Naturally any acoustic will get you in the ballpark, but make sure the strings are fresh and the action not set too high. I used a Martin D-28 1937 Expert, and the above settings are for when using an acoustic guitar amp.

Study Piece

Bars 1-16: This fingerpicking section is very common for the time and you’ll hear similar ideas in artists like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. At the core is the thumb picking an alternating bassline from the sixth to fourth strings.

It’s based around a G to C shape where the G bassnote remains on the sixth string. This is followed by a very 1970s rock idea with a note descending on the fourth string while the remaining notes stay in place. This always sounds dramatic!

Bars 17-end: The first strumming section may look straightforward but Townshend moves chord shapes quickly. If you are new to his style, work on clean chord movement first then build up the speed. A tip here is that I’ve used a G Major shape where the second string remains open, meaning less finger movement between chords.

Keep the strumming hand relaxed and pay attention to the chords played off the beat. From bar 25 you’ll hear the characteristic triad against bass note sound of The Who. It gives loads of chord colour without having to think too much about what’s going on theory-wise.

As the guitarist who will forever be associated with guitar smashing, Pete Townshend has recently reflected on how fans still expect The Who to treat them to a raucous live performance. He also sets the record straight about whether there are any Who retirement shows in the works.

“I’m pretty sure there will [be more shows]. I can’t really see the point of making a big deal of [last Who shows], apart from the fact that it might help sell a few tickets,” he says in a new NME interview.

“When we started the last US tour the year before last, some of the seats were not filled. An easy way to fill seats is to say, ‘We’re not coming back,’ or, ‘This could be the last set of shows.’

“What I would prefer was that the band adjusted itself to the audience that wants to see it, rather than just saying, ‘We need to fill arenas in order to go home with enough money to make the whole thing worthwhile.’ The story of the end of The Who is gonna be when either Roger or I drop dead or can’t function anymore on the stage.”

He also discusses the realities of being a touring 79-year-old musician, especially one known for his onstage antics, and the pressures that come with that showmanship.

“A lot of the time when we’re on the stage together, it’s not all that comfortable and you can see that. And it’s sad to say that a lot of dedicated Who fans come to every show in order to see Roger hit me in the face again, for me to smash him over the head with a guitar or for one of us to drop dead.”

As for Roger Daltrey's comments that he is “happy” that “that part of my life [referring to the band] is over”, Townshend says, “I think it’s been over for a long time. The Who machine died when [bassist] John Entwistle died, because we were hanging on by a thread in a sense.

“Roger and I had a decision to make as to whether or not we would try to keep the flame burning, the brand going, when he died, and we were about to do a tour so we decided to do it. And that tour worked out to be quite successful.”

The Who's concept album, the 1973 Townshend-composed and produced Quadrophenia, is being transformed into a ballet set to tour the UK in the summer of 2025. It also marks Townshend's first foray into ballet after being involved in opera productions and literature.

Last weekend at Coachella, Indo-Canadian artist AP Dhillon participated in the long-standing tradition of guitar smashing. However, the reactions to him smashing his metallic gold ESP LTD Kirk Hammett V were mixed, to say the least. While some praised Dhillon for the move, others were viscerally angry about what many called a lack of respect for the instrument.

"Pop artists break guitars to look cool. They try to imitate rock/metal artists, not realising that they break their guitars out of the adrenaline rush and intensity of playing the instrument. It always hurts to see the poor instrument face the wrath of these wannabes," said one commentator. Another added: "Respect the things which brought you to this stage."

This is far from the first time artists have faced backlash for smashing a guitar in recent years. So is guitar smashing no longer cool?

Historically, instrument smashing was not only novel and shocking but also a sign of being anti-establishment. For instance, in 1966, a group of artists met in London to participate in the Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS). 

This included Raphael Montañez Ortiz's piano destruction concerts. The overarching theme of DIAS was “to focus attention on the element of destruction in Happenings and other art forms, and to relate this destruction in society.”

At the 1962 Festival of Misfits, British painter Robin Page performed a performance art piece aptly called "Guitar Piece," which saw him throw his guitar off the stage at London's ICA and kick it down pavements until it was just a bunch of small pieces. Pete Townshend was inspired by this performance art piece and started incorporating guitar smashing into his performances – even if it meant he had to glue them back together in between shows.

From then on, guitar smashing became a staple of rock performances. Jimi Hendrix famously set fire to his guitar at London's Finsbury Park Astoria, an act he repeated at the Monterey Pop Festival.

Kurt Cobain was known for smashing guitars – an act immortalized in many iconic gig photos. Matt Bellamy of Muse holds the Guinness World Record for most guitars smashed on tour at 140.

Yet fast-forward to 2021, and Phoebe Bridgers was attacked for smashing her guitar on stage during an SNL performance. Contemporary artists who fall outside the rock and metal realm seem to get the most hate for smashing guitars, indicating a greater gatekeeping issue.

Some artists are even now publicly regretting what they've done in the past. Just a few days ago, Flea, known for smashing a bass or two, shared: “Feel like such an idiot for smashing my bass to pieces on stage back in the day, pathetic.”

But how do instrument manufacturers feel about the practice? In a 2021 interview with ABC, Fender's EVP of Product, Justin Norvell, said: “The guitar is what I call a sonic paintbrush. It's something for an artist to use, to create with.

“So while people look at a guitar being smashed and [say], 'That could go to someone else,' or whatever, in that moment and what [an artist is] doing and how they're feeling, if [smashing a guitar] encapsulates part of that [performance]...”

In the current climate, many people simply see guitar smashing as a privilege granted only to those musicians who've reached the top or have the financial means to afford to buy a guitar to smash in the first place.

However, in an age where so little shocks us anymore, the fact that guitar smashing is still so wildly controversial says a lot about this action's staying power and its ability to provoke a very primal human reaction.

Perhaps this is what these contemporary artists want to remind us of – and judging by online discourse, they are certainly succeeding.

Peanut butter and jelly, Simon and Garfunkel, Pete Townshend and smashing guitars; some things are just meant to go together. 

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Who guitarist discussed his affinity for breaking guitars during the band’s live shows, and why he’s never felt a deep bond with any of the instruments he's reduced to splinters. 

“Young kids that buy their first really good guitar end up in a love relationship with it; I've never had that,” Townshend explains. 

“I think a lot of people struggle to buy their first instruments and they build up a relationship with them.   

“In those days, every kid wanted to be Elvis Presley and they wanted the cheap guitars [that he'd play]. They were trash guitars; the kind of guitars your grandmother would buy you for Christmas; they'd be unplayable. 

“My dad was a professional musician and I said ‘Please – you buy me my first guitar,’” he added. “But he said ‘Your grandmother wants to buy you one.’  

“So my grandmother bought me my first guitar from off the wall of the Greek restaurant in Eeling where we lived. No one's gonna tell me that that hunk of wood is sacred. Not to me.”  

Asked by Fallon what happened to his guitars after he’d smashed them, he revealed how in the early days he would have to resurrect his guitar to break it again. And again. And again.  

“When we first came to New York, we did a thing called The Murray the K Show and we'd play four times a day,” Townshend says. “I only had one guitar, so I'd have to break it and fix it [by gluing it back together] four times a day. 

“In the end, it was more glue and string [than anything else].”  

The pair’s chat also saw Townshend relaying how Roger Daltrey had “challenged” him to join the band as the vocalist looked to recruit best-in-class band members from his school. 

“He was a short kid – he still is short – and he claimed he was bullied a lot at school. His system for dealing with that was to become a fighter,” Townshend explains.  

“So I was kind of wary of him, and he'd left the year before me. One day, I was talking to a teacher and Roger walked in with a guitar he'd made himself and interrupted the teacher. He said to me: ‘You play guitar?’ and I said ‘yeah.’ ‘I heard you're not bad. My house 7 o'clock tonight.’ So, I went and I got hired that way.”  

Townshend is on a hot streak of interviews at the moment. He recently sat down with Guitarist to discuss how he feels his rhythm playing, rather than his virtuosity has helped him stand out over the years. 

During that interview, he also revealed how Leslie West told him how he preferred his expansive rock licks over Eric Clapton’s blues vocabulary. 

Mark Knopfler has put together an almighty assemblage of A-list guitar talent for an expanded all-star version of Going Home, his theme track to Local Hero, with the charity single opening with the late Jeff Beck’s final recording, and proceeds going to teenage cancer charities.

In sum, more than 60 rock legends, including 50-plus guitarists, were involved in the recording, which was produced by Guy Fletcher, with some choosing to track at British Grove Studios, in West London, others sending their parts in, and others, such as Pete Townshend of the Who, just appearing out of the blue with an electric guitar, an amp, and the look of a man who wanted to get down to business.

“Before I knew where I was, Pete Townshend had come into my studio armed with a guitar and an amp,” says Knopfler. “And that first Pete power chord…man, I tell you. We were in that territory, and it was just fantastic. And it went on from there.”

It did. The cast of players is ridiculous. Let’s take a deep breath and name a few names: Brian May, Tony Iommi, Slash, Joan Armatrading, Joan Jett, Buddy Guy, Hank Marvin, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Orianthi, Tom Morello, Peter Frampton, David Gilmour, Albert Lee, and Eric Clapton. There are many more.

Alongside Townshend, Clapton and Lee were among the first to contribute. Speaking of which, Slowhand was in top form. “Eric came in, played great, just one tasty lick after another,” says Knopfler.

The track will be previewed at Newcastle United’s home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on March 2 (the team walk out to the Local Hero theme), before being released via Sony/BMG on March 15. A number of the performers will be at the match. 

Let’s name some more names. Also featured are Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Joe Bonamassa, Nile Rodgers, Duane Eddy, Steve Lukather, Sheryl Crow, Joe Walsh, Mike Rutherford, and Ry Cooder. We also have a Beatles/Stones crossover event, with Ronnie Wood playing guitar, and Ringo Starr on the drums. Starr’s son, Zak Starkey, also plays drums. Oh, and Sting is playing bass guitar. It’s that sort of occasion. 

But it is Jeff Beck’s presence that makes this all the more poignant. This was the last guitar track he recorded before his death in January 2023. 

Knopfler described Beck’s contribution was “spellbinding.” While Fletcher says Beck's part was “absolutely meant to be. What he did with it, it just brings you to tears.”

Knopfler was taken aback by the response from his peers, and admits that they had to extend the track to fit everyone on it.

“What I really want to do, more than anything else, is just to thank each and every one for this sterling response,” he says. “I really had no idea that it was going to be like this. It hit Guy and I quite early on that we had to extend this piece somehow, to take in the number of people who joined in.”

Going Home is an instrumental but it does feature one of rock’s great frontmen, Roger Daltrey, playing harmonica. The single will benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK, which Daltrey is an honorary patron of, and the Teen Cancer America, which he co-founded with Townshend. 

The sheer scale of this Going Home charity redux production calls to mind Live Aid, when in 1985 the convening powers of Midge Ure and Bob Geldof got pop’s biggest stars to unite against famine in Africa for one of the defining pop-cultural moments of the decade. But has there ever been a track with so many star guitarists?

The cast certainly gave Sir Peter Blake plenty to work with for the cover, and he took a similar approach to his iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album artwork, with images of all the guitarists – plus the likes of Local Hero stars Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster – cut-out and arranged across a picture of the legendary Hank’s Guitar Shop on London’s Denmark Street.

The Mark Kopfler’s Guitar Heroes version of Going Home (the Theme from Local Hero) is available to preorder now, and is out March 15 on CD, 12” with etched b-side, and a deluxe CD/Blu-ray package including sleeve notes by Paul Sexton. Digital formats will include a Dolby Atmos mix of the track.

The track has already raised a six-figure sum following NeoFidelity Recordings’ sale of an Original Disc of the master recording.

In addition, eight guitars have been donated by leading guitar brands to support the initiative, each of which has been signed. One will be auctioned for the Teenage Cancer Trust at a private donor event on March 1. 

You can read the track’s full cast below, and find out more at Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes: 

Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, Zucchero.

During the golden age of rock ’n’ roll, Pete Townshend helped define and redefine both the electric and acoustic guitar several times over. As the Who’s guitarist, he pioneered an aggressive, almost punky approach to the guitar in the mid-1960s, at least a decade before punk was a genre. 

And his rampant destruction of his instrument on stage – which he later attributed to his studies at Ealing Art College of Gustav Metzger, the pioneer of auto-destructive art – became not just an expression of youthful angst but also a means of conveying ideas through musical performance. 

“We advanced a new concept,” Townshend wrote in his memoir. “Destruction is art when set to music.”

It also set the Who apart from just about every one of their contemporaries, but most especially guitarists like Jimmy Page, Peter Green, and, of course, Townshend’s friend Eric Clapton, who were peddling an English version of American blues back to the country of its origin.

“No-one who saw the Who at that time could deny that they were the best live band going,” Richard Barnes, the Who’s biographer and Townshend’s flatmate at the time, recalled in 2021.

“Even the biggest Kinks fan, if the Kinks and the Who were both playing in town, would go see the Who over the Kinks. They were a real show when no-one else was putting on a show. And that catapulted them into that rarified company.”

Townshend’s aggressive but melodic approach to the guitar, in a style that combined both lead and rhythm guitar, was hugely influential on guitarists from the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones to Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, and many others. 

Recently ranked No 37 on Rolling Stone’s 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time, he was also one of the first musicians to use large stacks of amplifiers and feedback as a musical tool, often ramming his guitar against the deafeningly loud speakers.

“Our managers signed Jimi Hendrix to their label and had me take him down to Jim Marshall’s,” Townshend told this writer in 1993, recalling a trip to the legendary amplifier designer’s shop. “At the time I had two cabinets of four speakers each. Jimi bought four cabinets. He didn’t do my act. He stole my act.”

“Pete Townshend is one of my greatest influences,” Rush’s Alex Lifeson, a guitar virtuoso in his own right, said of Townshend’s often underrated talent on the guitar. “More than any other guitarist, he taught me how to play rhythm guitar and demonstrated its importance, particularly in a three-piece band.”

And as an acoustic guitarist, Townshend’s staccato, cod-flamenco approach and precise rhythm – often doubled with an electric rhythm guitar that pushed and pulled against drummer Keith Moon’s brazen drumming – set a bar for players unmatched by anyone save, perhaps, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. It’s a style of playing born from necessity, as Townshend describes it.

“Keith had spent so long playing the drums, but not being a drummer, being a decorator, being an interpreter, being somebody that created energy around what I was doing, I became very metronomic,” Townshend tells Guitarist today. “I’m still very accurate.”

But it is also a style that owes a huge debt not just to the Who’s astonishing live performances of the era, but from Townshend’s groundbreaking use of home recording as a way to demo and perfect the songs he was writing for the Who. 

As a result, Townshend’s songwriting developed in leaps and bounds from the aggressive pop of I Can’t Explain to the mini-opera A Quick One (While He’s Away), and full-blown operatic aspirations of Tommy, which broke the Who as international superstars. 

Eventually came the peerless sophistication of the songs from Who’s Next, perhaps the greatest rock ’n’ roll album ever, as well as the rough elegance and power of Townshend’s greatest songwriting achievement, Quadrophenia, which took the rock opera as far as it could go. 

“I’d got my first really proper 3M tape machine,” Townshend today recalls of that home studio‑slash-workshop. “And I was using Dolby. I was using Dolby before recording studios were using Dolby. It wasn’t innovation, it was just good luck. My company that made studios for people was based next to Dolby on Clapham in London, and so I knew Ray Dolby, and I could work on my 8-track, but I could also do loads and loads of dumping – combining tracks – so I could add more and more elements.”

Endurance Test

On a balmy October afternoon in France, Pete Townshend meets Guitarist to discuss Who’s Next, the Who album that has always, and probably will always, define the band. His piercing blue eyes hidden behind wraparound shades, at 78, Townshend is still as animated as ever when discussing – and defending – his band. 

“I don’t think we’ve done a show since the '70s that didn’t include at least three or four songs from it,” Townshend says.

But Who’s Next is also the Who album that almost wasn’t. With his bandmates, not to mention management who also ran the Who’s record label, champing at the bit for a big, bold follow-up to Tommy, Townshend, in between dates on a relentless touring schedule, dug in at his home studio – a luxury that was unheard of at the time. 

“It rivaled Abbey Road, technically,” he recalls, and started expanding his songwriting palette via the latest – though ridiculously crude – synthesizer technology. The results? Lifehouse. 

Along with some of the best songs Townshend had ever written – Baba O’Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, Bargain, Going Mobile, and Won’t Get Fooled Again would all end up on Who’s Next, while Naked Eye, Pure And Easy, Too Much Of Anything, and a host of others would trickle out during the era – over a couple of days in September 1970, he also wrote a futuristic script that foretells a planet on the verge of ecological collapse, with a population locked into virtual reality suits controlled by autocratic rulers and pacified by an endless stream of mind-numbing content. 

While that may sound pretty easily digestible, if not downright prescient, today, even in the wake of the moon landing and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Townshend drew quizzical blanks from just about everyone he tried vainly to get onboard. 

The fact that the plot twist came in the guise of rock ’n’ roll being outlawed, leading to a revolt and a stand-off at the Lifehouse, where music had allowed masses of people – who have ditched their “experience” suits – to congregate and merge into a single, universal mind, didn’t help matters.

More than 50 years later, Townshend is in some ways still chasing his dream of the Lifehouse project, as a massive new 11-disc boxset entitled Who’s Next | Life House proves, coming complete with a remastered Who’s Next, loads of Who tracks, and a raft of home demos from the era, plus a book by Townshend and Who experts Andy Neill and Matt Kent, and a graphic novel expanding the story of Lifehouse.

Along the way, Lifehouse was never far from Townshend’s mind. He nearly had a nervous breakdown during the early days of the project, barely sidestepping jumping out the window of the Manhattan hotel suite of one of his then managers, Kit Lambert. 

And, after abandoning the Lifehouse project in favor of the nine-song single-LP Who’s Next album at producer Glyn Johns’ urging – plus Quadrophenia and an aborted rock opera called ‘Long Live Rock’ – Townshend enlisted the Who’s singer, and then au current movie star, Roger Daltrey, to revisit the Lifehouse script. Townshend fleshed out and updated the story with songs like Slip Kid, Who Are You, and Sister Disco – which would go on to become Who staples – before giving up again.

Finally, at the turn of the century, Townshend released the Lifehouse Chronicles boxset on his own Eel Pie label, which included home demos and even a radio play of Lifehouse and a book, and performed two shows in London that once and for all put the pieces of Townshend’s massive work into a cohesive narrative.

Still, like Brian Wilson’s aborted Smile and so many other great, lost rock albums, Lifehouse was really more an idea in Townshend’s head than anything else. 

“You’re right that, like Smile, there’s a sense of there being a lost concept,” Townshend says. “Somebody wrote recently something that feels true but also feels sort of a little bit wonky, which is that Lifehouse, as it exists, is an unfinished project, both as an experiment between artist and audience but also as a story, and also as an integrated series of songs that helped to demonstrate and illustrate that story. 

“It’s basically just conceptual art. In other words, it’s just coming up with an idea, putting it on paper, and then it not happening. And for me, I’m perfectly happy with that idea, but the fact is that there is no set of songs that tell the story. It’s a very poetic idea, and that has never really properly come across. 

“So, I meet people in the street, and they say, ‘I love Tommy, I would listen to it when I was 13 years old, and it changed my life.’ And that happened again with Quadrophenia, of course. But that didn’t happen with Lifehouse because it wasn’t complete enough. It was just ideas that were unfinished.”

In fact, the Lifehouse recordings were strewn all over the place. There were songs on Who’s Next, several on the 1974 compilation album Odds & Sods, and across B-sides, like the fantastic Greyhound Girl on the flipside of Townshend’s 1980 hit, Let My Love Open The Door. But it wasn’t a cohesive project. 

And, like Brian Wilson, Townshend had a serious mental breakdown during the making of what eventually became Who’s Next. The members of the Who were at their most band-like at the time, but the pressure on Townshend, as the creative force and visionary and spokesperson, was intense. 

Meanwhile, he kept getting thwarted. Co-manager Kit Lambert wanted to make a Tommy movie – so there were competing projects – so Townshend didn’t have the man who had helped him realize the Tommy project. Very much on his own, even though he had a band that was functioning at its absolute peak, Townshend recalls his frustration as palpable. 

As co-producer Glyn Johns recalls in his 2014 book, Sound Man, even as late as when he was brought on as producer, Townshend gave him not just a raft of demos but the script for Lifehouse. Townshend clearly hadn’t given up on his grand concept just yet. 

“I was still hoping for a double-album,” he recalls. “It became a tough time. But it was also a very important lesson for me. I’d given up, in a sense, on the idea of working with Kit, which was a very big thing. I still had the band, and the band was still behind me. So when Glyn took over, I was hoping that he would make a double-album. That was all. 

“That’s why I gave him the script. I sat down with him before, and he said, ‘I really don’t understand this at all.’ And I just remember saying to him, ‘Listen. I hope you don’t feel I’m insulting you, but you really don’t fucking need to. This is my project. Just do what you do.’

“I didn’t think that we would get to the end of the project and he would decide that the double-album was going to be a single album. And leave off Pure And Easy! I remember thinking that was like leaving Amazing Journey off Tommy. Because it’s the song that sets the scene; that gives the story its backbone. 

“Glyn chose The Song Is Over instead because it was a good closer to the album. He wasn’t thinking about Lifehouse, he was thinking about a bunch of songs, and he made the decision based on that. But I decided to trust his instincts and his intuition – because by the time we got to the end of the recording, it was clear that Kit was gone for me, and that there was no way I was going to rescue the movie side of the project. 

“And also, the idea that I might be able to do anything technological with the band had drifted into space. But remember, what we had invented was the use of backing tapes. And they fucking worked! And they worked so well partly because of Keith Moon. He didn’t need a click. He was the click!”

Synth Horizons

Townshend’s pioneering use of synthesizers, set against that often sparse acoustic/electric combination, gave the Who a new sound to play with, one that was, again, unlike any of the band’s contemporaries. 

“It gave us this extra harmonic and musical implementation because we were just a three-piece band,” Townshend explains. “We didn’t even have a keyboard player. So it enriched our sound. And it was very, very exciting.”

Although The Beatles had used a Moog on Abbey Road in 1969, when Townshend began writing the demos for what would become Who’s Next, the use of synthesizers was both unheard of and nigh on impossible. 

“Chris Thomas was assigned to help George Harrison figure out how to use the damn thing,” Townshend says with a laugh, recalling those early synths to be large, unwieldy things. But Townshend was looking to augment the spare yet still relatively grand, guitar-based demos he was concocting. 

“When I got my first little EMS box, one of the first things I thought is, ‘I can play flutes, I can play clarinets, I can play trumpets!’” he recalls. “They’re funny little noises. But I wasn’t thinking about East Coast type [or] Don Buchla, mad electronic music, or even the electronic music that I’d been listening to by people like Malcolm Cecil and Morton Subotnick and people like that. 

“Or Terry Riley, which was astral, ecstatic, uplifting music. Or Subotnick, which was interesting and sometimes rhythmic. Instead, I discovered that these little machines allowed me to experiment with melody. Plus, I also had a Lowrey organ, rather than a Hammond, which people in rock loved so much, and all made exactly the same sounds. 

“Only Garth Hudson of the Band played a Lowrey. And I had a Lowrey, and it made all these little thin trumpet sounds and little thin violin sounds. Baba O’Riley came from the marimba sound that was built into the Lowrey Berkshire that I owned at the time. So I was excited to have these tools, and I think that excitement translated into some pretty interesting stuff. I was on a real high.”

Set against the relatively dry Gretsch 6120 that Joe Walsh had gifted him, Baba O’Riley was duly turned into the epic show-stopper it was destined to be.

“I kept the drums dry, I kept the bass clicky, I used the Lowrey as a decorative machine, sometimes I got the Leslie going and swirled it a bit, but the guitar work was often an afterthought,” Townshend tells us. “On songs like Behind Blue Eyes, Bargain and Won’t Get Fooled Again, those songs began with guitar, and it’s just me strumming away. And I’ve always been really good at that. 

“I don’t think I was any better or worse at that than I’d been on Pinball Wizard. My acoustic work – I’ve had all of the great guitarists in the world, all of the great virtuosos in the world, say to me, ‘Pete, you’re not in the Top 10 for virtuosity, but you’re certainly No. 1 as an acoustic rhythm player.’ So, in a sense, that’s something that just happened to me because I was in a band with Keith Moon. I just had to hold it down. I had to be a metronomic, clear-cut, rhythmic player.”

Lifelong Love

Today, Townshend says he’s still enamored with the guitar, and points around the room at some of the instruments he’s been playing lately. 

“I’ve got a Collings mandolin,” he says, gesturing. “I’ve got a Fylde Ariel, an old Jazzmaster from 1958 – one of the first – a brand-new short-scale Jaguar bass from Fender, which is incredibly good, a Guild 12-string, which is extraordinary and stays in tune over time, and I’ve got a J-200. And that will do me for here, this little studio that I have in France that I visit occasionally. I feel incredibly spoiled.”

So how has Townshend’s relationship with the guitar as a creative tool changed over time? And does he still have a sense of possibility in the instrument?

“Definitely!” he replies, emphatically. “What I’m happy about is that I can do two days of practice and learn some really flashy runs if I want to, though I’m still stuck with the old order, which is trying to make sure that I don’t let my fingers play a series of clichés. 

“I remember Leslie West saying to me about Eric Clapton: ‘I prefer your licks, Pete, to Eric’s, because Eric seems to be playing things that he’s learned, that he’s picked up from other blues players. And I think that is a fair comparison, although I have seen Eric play live, where he really goes sky high. 

“I think one of the things that all guitar players of today are intimidated by is these young guys on Instagram that shred to hell and back, or to heaven and back, I should say, who started when they were six. But we are just our fingers. 

“So the Who have just done a tour of the UK, and I don’t expect people to go on YouTube and get their minds blown, but I do think that some of the playing, some of the solos, some of the chordwork, some of the surprises, some of the avoiding tricks and being willing to take risks is really what I still feel the guitar is great for.”

Of course, most people know Townshend as a songwriter, or perhaps as the flamboyant, high-jumping, guitar-smashing showman of the Who’s heyday. But while he’s no virtuoso, Townshend is a peerless rhythm player who’s made an indelible mark on guitarists of all stripes over the past 60 years. So, what’s his latest guitar discovery? 

“The other day, I thought, ‘It’s time for me to try a Charvel, or one of these sort of heavy metal guitars,’” he confesses. “I’ve stuck with Eric Clapton-style Strats for such a long time now, though I do pick up Les Pauls and SGs and I love them, but they don’t allow me enough scope and change on stage.

“So I’ve always thought, ‘If I buy a Charvel or a PRS or any of those super-fast new jazz guitars, I’m going to have one sound and it’s going to be finger memory.’ But the other day, I thought, ‘Fuck it. I’ll try one out.’ I bought a Jackson. I didn’t know that they were owned by Charvel and that Charvel is now owned by Fender, but I bought a Jackson. 

“I got it out of the box and it’s got very light strings on and a notch where the strings are locked down, and it’s got the strings locked at the other end, too, and you tune them with little buttons. And so, the whammy bar is extraordinary! 

“I was playing faster. No question. I was playing at three times the speed that I normally play at. And when I did fingering, drumming, it didn’t stop. It didn’t go thunk; it went ding. Because these guitars are built for a particular kind of thing. So I’m still learning and I’m still having fun with guitars.” 

And does he still collect? “I had [guitar tech] Alan Rogan in my life for so long, and whenever we finished a tour, he would always buy me a guitar,” Townshend recalls. “And, of course, he bought me and gave me some fantastic guitars. I’ve never been really that interested in owning a ’57 Les Paul or anything. I picked up a few in my life and thought, ‘What’s the story here?’ Because what’s important about guitars is that they need to be played, and I think, unfortunately, it’s difficult to play them all properly. 

“They need to be played to stay alive. Japanese guitars, particularly the old Yamaha 12-strings, when you bought them from the store, they were terrible. Now, they’re really good. Sometimes people don’t get it, but the wood has dried out. So, while none of us will seriously do this, we probably shouldn’t buy or own more guitars than we can play.”

As for acoustic guitar, Townshend is, as always, pushing at its limitations.

“I’ve kind of got to the point now where, when I pick up a guitar, I have to do a Joni Mitchell,” he explains. “I have to tune the guitar up to something that is completely illogical and then find something new in it, because, even if you go into the jazz chord book, it may be a little bit richer than the four or five chords that are part of the legacy of rock, but you’re still limited. 

“So it’s interesting that a song like Girl from Ipanema, which is a guitar song, is only a few major 7th chords. A lot of the chords are just major chords and minor chords pushed up together in an interesting way. 

“So the discovery in the work with guitar can be about chords, it can be about composition, it can be about harmony, it can be about shredding. But the thing about shredding is that thing about letting your fingers do the work. It’s difficult when you’ve watched, for example, some of the great shredders performing live, and they look disconnected. 

“You think, ‘Are they really playing this or are their fingers playing it?’ In a way, if their fingers are playing it, that’s okay because then what they’re doing is they’re listening. They’re not playing, they’re listening, and that creates another sort of interesting fact about what’s called ‘found music,’ when we sample and we listen to music and we’re inspired by it because we’re listening. 

“Keith Moon was a nutty drummer, but he listened. John Entwistle, too. So they were a very formidable rhythm section. And I knew I could play anything and they would follow. John Entwistle would know the notes that I was playing sometimes before I did! So the importance of listening is vital.”

So, does Townshend think that, since those speed players are less listening, more performing, that’s why there’s less of a lyrical nature to that speed playing? Or is it the nature of the beast, that if you’re playing that fast, it’s hard to be melodic and lyrical? 

“Well, Prince could shred and he often would play a really soulful blues track, and then in order to get from one bit of blues to the other, he would do an extraordinary shred,” Townshend counters, emphatically. “So it was a bit flashy [vocalizing]. Maybe it was just to show he could do it. So, I don’t know. I think it’s just the disconnect that has happened sometimes. 

“And where you see it stop is when that kind of artist, and there are many on Instagram – one of my favorites is a guy called Angel Vivaldi, who’s a brilliant, brilliant player – but when he works with other musicians, he changes. He actually listens to them and fits in. He can play anything that he wants to play. And there are a couple of others that I follow as well, but a lot of them are just solo musicians that have mastered their craft and got really, really fast. 

“So, I think what needs to happen is they need to be fitted into the music world, somewhere other than Instagram. That’s the challenge for them. I think it’s the challenge right now, as it is for a lot of electronic music musicians: they are very isolated, working on their own.”

As we wind up our hours-long chat about all things the Who, Lifehouse, expanding guitar music by way of synthesizers, and the guitar itself, Guitarist asks Townshend to reflect on his 60-year love affair with the instrument that made him a household name. 

“I swing my arm 15 times, I have an adrenaline rush, and I just let my fingers fly,” he says of his approach, even to this day. “But I go back to Live At Leeds and I’m all over the place. I watch my hands and go, ‘Fucking hell.’ Because most of it is bum notes, but it’s also incredibly powerful stuff. So I’m enjoying learning to both appreciate and play the guitar, still, to this day. Because you never stop learning. So, yes, I still love the instrument and, yes, I still have hundreds. I mean, literally!”

• Who's Next | Lifehouse Chronicles is out now via Geffen.

Social media has been at the core of the guitar world for several years now, emerging as the go-to platform for players to demonstrate unparalleled feats of electric guitar brilliance – but according to Pete Townshend, not everybody is doing it right.

As the Who hero explains in the latest issue of Guitarist, there’s one key aspect of music making that many Instagram players fail to take into consideration when creating their content, and a crucial element of musicality that the majority neglect.

But, fortunately for those who may find themselves guilty of failing into this trap, Townshend also offered a solution.

When asked whether there was a trade-off between playing fast and playing lyrically, Townshend mused, “Well, Prince could shred and he often would play a really soulful blues track, and then in order to get from one bit of blues to the other, he would do an extraordinary shred. So it was a bit flashy [vocalising]. Maybe it was just to show he could do it. So, I don’t know.”

To that end, Townshend went on to discuss the “disconnect that has happened sometimes”, saying that playing fast without an appreciation for melody or lyricism stems from an inability to appreciate and play naturally with other musicians – something that solo content creators often overlook.

“A lot of them are just solo musicians that have mastered their craft and got really, really fast,” he said of Instagram players. “So, I think what needs to happen is they need to be fitted into the music world, somewhere other than Instagram. 

“That’s the challenge for them. I think it’s the challenge right now, as it is for a lot of electronic music musicians: they are very isolated, working on their own.”

During the discussion, Townshend identified one guitarist who has mastered both aspects of playing – a player that both technically excels and has a deep understanding of what it means to play out of isolation, and who just so happens to be one of his favorite Instagram guitarists.

“There are many on Instagram – one of my favorites is a guy called Angel Vivaldi, who’s a brilliant, brilliant player – but when he works with other musicians, he changes,” he revealed. “He actually listens to them and fits in. He can play anything that he wants to play.”

Vivaldi is deserving of such praise from Townshend. The New Jersey progressive metal maestro has been at the forefront of the instrumental guitar scene for a while now, with a couple of Charvel signature guitars and highly celebrated instrumental releases to his name.

The US virtuoso is, it should be clarified, much more than just an Instagram guitarist, whose music is defined by his penchant for mind-boggling solo shreds, larger ensemble work and melodic sensibilities.

Speaking to Guitar World recently, Vivaldi reflected on his ability to combine electrifying fretwork with emotive sonic storytelling as heralded by Townshend, and cited his latest EP, Away with Words: Part 2, as evidence of his approach.

“These days, I’m much more influenced by events in my life than other artists,” Vivaldi explained. “If something makes me feel a certain way, I’ll let that seep into my writing.”

“I often focus on the relationship between the human psyche and my guitar,” he continued. “Each of the five songs on this EP has a unique color. And once I had them in place, I proceeded to my studio in those colors. It’s something I also did when I recorded [2017 album] Synapse. Having a concept in mind helps express my artistic expression as an instrumental songwriter.”

As for the pros and perils of social media, Vivaldi had his say in an older video: “For guitarists and musicians, the internet is a vast sea of inspiration and information that’s constantly pushing us to better our craft.

“But sometimes after seeing the immense talent that’s out there, it may make you want to hurl your instrument into a spiraling pit of flames.”

Elsewhere in his interview with Guitarist, Pete Townshend revealed a notable piece of praise he once received from Leslie West, and admitted he recently bought his first-ever Jackson, which had him playing three times faster than usual.

To read the full interview, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist.

Heralded for his history as The Who’s windmilling firebrand and celebrated for his timeless arsenal of riffs and licks, Pete Townshend is considered one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time.

It’s a list Townshend shares with the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Eric Clapton and countless others, and an accolade he’s been awarded following decades of knockout electric guitar feats.

Now, speaking in the new issue of Guitarist, Townshend has reflected on his personal playing philosophy – a strategy that has helped him craft his assortment of legendary licks, and won him some high-profile fans over the years.

In fact, according to the Stratocaster loyalist, he once received a particularly notable compliment from Mountain hero Leslie West, who said he preferred Townshend’s licks to Clapton’s.

When asked whether he still views the guitar as a tool for creativity, Townshend explained, “What I’m happy about is that I can do two days of practice and learn some really flashy runs if I want to, though I’m still stuck with the old order, which is trying to make sure that I don’t let my fingers play a series of clichés. 

“I remember Leslie West saying to me about Eric Clapton: ‘I prefer your licks, Pete, to Eric’s, because Eric seems to be playing things that he’s learned, that he’s picked up from other blues players,’” he added. “And I think that is a fair comparison, although I have seen Eric play live, where he really goes sky high.”

That West would be particularly fond of Townshend's playing especially comes as little surprise. After all, the pair had worked together on a cover of Marvin Gaye's Baby, Don't You Do It, and (according to ZigZag magazine via Guitar Player) Townshend had lifted some of West's licks “for the stage”.

In his Guitarist convo, the Who hero then went on to single out what he believed to be one of the biggest intimidating factors facing players today: Instagram guitarists, and the overwhelming urge to copy their fretboard acrobatics, instead of being “willing to take risks” with the instrument themselves.

“I think one of the things that all guitar players of today are intimidated by is these young guys on Instagram that shred to hell and back, or to heaven and back, I should say, who started when they were six,” he offered. “But we are just our fingers.

“So The Who have just done a tour of the UK, and I don’t expect people to go on YouTube and get their minds blown, but I do think that some of the playing, some of the solos, some of the chordwork, some of the surprises, some of the avoiding tricks and being willing to take risks is really what I still feel the guitar is great for.”

During his comprehensive conversation with Guitarist, Townshend didn’t just talk about his playing philosophy – he also discussed his current guitar-buying habits, which recently saw him veer into more progressive territory.

Specifically, the 78-year-old recently bought his first-ever Jackson after deeming it time to try a “heavy metal guitar”, and found it had him playing “three times” faster.

Head over Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features the full interview with Pete Townshend and an in-depth look at Mark Knopfler’s upcoming guitar auction.

The new issue also includes an interview with Jake Kiszka, in which the Greta Van Fleet member explains why he only used combo amps on the band's last album.

Throughout his decades-long career, Pete Townshend has been associated with a handful of electric guitar templates.

Over time, The Who legend has dabbled with a select range of conventional and vintage guitar formats, ranging from Rickenbackers, Gibson’s Les Paul and SG models to – perhaps most notably – the Fender Stratocaster. Indeed, it is the Strat that has accommodated much of Townshend’s playing across the decades.

But, as the guitar hero explains in a new interview with Guitarist, Townshend recently ventured into new, more progressive-leaning territory, and found himself seeking out a guitar from a completely different corner of the market.

As Townshend puts it, he deemed it time to try “one of these sort of heavy metal guitars”, and found himself purchasing a flashy new speed machine – an instrument that apparently had an immediate impact on his playing.

“The other day, I thought, ‘It’s time for me to try a Charvel, or one of these sort of heavy metal guitars,’” Townshend mused when asked about his latest gear discovery. “I’ve stuck with Eric Clapton-style Strats for such a long time now, though I do pick up Les Pauls and SGs and I love them, but they don’t allow me enough scope and change on stage. 

“So I’ve always thought, ‘If I buy a Charvel or a PRS or any of those super-fast new jazz guitars, I’m going to have one sound and it’s going to be finger memory.’ 

“But the other day, I thought, ‘Fuck it. I’ll try one out.’” His guitar of choice? A Jackson.

“I didn’t know that they were owned by Charvel and that Charvel are now owned by Fender, but I bought a Jackson,” he went on. “I got it out of the box and it’s got very light strings on and a notch where the strings are locked down, and it’s got the strings locked at the other end, too, and you tune them with little buttons. And so, the whammy bar is extraordinary!”

But Townshend didn’t just appreciate the guitar for its fine-tuned functionality and alien specifications – which no doubt were unlike anything any of his Fender Strats had offered before. Instead, he also admired the fact the guitar literally made him play faster.

“I was playing faster. No question,” he asserted. “I was playing at three times the speed that I normally play at. And when I did fingering, drumming, it didn’t stop. It didn’t go thunk; it went ding. Because these guitars are built for a particular kind of thing. So I’m still learning and I’m still having fun with guitars.”

Townshend doesn’t mention the specific Jackson model he’s been experimenting with. If we had to speculate, we’d wager it’s the newly launched American Series Soloist SL3 – or maybe the Virtuoso. Those guitars, after all, are “built for speed, precision and power”. We like to think he went for the Shell Pink version, à la our artist's interpretation above.

It raises an interesting point of discussion. Yes, some models are engineered to prompt faster playing and are predisposed to help players noodle quicker – flatter or compound fretboard radii, sculpted neck heels, lower action and so on – but an instantaneous three-fold increase in agility? That’s quite something.

Whatever the case, it sounds like Townshend is besotted with his latest purchase. Does this mean we will see The Who icon swap his Strats for the Jackson next time he takes to the stage? Well, probably not, considering it would come with a significant tonal shift. That’s not to say he might not use it for future material down the line, though...

John Entwistle, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Ox’ for his stoic onstage profile, revolutionised the role of the bass guitar. In the face of Keith Moon’s drumming antics, Roger Daltrey’s whirling microphone and Pete Townshend’s windmill rhythm guitar, his signature bass style was one of the musical cornerstones that made The Who such an influential force.

Recorded at Leeds University in 1970, the isolated rhythm track below is of The Who’s must-listen hit, My Generation. Despite the original Live at Leeds album featuring just six songs, Entwistle’s short answering phrases in his solo section were enough to inspire a whole generation of bass players.

When the album version was released in 1965, bass guitar solos were completely unheard of. In fact, until 1966, records produced in the UK sounded virtually bass-less compared to their American counterparts. The Beatles had riff-based songs like Day Tripper, but Entwistle’s bewildering technique and guitaristic approach went way beyond any standard root/5th ideas.

“Entwistle is a fantastic player,” the late Chris Squire of Yes once told us. “In the early days I was compared to him, but then I did nick a lot of his stuff! I told him that too! He added something to bass that we were all waiting for.”

Entwistle’s solo on My Generation is based on a G minor blues scale. The live version varies slightly from the album version, but as John later said on his Hotlicks Master Class, “You need to improvise a bit to stop yourself going mad.”

An avid bass collector, John’s gear was basically everything and lots of it. He used a ‘Fenderbird’ for years, which was a Fender Precision-necked Gibson Thunderbird. He was equally fond of an Alembic Explorer and a huge Warwick Buzzard (later made in carbon fibre by Status Graphite). Interestingly enough, Entwistle had originally intended to record My Generation on a Danelectro bass, which had a more piano like sound, but eventually he opted for a newly purchased Fender Jazz Bass strung with La Bella strings. 

His ongoing quest for tonal power would also lead to the development of roundwound strings, which he developed with Rotosound in the '60s. It's also argued that Entwistle invented the 4x12 speaker cabinet while using Marshall amps. He later enjoyed a long relationship with Trace Elliot and Ashdown Engineering.

“You can’t talk about classic bass playing without mentioning John Entwistle,” Rudy Sarzo told BP. “What I loved most about him was that he had a unique tone – a sound that was his and nobody else’s. He knew what his position was in the band and he knew what the songs needed to sound good, and he played like no one else was playing – at the time or since then. John Entwistle’s bass playing is mandatory listening for anyone who wants to understand the bass guitar.”

The Who Live at Leeds is available to buy and stream.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Nervosa – Endless Ambition

What is it? Three-plus steamrolling minutes of brutal riff action from wave-making death-thrash outfit Nervosa – the Brazilian band has just undergone a significant personnel change ahead of a new era for the group. If Endless Ambition is anything to go by, said era will be one dominated by devastating guitar action, visceral songwriting and some of the most brutal tracks to emerge from the death metal scene in recent times.

Standout guitar moment: The picking speed here really is something to marvel at, and though the harmonized solos and riffs are strong contenders, it's the unrelenting barrage of pulverizing picking patterns that really knock the wind out of you, in the best way possible.

For fans of: Sepultura, Bloodbath, At the Gates

– Matt Owen

Empire State Bastard – Harvest

What is it? Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil and former Oceansize leader Mike Vennart have both long flirted with metal but have been cautious not to muddy the sonic waters of their respective projects. The pair dive headfirst into disgusting riffs on their debut effort as Empire State Bastard, however, accompanied by legendary Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. Harvest resides in the dirty well between thrash and black metal, with a chaotic Faith No More edge. It’s bracing stuff.

Standout guitar moment: Harvest is all riffs, but we’re gonna single out that hornet’s nest of an ascending line at two minutes in.

For fans of: Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Slayer

– Michael Astley-Brown

Devon Gilfillian - Right Kind Of Crazy

What is it? A slick slice of R&B from the Nashville soul artist and member of Fender Next’s Class of 2023. For guitar-playing songwriters, it’s easy to forget that the instrument does not have to be the driving force of a song. Right Kind Of Crazy is a masterclass in an effective alternative approach, where instead of dominating the mix with a fat slab of mids, the guitar is sparingly incorporated. The result is a spacious arrangement that leaves room for the hip hop-influenced rhythm section and Gilfillian’s superb vocal. 

Standout guitar moment: Weirdly, it’s the fact that the guitar doesn’t stand out. Instead you’re left detecting subtle little scratches, mercurial slides and chiming, high frequency flourishes.

For fans of: Stevie Wonder, My Morning Jacket

– Matt Parker

Pete Townshend – Can't Outrun The Truth

What is it? The Who legend and master songwriter/guitarist’s first solo single in 30 years. Though the lonesome, lockdown-themed tune was composed by his partner, Rachel Fuller, Townshend’s rich vocals and arrangement give it the same air of timelessness that marks his best work with The Who.

Standout guitar moment: Those looking for windmills and Hiwatt stacks will come away disappointed, but Townshend’s gorgeous lap-steel slide work is a powerful reminder that the melodic substance of his guitar playing can be just as inspiring as its brute, groundbreaking strength. 

For fans of: The Who, Neil Young, Willie Nelson

– Jackson Maxwell

Grentperez – Us Without Me

What is it? The latest single from new Fender Next recruit Grentperez, who joins a coveted collection of emerging and stratospherically successful artists – think Sam Fender, Wet Leg and Phoebe Bridgers – to have been sponsored by the Big F. Grentperez, with his soulful blend of acoustic R&B and bedroom pop, looks to follow in the footsteps of his Fender Next peers, with Us Without Me showcasing his grasp of heavenly fingerstyle acoustic progressions and melody. With Fender's backing, there's no telling what Grentperez's ceiling could be.

Standout guitar moment: Though this artist isn’t averse to calling upon catchy electric guitar hooks for his tracks, Us Without Me is all about his acoustic work.

For fans of: Beck, Beabadoobee, Hozier

– Matt Owen

CLT DRP – New Boy

What is it? The best damn use of ring modulator you’ve ever heard. The Brighton electro-punk trio’s guitarist, Scott Reynolds, has done that rarest of things, carving out an entirely unique voice – and with one of the effects world’s most undersung stompboxes to boot.

Reynolds may have a sunburst Les Paul slung around his shoulder, but there’s nothing conventional about his playing, which is somehow simultaneously angular and groovy.

Standout guitar moment: When that chorus riff drops. Menacing, heavy and utterly fresh. *adds ring modulator to cart*

For fans of: Nine Inch Nails, IDLES, Witch Fever

– Michael Astley-Brown

Enforcer - Nostalgia

What is it? The Swedish heavy metal traditionalists Enforcer hit it right on the nose with new single Nostalgia. It’s a track that, somewhat appropriately, pays tribute to the feeling of nostalgia through the medium of an 80s rock parody.  It’s all hair metal melodies, long hair and leathers. 

Standout guitar moment: That will be leather-clad frontman and guitarist Olof Wikstrand standing on a hilltop delivering an ’80s rock solo for the ages, as the setting sun glints through his platinum blonde locks.

For fans of: H.E.A.T., hair spray and tight trousers

– Matt Parker

Jimmy Page – The Seasons

What is it? Now, this is a treat… Following the most recent round of reissues and remasters of the band’s catalog, it was reasonable to believe that there weren’t too many treasures left unearthed in the Led Zeppelin vaults. Jimmy Page, though, recently uncovered a demo of The Seasons, the song that would later become Zeppelin’s mighty Rain Song. The Seasons demo is a fascinating look at a masterpiece in its development stage that doubles as an absolute stunner of an instrumental piece.

Standout guitar moment: Honestly? Page’s all-enveloping tone – especially his acoustic tone. The man often gets a lot of flack from the more chops-minded side of the guitar universe, but his revolutionary blend of classic folk influences with rock majesty is clear as day even on this demo. His playing and attack here paint a vivid picture, with each progression telling a story you can’t help but get lost in. 

For fans of: Led Zeppelin, Yes, Pink Floyd

– Jackson Maxwell

James Ivy – L-Trip

What is it? A new track from young Korean-American multi-instrumentalist and all-round music powerhouse James Ivy, whose 2023 has been defined by three standout singles. The latest, L-Trip, demonstrates both Ivy’s production chops and his penchant for driven six-string curations. 

Here, the guitar’s role is twofold: to provide powerful chord progressions in the key sections of the song, and to bend to Ivy’s instrumental will as he nonchalantly uses it as a tool for unruly reverb-riddled soundscapes.

Standout guitar moment: The layered, grainy strums of the chorus wouldn’t sound half as good as they do if they didn’t receive the support of those ambient lead lines, which have been drowned in gain and reverb to within an inch of their life to assume the form of shoegaze-y noise.

For fans of: The 1975, The Japanese House, Cafune

– Matt Owen

Sugar Horse – Thrash Music

What is it? Stoner riffs of the highest calibre – all delivered by a band of puppets (in the video at least). The UK doomgazers’ latest may be named after that speediest of heavy genres, but Thrash Music is a mid-tempo fuzz onslaught that only gets more monolithic as it builds to its cacophonic end.

Standout guitar moment: That acerbic noise solo at 1:13 – Kurt Cobain would be proud.

For fans of: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Melvins, Kyuss

– Michael Astley-Brown

Charlie Cunningham – Downpour

What is it? The lead single from the UK singer-songwriter’s third album, Frame (out today). Cunningham spent three years in Seville learning flamenco guitar and is a formidable player, yet he only ever plays ‘enough’ for the track – and, sometimes, not enough, in our opinion… You can detect that Spanish warmth in his playing and writing, but its tempered by a quiet, gentle delivery, comparable to UK folk icon Nick Drake, or contemporaries like Ben Howard. 

Standout guitar moment: Downpour examines mental health and seems to capture the conversations we have with ourselves. The cycling, finger-picked guitar emulates the metaphor of the title, pitter pattering like rain on a fretboard.

For fans of: Nick Drake, Ben Howard

– Matt Parker

Dust – Alternator 

What is it? An absolute scorcher from the Australian quintet’s brand-new album, et cetera, etc. The song has all the fury of the band’s Thatcher-era forebears, but is also – especially in its intriguing, post-rock-esque final minute – planted firmly in the 21st century.

Standout guitar moment: It all comes back to that jagged opening riff. Martial and sharp, it kicks Alternator off with fangs bared and knives out. 

For fans of: Gang of Four, Life Without Buildings, Idles

– Jackson Maxwell

Few bass players personify the spirit of 1970s classic rock more than Andy Fraser, who honed his phenomenal bass chops in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers aged just 15. Something of a rock prodigy, Fraser was still only 17 when Free recorded the classic rock anthem All Right Now at Island’s Basing Street Studios in January of 1970. His distinctive bass guitar solo has since been noted as a marvel of do-it-yourself, call-and-response. 

“I always felt that, pound for pound, Fraser had the most talent of the four of us,” said drummer Simon Kirke in the booklet of Molten Gold, a 1993 Free compilation. Kirke also spoke of how Fraser had come up with All Right Now moments after a disastrous college gig. "We left the stage to the sound of our own feet and we didn’t like that because the fans would normally be screaming for more. We decided we needed an up-tempo song to put that right.”

In a 2013 interview, Fraser remembered the show in more detail. “It was a terrible gig. It was a venue that could hold 2,000 people, but there were only about 30 people there. Usually it didn’t matter who was watching or whether they were getting into it… we’d just play for ourselves and have a good time, but this night, it just wasn’t happening… we absolutely sucked.”

To help lift his fellow bandmates, Fraser came up with what would later become the main chorus line. “I started singing, ‘All right now…come on baby, all right now.’ As if to say, ‘Hey, tomorrow’s another day’. Everyone else started tapping along and so I thought, we’re onto something here. The chorus took me about 10 minutes, and then Paul came up with the verses while he was waiting for a lift to a gig the next day. The guitar riff was me trying to impersonate Pete Townshend, who was, to me, the all-time greatest chord king”

Singer Paul Rodgers, who co-wrote the track with Fraser, later revealed how the arrangement came together, with Paul Kossof’s anthemic guitar chords locking in with the drums. “It was a very conscious decision to have no bass guitar in the verse,” he told Uncut magazine. “The chords were so strong and it’s very different to have just the guitar and the drums. Once you’ve set that pattern and you bring the bass back in, it really elevates it and it builds.”

A master of the understated bassline, Fraser’s counterpoint bass riff was delivered with maximum punch from his Gibson EB-3, which was his mainstay bass guitar for years. “I was immediately at home with the EB3," said Fraser when interviewed in 2013. "It’s small, as am I, so it was a perfect fit. It had extra frets up top, and I felt you could never have enough extra frets! And with the extra pickup, you could get a wide variety of tones. I really felt at one with that model.”

For Fraser, a string of solo albums and songwriting credits (notably Every Kinda People for the late Robert Palmer) followed the dissolution of Free in 1972. He moved to the USA and established a record company called McTrax International. He was HIV positive since the 1980s and was outspoken about his condition up until his death in March 2015.

“Andy was the most amazing musician,” said Simon Kirke, speaking to Classic Rock in the days following Fraser’s death. “As a bass player he was up there with Jack Bruce. But as Andy would say, if he was around now, he wasn’t just a bass player, he was a great all-round musician.”

Andy Fraser’s autobiography, All Right Now: Life, Death, and Life Again, is available now.

Guitar amps used by The Who’s Pete Townshend and The Grateful Dead have been listed for sale on Reverb.com.

First up is a 1969/1970 Hiwatt CP103 Pete Townshend signature head and two matching cabs – all owned by Townshend himself – sold as a bundle for $100,000.

The head features “The Who” engraved on its front panel, while the cabs boast – according to the listing – the “exact same combination” of Fane and JBL speakers used by the guitarist both in the studio and onstage. It is, however, unclear when exactly Townshend used the amps. 

Additionally, the bundle comes with a certificate of authenticity, and the cabs will ship in their original road cases.

In terms of specs, the CP103 packs 100W of power, and features a custom circuit with four separate volume controls.

In another listing, a Fender Bassman “Chrysler” once owned by California rockers The Grateful Dead and played by guitarist Jerry Garcia is on sale for $55,872.

Purchased by the band at Leo’s Music in Oakland, California in 1969, the amp was subsequently customized by Garcia, who added the logo of automobile manufacturer Chrysler to its front face. Bought as a recording/spare rehearsal amp, it was used for overdubs on the title track from the band’s 1978 album, Shakedown Street.

The amp – which still sports its original speakers – also features a padded white vinyl covering its original tweed enclosure, and a handmade leather buckle handle.

The Bassman was launched by Fender in 1952, originally marketed as a bass guitar amp. Thereafter, its launch prompted other amp manufacturers to begin building higher-gain tube amps. Most notably was the Marshall JTM45, whose circuit was all but a clone of the 5F6-A Bassman’s. 

For more information on either the Hiwatt CP103 bundle or the Fender Bassman “Chrysler”, head to Reverb.

Today (May 6), electric guitar icon Pete Townshend releases Somebody Saved Me – an Audible Original that finds The Who legend tracing the period of time between the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978 and the passing of bass guitar player Jon Entwistle in 2002.

Now, in a Guitar World-exclusive excerpt lifted from the two-hour episode, the band’s founding member – and one of its longest-serving musicians – has revealed he came close to quitting the Who prior to Moon’s passing, and that he only decided to stay in an effort to honor Moon’s memory.

Speaking in Somebody Saved Me, Townshend recalled that his initial decision to leave the Who arose while the band were recording Who Are You in 1978, during which he began to question whether Moon – who was struggling with addiction issues at the time – was ever going to “cut it” again.

“I had decided to leave The Who,” the guitarist reflected. “I had decided when we did the Who Are You album. Keith played drums on a song called Music Must Change, and it was in 6/8 time. All he had to do was go, [sings simple melody], and he couldn’t do it.”

“I don’t know whether it was because it was so cheesy or jazzy – because Keith wasn’t very good at swing – but we sort of gave up,” he added. “We ended up using footsteps and tossing a coin on the ground, making a kind of soundscape out of it. That was the last track we finished on the album.”

According to Townshend, the alarming contrast between Moon’s compromised effort on Music Must Change and his “fantastic drums” on the song Who Are You – which were recorded only six months apart – led him to question the overall direction of the Who.

Townshend continued, “The album contained the track Who Are You, on which he played the most fantastic drums, which was only recorded about six months before. I went back and realized that Keith was just not going to cut it really, at all, ever again. We sort of lost him. I decided to quit.”

However, after Moon passed away, a renewed desire to honor Moon’s memory – while simultaneously exploring new sonic avenues with the Who’s new drummer, Kenney Jones –  ultimately encouraged Townshend to renege on his decision to leave.

“When [Moon] passed away,” Townshend said, “I did something very strange. I decided that I needed to go on in his memory, in a sense. I suppose the other thing was that I decided I was going to go on because there was an opportunity there to do something new. It was exciting.

“I really liked it,” he reflected on the new setup. “I don’t think Roger [Daltrey] did, which was a problem. I think Roger found it difficult. Recently Roger has said that he felt Keith was his primary connection in the band, musically speaking.

“[Moon] wasn’t a conventional drummer. He was an embellisher, a decorator, almost like an orchestral drummer, but he certainly wasn’t a Kenney Jones who laid down a really good beat.

“For me, it was exciting to be working with a drummer… I’d worked with Kenney a few times before. I really liked the way he played. I was very excited about what we had.”

When it drops, Somebody Saved Me will be the 27th installment of Audible’s Words + Music series, which has so far hosted Eddie Vedder, Tom Morello, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alice Cooper and more.

Somebody Saved Me is out today (May 6). For more information, visit Audible.

The Who are currently on the first leg of their North American tour running through May 29. The second leg starts October 2 and ends November 5. For more information visit The Who's official website.

Pete Townshend has revealed that the death of his The Who bandmate and bass guitar icon John Entwistle in 2002 prompted him to become a better guitarist.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the electric guitar heavyweight noted that, upon Entwistle’s passing, a broad sonic space was left in the band – a space that he ultimately had to fill by experimenting and developing new approaches to playing, owing to the bassist’s nontraditional sound.

Townshend – who also reflected on the sonic space left in the wake of drummer Keith Moon’s death in 1978 – commented, “When John Entwistle died, there was another space left. That was because he was filling up so much of the musical spectrum with his bass sound, which was not a traditional bass sound. 

“And so when he was gone,” he continued, “there was suddenly space for me – not so much to try and fill up the void he had left, but a space where I could have a different approach.”

It was an approach, Townshend said, that saw him put greater emphasis on his soloing, and one that saw him take his practicing seriously for the first time. 

“I started to solo,” he continued. “I had to learn to practice the guitar, which I hadn’t done much of before. I’ll never be a famous shredder, but I can play better than I could when we were in the Live at Leeds years, for example.”

Entwistle passed away in 2002, after contributing to all of The Who’s studio albums that were released during his lifetime, from their 1965 debut, My Generation, to 1982’s It’s Hard. For the band's 2006 effort, Endless Wire, their first since Entwistle’s death, the band brought session ace Pino Palladino onboard to fulfill bass duties.

Palladino, along with Gus Seyffert, was also enlisted for The Who’s most recent LP, 2019’s Who.

In other Who news, Townshend and Roger Daltrey recently announced The Who Hits Back! tour – a 29-date stint around the US, and their first time in the country since 2019’s Moving On! tour.

Split into spring and fall legs, the tour will kick off on April 22 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood and conclude on November 5 at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, with a four-month summer break taking place between May 28 and October 2.

For tickets and more information, visit The Who’s website.

The Who have announced they will be hitting the road this year as part of their "The Who Hits Back!" tour.

Spanning 29 dates across a number of states including Florida, Texas and Ohio, it will be the iconic rock ‘n’ roll outfit’s first time in America since 2019’s Moving On! tour.

The Who Hits Back has been divided into Spring and Fall legs, and will kick off on April 22 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, California, before concluding its first collection of dates on May 28 at Bethel Woods Center of the Arts, New York.

There will be a four-month summer break in the tour, which will continue on October 2 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario. The Fall leg of The Who Hits Back will come to an end on November 5 at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas.

Other notable dates include a performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden on May 26 and an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on April 30.

Founding members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend will be joined by The Who’s current crop of players, including electric guitar player Simon Townshend, bassist Jon Button, drummer Zak Starkey, keys players Loren Gold and Emily Marshall and backing vocalist Billy Nichols.

Orchestra conductor Keith Levenson, along with violinist Katie Jacoby and cellist Audrey Snyder, will also hit the road in support of The Who. No official support acts have yet been announced for the tour, which is being produced by Live Nation.

Together, the group will dip into The Who’s melting pot of hits, offering up renditions of both tracks taken from the group’s celebrated repertoire and their most recent studio LP, 2019’s Who.

“Pete and I said we’d be back,” commented Roger Daltrey, “but we didn't think we'd have to wait for two years for the privilege. This is making the chance to perform feel even more special this time around. 

“So many livelihoods have been impacted due to Covid, so we are thrilled to get everyone back together – the band, the crew and the fans,” he added. “We’re gearing up for a great show that hits back in the only way The Who know how: by giving it everything we got.”

Tickets go on general sale on February 11 at 10am local time via Live Nation.

A full list of tour dates can be found below.

Spring 

• April 22: Hard Rock Live / Hollywood, FL*
• April 24: VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena / Jacksonville, FL
• April 27: Amalie Arena / Tampa, FL
• April 30: New Orleans Jazz Festival*
• May 3: Moody Center / Austin, TX
• May 5: American Airlines Center / Dallas, TX
• May 8: The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion / The Woodlands, TX
• May 10: Paycom Center / Oklahoma City, OK
• May 13: FedExForum / Memphis, TN
• May 15: TQL Stadium / Cincinnati, OH
• May 18: TD Garden / Boston, MA
• May 20: Wells Fargo Center / Philadelphia, PA
• May 23: Capital One Arena / Washington, D.C.
• May 26: Madison Square Garden / New York City, NY
• May 28: Bethel Woods Center of the Arts / Bethel, NY

*Not a Live Nation date

Fall

• Oct 2: Scotiabank Arena / Toronto, ON
• Oct 4: Little Caesars Arena / Detroit, MI
• Oct 7: UBS Arena / Belmont Park, NY
• Oct 9: Schottenstein Center / Columbus, OH
• Oct 12: United Center / Chicago, IL
• Oct 14: Enterprise Center / St. Louis, MO
• Oct 17: Ball Arena / Denver, CO
• Oct 20: Moda Center / Portland, OR
• Oct 22: Climate Pledge Arena / Seattle, WA
• Oct 26: Golden 1 Center / Sacramento, CA
• Oct 28: Honda Center / Anaheim, CA
• Nov 1: Hollywood Bowl / Los Angeles, CA
• Nov 4 and 5: Dolby Live at Park MGM / Las Vegas, NV

The Who's Roger Daltrey has launched an impassioned defence of his former bandmate Pete Townshend, claiming the band’s guitarist had his stage act “completely” stolen by the late electric guitar great, Jimi Hendrix.

Daltrey made the claim, which was admittedly offered in good humor, while in conversation with The Coda Collection, with whom The Who icon was speaking as part of an in-depth exploration of his rock ‘n’ roll career.

It was, however, offered with an additional claim that posited both guitarists owed the DNA of their onstage character to one legendary player who came before them, Buddy Guy, who Daltrey dubs the pioneer of six-string showmanship.

“You watch Buddy Guy in the early days and you suddenly realize that, you have to really look for the inventor of all that stuff, it was probably Buddy Guy,” commented Daltrey. “In fact, I would give it to Buddy Guy.”

“I’ve always stuck up for Pete,” he continued. “Jimi stole Pete’s stage act completely, which, incidentally, I think he did. But there again, I’m sure Jimi had seen Buddy Guy previously, as I am sure Pete had seen Buddy Guy, and embellished it.”

His praise for the blues great didn’t stop there, however. “I take my hat off to Buddy Guy, he deserves that accolade. I just love him.

“If you look back at our resumes – in those days you had all these fan magazines – you got asked, ‘What are your favorite blues singers?’ Female singers [was] always Nina Simone. Male singer, it was always Buddy Guy. I’m pleased to say, that’s still my opinion.”

Daltrey later turned his attention away from the guitar-playing performers towards vocalists, and weighed in on Paul McCartney’s recent comments on the Rolling Stones – which saw the Beatles legend label them a “blues covers band” – with some further reflection.

“It’s like comparing cheese with apples,” he analogized (via MusicRadar). “They’re both very tasty, but cheese does one thing and the apple does another.

“I’ve always thought that you cannot take away the fact that Mick Jagger is still the number one rock ‘n’ roll show. The only other people I’d put up against him would be perhaps James Brown, maybe Jerry Lee in his day, or Little Richard.

“But Mick Jagger,” he concluded, “you’ve got to take your hat off to. He’s the number one rock ‘n’ roll performer.”

Head over to The Coda Collection to watch the full interview with Roger Daltrey.

As of today (July 13), the definitive documentary of the legendary English rock band The Who, Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, will be available to stream online for the first time ever exclusively on The Coda Collection.

The Grammy-nominated film, which was originally released in 2007, takes a deep-dive into the band’s entire 50+ year career, capturing the origins of the iconic outfit and tracing their rise to rock royalty.

Ushering in the news is a Guitar World exclusive clip, which captures electric guitar icon Pete Townshend’s early guitar-smashing days, and explores the pivotal gigs that saw the band develop their revered gear-trashing reputation.

In the two-and-a-half-minute sneak peek, Townshend recalls one gig in particular, saying, “I used to bang [my guitar] on the ceiling to make it go ‘boing, boing, boing’, and the guitar neck went through the ceiling. When it broke, I thought, ‘I may as well finish it off.’”

“Next week,” continued Townshend, “I start banging my other guitar, and immediately the drums are over, sticks through…”

Cue some truly exceptional archive footage of the formidable guitar player and the whole band absolutely going to town on their respective instruments.

The clip, which also addresses Townshend's pioneering approach to the electric guitar, can be viewed in its entirety above.

Of the documentary, Daltrey commented, “It’s not easy to capture in film the power and energy of any rock band, especially the four characters that made up The Who, the brilliance of Pete Townshend’s music, and the magic that happened between Pete, John, Keith and myself.

“But Who fans tell me Amazing Journey does just that,” he continued. “From the moment that Keith joined us at The Railway Hotel back in 1964 it was like a bottle of champagne being uncorked. We just clicked.

“And here we are, all these years later – we’ve lost our dear bandmates Keith and John, and Pete and I continue to play together and carry this story forward.

“Thanks to Coda for putting this show up, and enjoy this film about our journey. I’m still living it!”

Lining up alongside Amazing Journey on The Coda Collection is an all-new mini-series titled Six Quick Ones. The six-episode collection will take a deep-dive into the profiles of each individual Who member, and offer up an in-depth investigation into the band’s formidable chemistry.

The Coda Collection is an online subscription streaming service, available via Amazon Prime for $4.99 per month, that specializes in music documentaries and performance films spanning genres, artists and decades.

Pete Townshend has talked openly about his role in developing the Marshall stack. But did you know he also invented the concept of the guitar tech?

At least, that’s what the Who mastermind and electric and acoustic guitar legend states in a new interview.

Speaking to Guitar.com, Townshend brought up his longtime tech, Alan Rogan, who passed away in 2019. Reminiscing about Rogan, he said, “I don’t think he shaped my sound, but I had never had a guitar tech before Alan came to work for me. And I remember I used to give him a hard time, like, ‘Listen, the guitar tech is supposed to tune the fucking guitars, not just put strings on them, man.’ So, Alan is probably one of the first guitar techs. I guess you can say I invented the guitar tech!”

Townshend continued, “Because I can remember going to see Crosby Stills & Nash in a session, and they were restringing their own guitars. Or, in Steven Stills’ case, he would only string some guitars, because there was this one Martin there that he said to me, ‘I’ve never changed the strings on this guitar, and I never will unless one breaks.’ That was part of the sound of them.”

Elsewhere in the interview, which is centered around the release of the new deluxe version of The Who Sell Out, Townshend went deep on his gear past and present, including the Pinball Wizard Gibson J-200 and some recent acquisitions, among them old Rickenbackers, a Gibson ES-335 that “looks like shit” and a variety of Collings acoustics.

In general, Townshend expresses his continuing love for playing the guitar.

“I think it’s incredibly personal, working on guitars,” he said. “It’s like how sometimes, if you just tidy up your stuff, you’ll be bursting with creativity. I think it’s the same with instruments. You get them in order, and they immediately inspire something.

“So I’m still having fun with guitars. I’m still working out with tunings, and inventing tunings, and even re-entry tunings, where the strings are higher at the top than at the bottom. I really love that. So, I’m still having fun with guitars.”

Pete Townshend has revealed his love of bass wunderkind Thundercat, and of his latest album, It Is What It Is.

In the April 2021 issue of Uncut magazine – reported by Guitar.com – the Who legend shares his thoughts on the record.

“I've been going back to [It Is What It Is], which I just love,” he says. “I think it's so absolutely incredible, kind of like Sgt. Pepper's – so that's been an obsession.”

The windmilling guitar legend also explains that he's more interested in discovering new music than listening to older artists.

When asked for his thoughts on Bob Dylan's new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Townshend replies, “I tried to listen to it, but my interest in other people’s deep journeys into self is a bit limited. I’m a bit like Elton John in that respect: I’m more interested in what new, younger artists are doing.”

“I find the music world at the moment just overwhelmingly, fantastically wonderful. I’m not even that interested in Rod Stewart’s Christmas album, or even the Who album, to be honest. I’m kind of more interested in finding something amazing on Bandcamp.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Townshend offers a status report on The Who's upcoming album. He reveals he's written 25 songs, 15 of which he's already shown to frontman Roger Daltrey.

“Right now, I’m in that space where I’ve got my studio set up, my acoustic and electric guitars, a drum box, all there ready to go,” he says. “There’s pages and pages of draft lyrics. So if the moment comes, I’ll go in and start.”

Back in 2019, the guitarist weighed in on the state of guitar-based rock music, declaring that today's players have “literally exhausted the possibilities of the guitar.”

As a guitar publication with every faith in the future of guitar music, we responded with a list of 10 forward-thinking players who prove the guitar still has plenty to offer.

NAMM 2021 isn't taking place in the physical realm this year, but you'll find all the hottest January gear launches in our guide to the biggest guitar, amp and pedal releases of 2021 so far.

Aclam has announced the new Windmiller Preamp pedal, designed to mimic the Grampian 636 Spring Reverb units Pete Townshend used with the Who in ‘66 and ’67 to help crank and saturate the tone from his Marshall amps.

While the Grampian was intended as a studio reverb unit, Townshend used the built-in preamp of the 636 to fatten his tone and boost the guitar signal, bypassing the reverb altogether. He claimed in a Guitar Player interview that it gave his tone a “clear fuzz dirge.”

After getting its hands on an original Grampian, Aclam set out to recreate that “dirge” – and more. Finding the combination of the Grampian, an old Marshall stack and single coils to be “magic,” the company noted that the vintage unit was less impressive when paired with other amps and pickups, specifically humbuckers.

And so Aclam has imbued the Windmiller with an extended frequency range as well as EQ controls. They’ve also refined the treble response by adding a Hi-Cut control, allowing players to add a “sweet sparkle to muddy humbuckers or tame brighter single coils,” as well as a Lo-Cut knob to control bass content.

Additionally, Aclam has eliminated the original’s ever-present “hiss,” crafting a quieter circuit with true bypass switching.

The result, the company says, is a versatile pedal that can be used as an “always on” preamp with a beautiful color, a booster for solo parts or a tool to saturate and enhance an amp's natural overdrive.

Aclam plans to launch a Kickstarter for the Windmiller, but in the meantime, head to Aclam Guitars for more information.

This isn't the first time Aclam has recreated a sought-after '60s tone – the Barcelona-based company also aped The Beatles' Vox UL 730 sounds with the Dr. Robert Overdrive.

There are few images that more perfectly encapsulate the wildness and abandon of rock ‘n’ roll as Pete Townshend, in all his youthful, late ‘60s glory, smashing an electric guitar onstage at the climax of a Who show.

However, as Who frontman Roger Daltrey recently revealed, this act wasn’t quite as wild as it seemed. As Daltrey explained on Chris Evans’ How to Wow podcast, these guitars were carefully smashed and then glued back together in order to live to be smashed another day.

By way of example, he told a story about the Who coming to America to appear on the Murray the “K” show alongside Cream, Wilson Pickett and other acts, where they would play three to four sets a day.

“We would do our two hits, I Can’t Explain and My Generation, smash all the gear up and leave,” Daltrey recalled.

When Evans pointed out it sounded “quite costly to smash four lots of gear up a day,” Daltrey replied that it was “costly in glue because as fast as we were smashing it, we had four sets but as one got smashed it then got glued. And by the time we got to smash it again the glue got set.”

But, he continued, “They weren’t prop guitars. They were real guitars. We worked out very cleverly that very rarely did the neck break. As long as the neck didn’t break you could glue the body back. Even with holes in it, it didn’t matter. We could make it work.”

Later on in the conversation, talk turned to another onstage smasher of guitars, Jimi Hendrix, and the famous story of Townshend and Jimi flipping a coin backstage at the Monterey Pop Festival to determine who would perform first.

“Jimi was an absolutely amazing performer, but what people don’t realize is that a lot of Jimi’s showmanship, when he stated digging his guitar into the amps and the feedback and all that, most of that he copied from Townshend,” Daltrey said.

“So by the time we got to Monterey in ‘67, Pete’s going, ‘Well, that’s my whole show! And it was always a great finale.”

He continued, “You know, we didn’t really quite have confidence in the music. We were a pop band with these weird singles like I’m a Boy and Happy Jack and a mini-opera called A Quick One While He’s Away. It was insane, the stuff we were playing!

"So we thought, well, we’re gonna get slaughtered if he goes on before us. Because that’s our whole show, done. So Pete and Jimi flipped a coin and Pete won and we chose to go on first.

“But then, of course, Jimi came on and blew us all away anyway.”

Last week, Pete Townshend claimed he was asked by Michael Jackson to play on Thriller – but recommended Eddie Van Halen for the gig instead.

In the wake of Eddie Van Halen’s tragic death from cancer, countless guitar stars have been paying tribute on social media, including The Who guitarist Pete Townshend – who also had a revelation to share about one of the two-hand tapping hero’s most iconic solos.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone on the subject of Van Halen’s passing, Townshend reveals that he was initially in the running to play on Michael Jackson’s quadruple-Platinum 1982 smash Thriller – but he had someone else in mind for the job.

“I was once asked by Michael Jackson to play electric guitar on the Thriller album,” Townshend recalls.

“I said I couldn’t do it but recommended Eddie who called and we chatted. He was utterly charming, happy about the connection, but told me how much he was enjoying playing keyboards. His smile was just classic. A man in his rightful place, so happy to be doing what he did.”

It’s not clear whether Townshend was asked to perform rhythm or lead duties on the record, but his recommendation likely played a part in Jackson and producer Quincy Jones’ decision to enlist Van Halen’s talents for Beat It’s incendiary solo. Rhythm guitar duties on the track were handled by session and Toto great Steve Lukather.

Townshend goes on to pay tribute to Van Halen’s talents – and what he had hoped to see in the American icon’s future.

“It’s completely tragic that we have lost him,” he continues. “He was not just an innovative and stylish player with great taste, he was also a laidback virtuoso showman who just blew us all away every time. Every shredder today has lost their Master Teacher and Guide.”

“As he got older he became more generous and amusing and self-effacing about his enormous gifts. He shared so many tricks through guitar workshops, online and on TV shows. Immense talent. The Great American Guitar Player. I was hoping he might be President one day.”

There are two Fleetwood Macs. There’s the Fleetwood Mac of Rumours, the fifth best-selling original album of all time. The Fleetwood Mac of Go Your Own Way, of The Chain and Big Love, the Fleetwood Mac whose 2018/2019 tour grossed over $100 million (and that was just the North American leg).

And then there’s The Real Fleetwood Mac. You know: the proper one, the legendary 60s band that featured Peter Green and influenced just about every guitarist in the world for decades to come.  

Between March 1968 and May 1970, Green’s Fleetwood Mac released six UK top 40 singles that redefined ‘blues music'. There was Black Magic Woman and Need Your Love So Bad, two songs that showcased Peter Green’s clean, honeyed tone and delicate touch – the latter a cover of a blues song from 1955 first recorded by Little Willie John, the former a Peter Green original whose Latin-influenced rhythms would be taken to their logical conclusion by Santana.

Then there was Albatross, a gorgeous, yearning instrumental that sounded like, I dunno, a dream of Hawaii or like a surf guitar record played at the wrong speed and yet, still – somehow – went to number 1 in the UK. 

It was ‘post-rock’ several decades before anyone even thought of the term.

Then there was Man Of The World, which sounds a bit like like the blues might if it was played by heart-broken Martians, Oh Well - which pretty much lit the path for Led Zeppelin – and the last song he ever wrote for the band, The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown).

That one – a nightmarish rocker about the perils of money – was later retooled by Judas Priest and helped define the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. (The other Fleetwood Mac? The only thing they invented was Desmond Child.)

So it’s no surprise that the great and the good gathered in London for Mick Fleetwood & Friends’ - a celebration of Peter Green's music. Here’s everything every guitar player needs to know.

1. The house band were next level

Rick Vito (guitarist for Fleetwood Mac 1987-91 and longterm Bob Seger sideman). Jonny “I-shoulda-been-John-Mayer” Lang. Dave Bronze - who looks like Clapton’s bass-playing brother – and his bandmate Andy Fairweather Low (who in turn looks like Philip Larkin if he’d led a razor gang).

There’s Ricky Peterson (Fleetwood Mac, Prince, etc) on keyboards ands on drums there’s Zak Starkey (Ringo’s boy/The Who) and Mick Fleetwood himself. Andy Fairweather Low introduces Fleetwood as “the tallest drummer I’ve played with, the king of the shuffle – he is Mr Wonderful!”

These are guys for whom the words “seasoned pros” were invented. The moment when Vito steps in front of the mic and sings to the room unaided is electrifying, while Lang’s wrestles with Need Your Love So Bad were a joy to watch.

2. Billy Gibbons is better when he’s not with ZZ Top

Seriously. We saw ZZ in London last year, going through the motions for their 50th anniversary, bored with the hits. But every time we see Gibbons in a situation like this (eg, Gibson’s NAMM Jams), he oozes charisma and cool. His guitar is slung lower than everyone else and his tone is closer to the dirt too.

He does Doctor Brown from the Mr Wonderful album. With two drummers and four guitar players, it’s transformed from the rinky-dink shuffle to a marauding blooze. Steven Tyler comes on for All Your Love and gestures for everyone to “Get the fuck up!” They do, but then sit straight back down again. This audience is not as young as it used to be and it’s far too early for that.

3. John Mayall knew how to pick a band

Four members of Fleetwood Mac – Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Rick Vito – were in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. It’s disrespectful to even think this and I apologise in advance, but after Tyler, Mayall is a little bit like the Head Teacher of The Blues. His delivery is formal and stiff in comparison, although Gibbons’ solo takes it up a notch and Mayall responds in kind.

4. Noel Gallagher’s still got it

With stools set up front of stage, the band gather for what Fleetwood calls “an acoustic huddle“ with Noel Gallagher. “I know what some of you are thinking,“ says Noel. “‘He ain’t got the fucking blues’. Well let’s find out – you might, after this.”

They take on Sandy Mary, previously an obscure Peter Green rock ’n’ roll number, it is unplugged and transformed. Noel has never been the greatest singer but the arrangement suits him: he’s gentle with it and the result feels honest and not as hokey as some of the performers that proceeded him.

5. Pete Townshend is a force of nature

The Who guitarist starts with an apology. He didn’t really know Peter Green he says. He tried working with him and it didn’t work out. He saw him as a sad figure. And he’s not even going to play a Green song. Instead, he plays Station Man from Kiln House, the first Fleetwood Mac album made after Green’s breakdown/departure.

But first, says Pete, “I want to show you something.” He plays some unmistakably Townshend-y chords. “That’s Won’t Get Fooled Again,” he says. “Now listen to Station Man…” It features the same chords. It sounds great. Won't Get Fooled Again came out a year after Kiln House.

Townshend plays like only Townshend can: there is no attempt at Greeny-style tone and precision: there is windmilling and wanton destruction. (How can latest Mac-recruit Neil Finn hope to follow that? Luckily for him, he is armed with something extraordinary – Man Of The World.)

6. Oh Well is a game of two (extraordinary) halves

Part 1: Billy Gibbons and Steven Tyler duet, trading lines on one of the most satisfying blues-rock classics of the 60s. Two drummers, four guitars, two singers. It has balls.

When it explodes at the end and Gibbons and Tyler leave the stage, the hum of an amp swells and there, without fanfare, is David Gilmour and a black Strat playing Oh Well Pt. 2 and making it sound like it was the cornerstone of Floyd’s back catalogue. He is Gilmouresque, let’s say, and it fits perfectly: both Green and Gilmour aiming for economy, wringing the most out of clean, sweet tones and simple melodies.

At the end, Fleetwood says: “That has never ever, ever been played onstage before, not even back in the day.”

7. Jeremy Spencer is a lost hero of blues guitar playing

In 1971, halfway through a US tour, and allegedly recovering from a heady mescaline trip, Jeremy Spencer left the band’s hotel room to pop out to a bookshop – and never came back. He had joined a religious group called The Children of God and gave up the rock ’n’ roll life.

Over the years, Spencer has made some music, but his appearance tonight, threading delicate slide licks through Elmore James’s The Sky Is Crying and unleashing an enormous voice to match the drama, makes you wonder what might have been. It’s the first time he’s played with Fleetwood in 49 years.

9. Tonight ‘Greeny’ is as big a star as Kirk Hammett

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is the current owner of ‘Greeny’, the 1959 Les Paul Standard previously owned by Green and Gary Moore. When Fleetwood announces Hammett and that he has Green’s guitar there is a noticeable “Ooooh” in the room. It’s for the guitar.

Hammett slashes the brash chords of The Green Manilishi alongside Gibbons, Vito, Lang and Fairweather Low and it sounds like the most exciting bit of living history you ever heard.

10. When you influenced The Beatles, you know you did something right

There was an all-star finale, of course, with everyone onstage for a romp through Shake Your Moneymaker, John Mayall scatting, Tyler on harmonica, solos galore. Finally the audience were out of their seats. Chins jutted, shoulders rolled, eyes glistened.

But before all that, the night had already peaked. Mick Fleetwood told a story about travelling back in the van late one night from Glasgow or Newcastle, and listening to the radio to keep himself awake. The Beatles were on the radio talking about their latest album, Abbey Road, and going through it track by track. 

Sun King? they said, that was their attempt at “doing a Fleetwood Mac”. Fleetwood makes his kit sound like timpani and David Gilmour sits behind a lap steel and makes the sounds of the spheres. It’s not perfect. But it is lovely.

And, somewhere in England, oblivious to all this, Peter Green finished his tea, folded away his specs, and took himself off to bed. He can sleep soundly.

The Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac box set will be released on 19 October 2020, and is available to preorder now from Townsend Music. The concert will be shown in cinemas in the UK in June and tickets are available to book now.

Mick Fleetwood’s all-star tribute concert to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green takes place tonight, February 25, at the Palladium in London.

In addition to Fleetwood and the house band, the bill for the historic tribute to the singer and electric guitar player includes Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Kirk Hammett, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, Bill Wyman, John Mayall, Neil Finn, Andy Fairweather Low, Christine McVie, Zak Starkey and more.

Of course, Greeny – the 1959 Les Paul Standard that was famously owned by Green and, subsequently Irish rocker Gary Moore, and now belongs to Hammett – will be in attendance as well.

In advance of the gig, Fleetwood has shared a short rehearsal clip that shows the assembled musicians jamming Fleetwood Mac classics like “Oh Well” and "Station Man."

Said Fleetwood about the show, officially dubbed Mick Fleetwood and Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac, “The concert is a celebration of those early blues days where we all began, and it’s important to recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music.

“Peter was my greatest mentor and it gives me such joy to pay tribute to his incredible talent. I am honored to be sharing the stage with some of the many artists Peter has inspired over the years and who share my great respect for this remarkable musician.”

For more information, head to Mick Fleetwood and Friends.

Pete Townshend recently decried that new players had “literally exhausted the possibilities of the guitar”, and now he’s perhaps feeling similarly about some of his own electric and acoustic guitar tricks.

In a recent interview with the UK’s BBC Radio 2, Townshend stated that he will never again do one of his signature live tricks - smashing a guitar onstage - unless it is to raise money for charity.

"I haven't smashed guitars for a long time - for me, it was an expression of youth,” Townshend said. “I smashed a guitar on David Letterman and it auctioned for $168,000. I am prepared to smash a guitar for charity."

Elsewhere in the interview, Townshend discussed what he sees as the incredibly polarized nature of today’s music industry, and how the Who, in their time, were a band able to bridge musical divides. 

"Music seems to have gone into two polarized strands,” he said. “One of which is music that is recorded with synthesizers and what you can do on a computer. The other is from bands like The 1975 using more traditional rock and roll methods.

“Our stuff straddled both; we were one of the first rock artists to use synthesizers."

No word on whether Pete would be up for a good charitable synth smash one of these days.

The Who's Pete Townshend is one of the most celebrated rock guitarists of all time. He’s known for his aggressive, rhythmic, dramatic playing style and various technical nuances that partially revolutionized rock electric guitar playing.

His sound is also a key feature of what makes him a distinctive player. Like any guitarist who has been around for decades, his sound has been developed and refined over time, particularly with new equipment and technological advances, plus acquiring the profile and finances to make any equipment accessible and have custom models made.

This article is about getting as close as possible to the distinctive Pete Townshend sound but from a more realistic starting point. As you'll see below many factors contain multiple possible sub-options, so this is more of an overview of the kind of equipment and approach you'll need to approximate his recognizable tones.

1. Fender Stratocaster

Already we have a point here that isn't exactly definitive. Townshend played a Gretsch on many studio works, and a Gibson SG live for a long period of time.

However, a Fender Strat is arguably one of his constant threads across the years, with him having played a highly recognizable customized red one for the last 30 years.

Its sharp bright tones and standout high-end are perfect for replicating many tracks by The Who. But the Strat’s known versatility is also important in enabling you to turn your hand to various other playing styles as well as just emulating Pete Townshend. It's famously a staple industry standard instrument, and for very good reason.

2. Strings

The key message here is heavy-gauge electric guitar strings, or at the very least a heavy-gauge low E string.

Townshend has at times played guitars bearing 12-gauge strings, which although far from unheard of, is much less common on an electric guitar than an acoustic. The electric will more often feature size 9, 10 or 11 strings.

The heavier strings naturally mean deeper fuller tones, but also their heaviness means they better accommodate a powerful playing style like Pete Townshend’s.

He has also been known to play a electric guitar with a more standard string size (10-gauge), but crucially swapping out the bottom E string - which would be .46 in a set of size 10s - and replacing it with a .52.

This essentially makes his bottom end rhythm playing heavier and enables his strumming hand’s attack to be more forceful, creating the playing aggression for which he’s known.

3. Loud amplifier

There is a disclaimer here - and it isn't just keep the noise down so you don't annoy your neighbors. ‘Loud amplifier’ doesn't necessarily mean an amplifier turned up loud. Instead it means a powerful amplifier that has great volume and gain capacity, meaning therefore it creates a strong full sound at low volumes to due to its inherent power and quality.

Townshend has used both Marshall and Fender guitar amps over the years, with the Marshall being an industry staple and the Fender being particularly well known for its strong powerful clean sound.

Truly replicating his sound means using a loud amp turned down ‘low’ as opposed to a quiet amp turned up loud - and those two things certainly aren't the same.

4. Pedals and effects

Pete Townshend doesn't exactly have a complex pedalboard full of weird and wonderful options. Instead, the effects he uses are there to accentuate the drive, power and punch of his natural sound.

This means the use of an overdrive pedal and a compressor pedal at pretty much at all times, to strengthen his essential sound rather than add distractions, quirks or masks.

He has used other effects at times, of course, but to create a specific effect rather than as part of his standard distinctive sound.

Overdrive and compression are certainly two of the first pedals to buy for any guitarist looking to get close to his sound.

Specifically, he has been used to be known to use a Boss OD-1 overdrive pedal and an MXR Dyna Comp compression. In the interests of full disclosure, he has also been known to use other pedals, so there’s no substitute for trying a few different options out there.

5. Approach

This may sound a little more vague in that it can't be defined by a specific piece of equipment. However, in many ways, it is arguably the most important of the five points.

Even if you were plugged in to Townshend's specific personal rig, you would still be required to have an aggressive, hard strumming, dramatic playing style, a watertight rhythmic sense and supreme chordal creativity to get close.

So - if you have the means and budget - by all means get your hands on some of the gear above. But don't forget to practice and study his style and articulation, as equipment will only take you so far.

Good luck!

Alex Bruce is a writer for Guitartricks.com and 30Daysinger.com.

50 years ago, Artist Arnold Skolnick was commissioned to design a poster for the original Woodstock festival. He came up with the image of a dove - an age-old symbol of peace - perched on a flute, an instrument in vogue with the hippie counterculture at the time, but at the last minute, the flute was replaced with a guitar neck.

It was a timely substitution. Woodstock was the culmination of a five-year period that had seen the emergence of the electric guitar as the preeminent instrument of rock music - a potent symbol in its own right of the free-spirited, politically engaged, spiritually aware youth culture of the 1960s.

Today, the word 'Woodstock' is encased in fuzzy warm mythology. In reality, though, Woodstock was an extremely challenging gig for all the musicians who performed there, not to mention the audience of nearly half a million souls who attended. The festival was a muddy, disorganized mess. Most of the artists who performed later said it was hardly their finest moment. A few, like the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, said it was his band’s worst show ever.

So there’s an element of ragged glory and triumph over adversity in the music played over those three days, captured on audio tape and film, and presented in the most complete form to date on Rhino’s new 38-CD box set, Woodstock: Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive. Without the dedication and endless goodwill of these performers and their audience, Woodstock could truly have become a disaster.

Santana's snake dance

For the artists, the backstage hazard was threefold:

1. Because of traffic jams all around the site, the schedule had “gone kerblooey,” as folk icon Joan Baez put it.
2. This meant that performers didn’t know when they were going on, or how long they would have to wait to get on stage.
3. Time hung heavy on their hands. Many were nervous about facing the largest crowd ever assembled at the time. There was no shortage of drugs backstage. It was the '60s; many succumbed to temptation.

So it was a miracle that any of them could play at all. “The bands were trying to make it happen, regardless of the mud and all the other circumstances there,” Carlos Santana told me in the '90s.

“You gotta understand that, in three days, the elements go like waves. There were the natural elements, plus all the mescaline and psychedelics people were taking. Some of the groups fared very well, and some were wiped out. I think we were both. We fared best on Soul Sacrifice.”

Santana and his band had yet to release their debut album when they played Woodstock, but their manager, rock entrepreneur Bill Graham, had been asked if he’d help out the festival’s promoters, Woodstock Ventures, with much-needed logistical advice and assistance. He agreed, on the condition that Santana was included on the bill.

Graham already knew what the world would soon find out - that rock was about to be revolutionized with Latin grooves and the incandescent fire of a brilliant new guitarist. Albeit one who was tripping his brains out at the time.

Backstage, Carlos had met up with Jerry Garcia, who had been told Santana wouldn’t go on for hours, and offered him a hit of mescaline.

“I took it right away,” Santana recounted in his autobiography, The Universal Tone. “I was thinking, ‘I’ll have time to enjoy this, come back down, drink a lot of water, get past the amoeba state and be ready to play tonight. No problem. Right.”

Wrong. The next thing he knew, his band was being ushered onto the stage.

“I was tripping,” he wrote, “and I remember saying inwardly, ‘God - all I ask is that you keep me in time and in tune.’ I kept myself locked on the usual things that helped me stay tight with the band - bass, hi-hat, snare drum and bass drum. I was telling myself, ‘Don’t think about the guitar. Just watch it.’

“It turned into an electric snake, twisting and turning, which meant the strings would go loose if it didn’t stay straight. I kept willing the snake not to move and praying that it stayed in tune.”

Despite his altered state and a Gibson SG that kept going out of tune, Santana’s consummate musicianship wowed the crowd. The band’s performance of Soul Sacrifice became one of the highlights of director Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock documentary, released the following year.

Won't get fooled again

Getting stiffed on performance fees was another hazard Woodstock artists faced. Backstage, the promoters informed the Who and the Grateful Dead that they wouldn’t be able to pay them for their appearance.

Management for both bands pressed the issue, and the contractually agreed-on fees were ultimately coughed up. There’s a tale of a banker being flown into the festival site via helicopter with the Dead’s check.

In their recent autobiographies, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of the Who detailed the 14-hour wait that the group endured.

“The scene that greeted us at the backstage area of the festival was horrific,” Townshend wrote in his 2012 book, Who I Am.

“The entire parking area was a slurry of thick, gelatinous mud… As I got out of the car, I slipped and sank up to my knees. There were no dressing rooms available, so we went to a tent with a hot-water machine, teabags, instant coffee and a coffee dispenser. I helped myself and within minutes realized the water had been spiked with acid.”

The same fate befell many performers, including Daltrey. And as drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle enjoyed the ministrations of two groupies in the band’s rented station wagon, Townshend visited the first aid tent after watching a man climb a 30-foot telegraph pole touch a live wire and fall screaming to the ground.

“I thought I had walked onto the set of M*A*S*H,” he wrote. “There were cots of patients everywhere, mainly young people on bad trips, some injured, but mostly kids suffering from bouts of terror.”

The Who eventually got their chance to perform at 5 a.m. on Sunday. “The show didn’t feel like it went well,” Daltrey remembered in his 2018 autobiography Thanks a Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite.

“The monitors kept breaking. The sound was shit. We were all battling the elements and ourselves.”

As the band launched into Acid Queen from their then brand-new rock opera Tommy, radical activist Abbie Hoffman climbed onstage and launched into a stoned rant about the recent jailing of another activist, John Sinclair, in Detroit.

“Still playing the Acid Queen intro,” Townshend wrote, “I knocked Abbie aside using the headstock of my guitar. A sharp end of one of my strings must have pierced his skin because he reacted as though stung, retreating to sit cross-legged at the side of the stage. He glowered at me, his neck bleeding. I finished the song and looked over at him. ‘Sorry about that,’ I mouthed. ‘Fuck you,’ he mouthed back and left the stage.”

While the Who’s Woodstock experience was generally less than pleasant, Daltrey recalled one redeeming moment that made it all seem worthwhile. It came as the Who reached the climactic moment in their rock opera.

“Shortly after six,” Daltrey wrote, “we got to See Me, Feel Me from Tommy and the bleeding sun came up. Right on cue. You couldn’t have topped it. After all the shit we’d been through, it was perfect. It was extraordinary. It was one of those moments you couldn’t ever recreate if you tried. Once in a lifetime.”

By the time we got to Woodstock...

Stephen Stills was one of the few people at Woodstock who wasn’t high as a kite. “I was absolutely stone-cold sober,” he told me in 2013. “I had made the conscious decision to just say, ‘No thanks, I’m good’ for the whole day. We had to wait hours and hours.”

The individual members of the guitarist’s new group, Crosby, Stills & Nash, were already renowned for their previous work in the Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Hollies. But they had just recorded their first album as a trio. (Neil Young, also ex-Buffalo Springfield, joined shortly after the disc’s release. He performed with them at Woodstock, but this was not filmed.)

And their Woodstock appearance would give their career an enormous boost. It was only their second gig ever. The inclusion of their signature track Suite: Judy Blue Eyes in the Woodstock film - together with Stills’ admission to the crowd that he and his bandmates were “scared shitless” - became one of those classic late-'60s Kodak moments.

But it all almost never happened. Anticipating the hassle involved and the likelihood of not getting paid, the group’s manager, David Geffen, hadn’t wanted them to perform at Woodstock. Realizing the event’s importance, however, Stills and David Crosby took the matter into their own hands, chartering an aircraft to get them and their equipment to the festival. But the traffic that surrounded the site made this a challenge of Herculean proportions. Stills and company made it onto the site, but it wasn’t certain that their gear would.

“I was immediately worried that the guitars weren’t gonna get there,” Stills said. “I think I had my acoustic in my hand, because that was gonna be really important. I don’t know why the others didn’t have theirs in their hands.

“Meanwhile the Band, Canned Heat and Jefferson Airplane had offered us their amps. Now, I worried about this too, because, well, [Band guitarist] Robbie Robertson’s amp might have sounded good if I turned it up. But the Grateful Dead had a way of setting their amps that was way too clean for me.

“And Jimi Hendrix’s Marshall amps were hidden away, as was he. Poor thing, he had to sit in his house [nearby] for three days while various sundry hangers-on trooped in and out to give him more drugs. And there was a lot of that.

“But I’m really focused on ‘What are we gonna do and how are we gonna make sure that we sound good, and that there’s enough sound?’ ‘Cause we’re gonna start with the Suite.’ I was really glad that I’d brought my guitar. And I kept double-checking: ‘This is the mic I want for the guitar, and this is the mic I want for the vocal. And make sure there’s lots in the monitor.’ Things like that. Details.

“And then a big brew-ha-ha breaks out with Neil. All of a sudden, Neil doesn’t want to be filmed. God knows where that came from. It might have something to do with the polyester, light-blue suit he was wearing. I mean he’s Canadian! They can dress really wrong.”

But all ended well. Crosby, Stills & Nash opened the show acoustically, and then were joined by Young for the amped-up portion of their set.

“Our gear showed up just in time to get set up,” Stills says. “So there’s no soundcheck. Everything was a little fast, but we actually did fairly well. I’m not sure about the intonation, but the acoustic stuff - the Suite - was good, and there were cameras everywhere.

“I was just glad I’d kept my wits about me, which was the only way I was able to re-tune my guitar between verses of the Suite. You can see it in the film. Because, right as we started, a big, cold, damp breeze came across the stage and threw my guitar out of tune. It really went south.”

Blazing blues guitars

While they’re not as well known today, Canned Heat were one of the most popular blues bands of the late-'60s. They’d lost their lead guitarist, Henry Vestine, just prior to Woodstock. The festival was the third gig their new lead man, Harvey Mandel, ever played with the band. Mandel would go on to work with John Mayall and the Rolling Stones. The band turned in a fiery, intense performance.

Ten Years After, one of the premier British blues bands of the Sixties, had several well-regarded albums out by the time they played Woodstock, including the 1968 live disc Undead and the 1969 studio recording Stonedhenge.

Even in the age of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee was often thought of as the fastest gun in all of guitardom. His marathon Woodstock rendition of I’m Going Home - an uptempo, 12-bar blues song that had originally appeared on Undead - kicked Ten Years After’s career into AOR overdrive.

A third blues guitar great who performed at Woodstock was Johnny Winter. His 1968 debut album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, had turned the heads of those who followed the blues in those days.

However, the disc that really put him on the map was his April 1969 self-titled Columbia Records debut. Dressed in the crazy, quasi-medieval costume he wore on the Progressive Blues Experiment cover, Winter defied the laws of nature and physics with a Fender electric 12-string at Woodstock.

The Dead's shocking performance

The combination of torrential rain and a hastily rigged stage at Woodstock made serious electric shocks a real hazard for performers.

“The typical thing you had to watch for was an amplifier being on one circuit and a microphone on another,” Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady told me in 2009.

“If they weren’t grounded together, you got a horrendous shock. Now, you add water to that and it could be really dangerous. They tried to put a couple of tarps over the stage to keep the rain out. But like a sail cloth or something, they became water collectors - they’d sag down and water comes gushing down onto the speakers, amplifiers and all that stuff.”

The group that suffered the worst from electric shocks at Woodstock was the Grateful Dead. The revered San Francisco psychedelic group managed to get through five songs in 38 minutes, with frequent pauses between tunes as band members recovered from horrendous zaps of current and hallucinogenic occurrences of an unspecified nature.

“Woodstock was a double experience for us,” Dead guitarist Bob Weir commented in the book Woodstock: The 1969 Rock & Roll Revolution.

“The first was the festival, being together with other musicians, lots of young people and truly being happy together. There was a wonderful atmosphere both behind and in front of the stage. The second was the concert, and ours was, without a doubt, the worst concert in our history. It rained a lot, and continued to do so.

“The stage was impassable. The sound technician had tried to put the wiring back, but the results of his work were terrible. Every time I touched the electric guitar, I got shocked. I had become a conductor. There was a huge, blue shock when I touched the microphone… A terrible experience.”

The rockets' red glare

The festival’s headliner, Jimi Hendrix, was also in a difficult position at the time the event took place. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - the group that had brought the guitarist to fame - had split up just a month and a half before Woodstock.

Casting about for a new musical direction that hadn’t really gelled at the time, Hendrix ended up playing Woodstock with the under-rehearsed, ill-prepared Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. The ensemble teamed Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell with Hendrix’s Chitlin’ Circuit comrades Billy Cox (bass) and Larry Lee (guitar) and two percussionists, Juma Sultan and Geraldo Velez.

“That lineup was short lived,” Hendrix’s longtime recording engineer and co-producer Eddie Kramer later told me. “Jimi was experimenting. His buddy, Larry Lee, had just come back from Vietnam. Jimi wanted to give him a shot.”

The musicians managed to do some rehearsing and jamming amid a drug-fuelled party vibe at Hendrix’s house in Boiceville, New York, near the festival site. But they weren’t exactly in top fighting form.

Meanwhile, Hendrix was following news coverage of Woodstock’s first two days and realizing that his ramshackle new band would be playing its first gig at what people already knew would be one of the most historic events of the rock era.

So Hendrix was uneasy as he and his band boarded helicopters bound for Woodstock’s muddy, chaotic backstage. As the festival’s headliner, he received star treatment. Hendrix was the only artist to get his own private backstage area - a farm shack, actually. But he wasn’t spared the interminable wait to get onto the stage.

Also like many of the other acts, he’d unwittingly partaken of the LSD-spiked water, which most likely didn’t do good things for his anxiety levels. A companion of his, Leslie Aday, was summoned to the shack when Hendrix started acting weird, as Aday recounted in the book Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight:

“He seemed really sick, or really high, and was sweating bullets. I was feeding him Vitamin C, fruit and having him suck on lemon slices. He didn’t feel the band knew the songs well enough or had had enough rehearsal.”

The set was uneven at best. The humid conditions kept throwing Hendrix’s Fender Stratocaster out of tune. And the band clearly seemed to lose the plot at points.

Fortunately, they were backing one of the greatest rock showmen of all time. In a beaded, white leather tunic and scarlet headband that have become an indelible part of Woodstock iconography, Hendrix held it together with his own coruscating virtuosity.

There were several points in the show where Hendrix took off on extended solo bouts of feedback frenzy and fret-board magic, but the one that became the great signifier of the entire Woodstock era was Hendrix’s tour-de-force rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Hendrix knew the time and place were right to make a major statement. Tensions were running high over the Vietnam War in the summer of ’69. Resistance and rage burned hot in streets and towns across America and the world.

Armed with just his 1968 Olympic White Strat, Marshall stack and effects pedals, Hendrix brought to life the horrors of war - strategically strafing feedback-induced bomb blasts and mournful ambulance sirens amid the melismatic cadences of the American national anthem.

His guitar wept for the war’s dead too - 57,939 American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese killed - working the military funeral tune Taps into the patriotic melody. Without a word, Hendrix had closed the Woodstock festival with an impassioned plea for peace - a recontextualized anthem for the Woodstock nation and a testimony to the immense power of the electric guitar.

Best of 2019: Hot on the heels of the announcement of new, “best album since Quadrophenia” full-length, Who, The Who’s contemplative guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has shared his thoughts on the place of electric guitar in the rock music of today.

When asked about the waning of guitar-based rock ’n’ roll, Townshend told Dallas News: “The guitar may be losing ground, but in part, that's because if you spend an hour on Instagram or YouTube, you will quickly discover unknown people playing the guitar the way a great orchestral violinist like Yehudi Menuhin once might have played his instrument.

“These are virtuosos of the highest order. They can shred like Eddie Van Halen or play jazz like John McLaughlin. They've literally exhausted the possibilities of the guitar.”

The influential guitarist went on to describe how hip-hop has taken the place of guitar music as the soundtrack to rebellion.

“This kind of virtuosity is already happening with beatbox-based rap, and with laptop-supported pop. Everything will change again, maybe faster than it did for guitar music - who knows?

“It is, as you so rightly call it, ‘guitar-based rock ’n’ roll’ that is losing ground, not rock itself. Hip-hop is rock to my ears: music for the neighborhood, the street, the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the young, the ignored. That used to be what I focused on. Now, I try to write real operas, and want my stage work to be like art installations - and why not? Kanye West has been doing the same thing.”

Judging by the sound of new single Ball And Chain, we're not expecting Townshend to beatbox quite yet, but we'll find out when Who lands on November 22.

Tone spotters and gear geeks frequently rely on photos and videos of live and television performances when trying to decode the recorded tones of famous players, but this can often be a misleading pursuit. One great example of why that is so is Pete Townshend.

In the early '70s, Townshend was almost always seen on stage with a late-Sixties Gibson SG Standard and massive stacks of Hiwatt amps, but in the studio during this period he rarely used either. Instead, his main guitar rig on classic Who albums like Who’s Next and Quadrophenia was a 1959 Gretsch 6120 plugged into a 1959 Fender Bandmaster amp.

Townshend revealed the details behind this rig to me in a Guitar Player magazine interview in 1993.

“I remember when I gave Joe Walsh an ARP 2600,” he said. “[Joe] went, ‘Pete, I bought you a Gretsch Country Gentleman [actually a 6120 Chet Atkins] like Neil Young uses. I know you don’t really get into them, but you should try this. And I bought you a Fender Bandmaster amplifier with three 10s so the ohmage is crazy, and an Edwards pedal steel volume pedal.’

“I linked it all up, went ‘Ya-a-ang’ and it was there. When I get those three things out and put them in a chain, it’s a sound from paradise.”

The Edwards volume pedal and even a Whirlwind cable (which Townshend later mentioned was also essential) play subtle but critical roles in the finished tone as both roll off some of the harsher high-end frequencies to give the Gretsch more growl than twang.

The 6120’s hollow body, medium-output PAF Filter’tron humbuckers and the Bandmaster’s lowwatt alnico 10-inch speakers deliver a wonderfully boxy, honking midrange. Meanwhile, the Bandmaster’s 26-watt circuit provides glorious tweed-era distortion with tighter bass than a Deluxe and more clarity than a Bassman.

GET THE SOUND, CHEAP!

● Gretsch G2420T Streamliner single cutaway
● TV Jones Classic bridge pickup
● Fender Pro Junior IV

TONE TIP: Back down the Pro Junior’s tone control to tame the twang and crank up the volume to maximum overdrive.

ORIGINAL GEAR

GUITAR: 1959 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins with PAF Filter’tron humbucking pickups (bridge pickup), volume: 10, master volume: 10, master tone switch: center (off)
AMP: 1959 Fender Bandmaster combo* with three Jensen P10Q alnico speakers (Mic Volume: 0, Instrument Volume: 10, Treble: 7, Bass: 5, Presence: 5, Instrument input 1)
EFFECTS: Edwards volume pedal
STRINGS/TUNING: Gibson E340 Sonomatic .012, .016, .016**, .032, .044, .056/Standard
PICK: Manny’s Music heavy

*Since Fender tweed amp controls go up to 12, settings here are from 0-12 instead of the usual 0-10
**Townshend used a second B string for the G string

The Who have announced a new North American tour, “Moving On!,” which kicks off on May 7 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 29-city outing finds the band, led by Who original members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend and featuring guitarist/backup singer Simon Townshend, keyboardist Loren Gold, bassist Jon Button and drummer Zak Starkey, presenting the group’s classic music with symphonic accompaniment.  

Said Townshend: "The Who are touring again in 2019. Roger christened this tour 'Moving On!' I love it. It is what both of us want to do. Move on, with new music, classic Who music, all performed in new and exciting ways. Taking risks, nothing to lose. Looking forward to seeing you all. Are you ready?"

Added Daltrey: "Be aware Who fans! Just because it's the Who with an orchestra, in no way will it compromise the way Pete and I deliver our music. This will be full-throttle Who with horns and bells on."

Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, January 18 at LiveNation.com.

Additionally, the Who will also release their first album of new songs in 13 years later in 2019.

The Who’s fan club presale starts Wednesday, January 16 at 10 a.m. local time and runs through Thursday, January 17 at 10 p.m. local time. Every pair of tickets purchased online includes a redeemable code for a CD copy of the Who’s forthcoming album when it is released. This offer is available to U.S. and Canada customers only and not valid for tickets purchased via resale. In addition, $1 from each ticket sold for the "Moving On!" tour will benefit Teen Cancer America.

Check out the full tour itinerary below. 

For more information head over to TheWho.com. 

The Who "Moving On!" 2019 tour dates:

May 07 - Van Andel Arena - Grand Rapids, MI

May 09 - KeyBank Center - Buffalo, NY

May 11 - Jiffy Lube Live - Bristow, VA

May 13 - Madison Square Garden - New York, NY

May 16 - Bridgestone Arena - Nashville, TN

May 18 - Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center - Noblesville, IN

May 21 - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre - Chicago, IL

May 23 - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre St. Louis - Maryland Heights, MO

May 25 - Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

May 28 - Little Caesars Arena - Detroit, MI

May 30 - PPG Paints Arena - Pittsburgh, PA

Jun. 01 - Scotiabank Arena - Toronto, ON

Sep. 06 - Xcel Energy Center - St. Paul, MN

Sep. 08 - Alpine Valley Music Theatre - Alpine Valley, WI

Sep. 10 - Blossom Music Center - Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Sep. 13 - Fenway Park - Boston, MA

Sep. 15 - Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY

Sep. 18 - State Farm Arena - Atlanta, GA

Sep. 20 - BB&T Center - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Sep. 22 - Amalie Arena - Tampa, FL

Sep. 25 - Toyota Center - Houston, TX

Sep. 27 - American Airlines Center - Dallas, TX

Sep. 29 - Pepsi Center - Denver, CO

Oct. 11 - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, CA

Oct. 13 - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, CA

Oct. 16 - Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl San Diego State University - San Diego, CA

Oct. 19 - T-Mobile Park - Home of the Seattle Mariners - Seattle, WA

Oct. 21 - Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena - Vancouver, BC

Oct. 23 - Rogers Place - Edmonton, AB

Musicians are a temperamental lot.

When the music is flowing and the vibes are good, we couldn’t be happier.

But if our guitars won’t tune, the audience is a drag or the P.A. sounds like crap, all bets are off.

Oddly, the objects of our wrath are sometimes the very things we care about most—our instruments. The history of modern music is full of artists who have vented their rage on their gear.

Country musician Ira Louvin was known to smash mandolins that refused to hold their tuning. It’s said that jazz bassist Charles Mingus once demolished his $20,000 bass during a performance at New York City’s Five Spot when a group of hecklers got the better of him. But perhaps no instrument has been targeted for destruction more often than the guitar. Not every act of ax demolition has occurred out of rage.

Some have been for show, some for fun, and some a compulsive fit born in the heat of performance. “Basically it’s a gesture which happens on the spur of the moment,” Pete Townshend, rock’s most famous guitar smasher, told Rolling Stone in 1968 by way of explanation. “I think, with guitar smashing, just like performance itself, it’s a performance, it’s an act, it’s an instant and it really is meaningless.” And, might we add, frequently painful to watch, especially when a particularly nice guitar is the sacrificial victim. Join us as we count down the 10 deadliest ax wielders in music—plus one bonus buster who holds his own unique place in the history of guitar smashing.

10. Jeff Beck

While not a smasher per se, Beck is credited with one of music’s most memorable guitar-bashing scenes thanks to the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film, Blowup. The movie includes a scene in which the Yardbirds—at the time featuring both Beck and Jimmy Page—are performing “Stroll On” in a nightclub. When Beck’s Vox amp begins to cut out, he bangs his guitar against it in frustration before finally beating the instrument to death. He delivers the coup de grâce with a boot heel in the poor instrument’s body. As guitar destruction goes, this one is purely for show, but it’s fun to see the normally cool-headed Beck pretend to lose his shit.

09. Garth Brooks

The country superstar got into the ax-mangling act in 1991 when he destroyed a fine Takamine guitar at a show in Dallas. (No stage guitar for Garth. The 1990 Takamine he killed reportedly retailed for about $1,300 at the time.) Brooks and his band were being taped for his second TV special, This Is Garth Brooks, Too, at the Reunion Arena. In an event staged for the show, Brooks and guitarist Ty England smashed their guitars together in a shower of splintered wood and flying strings. Brooks’ guitar was later reassembled and donated to the Smithsonian in 2007.

08. Paul Simonon

Clash bassist Paul Simonon was forever marked as a guitar smasher when photographer Pennie Smith shot him destroying his Fender Precision Bass onstage at the New York City Palladium on September 21, 1979. The image was chosen for the cover of the band’s third studio album, London Calling, which was released the following December. As Simonon recounts in this video, near the 3:05 mark, he was unhappy that the club’s bouncers wouldn’t let the fans out of their seats, and took his rage out on his bass. Simonon was typically hard on his instruments, often swinging them wildly as he played, but the Palladium show is the only time he destroyed one.

07. Billie Joe Armstrong

Unlike many of the guitarists mentioned here, who destroyed their gear in an almost masterful show of bravado, Green Day guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong annihilated an ax in an uncomfortably histrionic meltdown captured on video. The band was performing at the iHeartRadio Festival on September 21, 2012, when Armstrong misinterpreted the meaning of a screen at the back of the auditorium, which displayed the message, “1 Minutes Left.” Thinking Green Day’s set was being cut short to make more time for R&B artist Usher, Armstrong stopped their performance of “Basket Case” and proceeded to vent. After screaming that he was not Justin Bieber, Armstrong smashed his guitar—a particularly lovely TV-yellow Gibson Les Paul Junior—and left the stage. Shortly afterward, he revealed that he’d been abusing alcohol and prescription drugs for anxiety and insomnia, and checked himself into rehab. We’re happy to report he’s doing better. Not so sure about the LP Junior.

06. Paul Stanley 

Wild stage antics have been part of Kiss’s live performances pretty much from the group’s start, in 1973. Bassist Gene Simmons breathed fire and spat blood, Ace Frehley made his humbucker smoke, and Paul Stanley handled the guitar-smashing end of the business. His guitar of choice in the mid Seventies was the budget-line Gibson Marauder, as seen in the clip here. (The quality is rough, but it looks like he uses the guitar purely to destroy it.) Fortunately for many vintage Marauders, these days they’re more likely to find a spot in a collection than wind up in pieces on the stage floor.

05. Ritchie Blackmore

Perhaps no one was as brutal to a guitar as Ritchie Blackmore. Not content to merely smash his Fender Strats, the Deep Purple guitarist would virtually flay them, rendering them almost unrecognizable by the time he was finished. One tortured ax finally got revenge on the guitarist at a 1987 gig. While savaging the instrument, Blackmore threw it into the air, only to have it land awkwardly on one of his fingers, breaking it and postponing Deep Purple’s tour. Karma is a bitch.

04. Kurt Cobain

The late Nirvana frontman had a penchant for smashing guitars and other pieces of gear during the group’s live performances. There are plenty of videos online of Kurt destroying guitars during shows, and you can see the best moments in the montage video shown here. Cobain’s gear destruction ran the length of Nirvana’s brief history, from its early gigs to its later shows. Many a Univox Hi-Flier did not live to play another gig once Kurt got his hands on it.

03. Wendy O. Williams

Probably no one made a greater show out of guitar demolition than New York City punk goddess Wendy O. Williams. Not content to merely smash them up, the fearless Plasmatics frontwoman would chainsaw guitars in half during exhibitions that were more performance art than rock concert. Williams’ destructo tendencies extended to emblems of mass consumerism, including TVs, as well as cars, which she drove into pools and even blew up, as seen in this video from the group’s infamous 1980 show on New York City’s Pier 62. At that gig, Williams sped a Cadillac loaded with explosives toward the band’s stage, bailing out seconds before it destroyed the platform and all the equipment on it. Tragically, Wendy O. took her own life in 1998, but she left a legacy of rock theatricality that may never be topped. They just don’t make ’em like that anymore.

02. Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix took guitar performance to an entirely new level. So it’s not surprising that he made the act of guitar demolition high art when he set his Stratocaster on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 18, 1967, before smashing it to smithereens. As the story goes, the Who were scheduled to perform on the same day as Hendrix, and Pete Townshend was concerned about having to follow him. Townshend considered the gig a “critical concert” for the Who, and he knew Hendrix would be a tough act to follow. For that matter, both Townshend and Hendrix were known for smashing up their gear in an exhilarating display of demolition that left audiences breathless. Townshend tried to negotiate with Hendrix, but Hendrix assumed Townshend was afraid of being upstaged, and he refused. The matter was finally settled with a coin toss—and the Who went first. But it’s Jimi’s performance that we remember today.

01. Pete Townshend

When it comes to guitar vandalism, Pete Townshend is without a doubt the godfather of them all. After he accidentally broke the headstock off his guitar while playing at a low-ceilinged club during the summer of 1964, Townshend began to integrate guitar smashing into the Who’s act, ably supported by drummer Keith Moon, who gleefully trashed his drum set right alongside him. One of the finest demonstrations of the duo’s demolition skills was presented on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the controversial late-Sixties TV variety program hosted by the music-and-comedy duo of Dick and Tommy Smothers. The Who made their U.S. network TV debut on the show on September 17, 1967, three months after playing Monterey Pop. As seen in this video, at the conclusion of “My Generation” Townshend and Moon began destroying their gear. Unfortunately, for Townshend, Moon had stuffed his kick drum with so much explosive powder that it detonated in a vast cloud of white smoke and shrapnel. Townshend’s hair was singed, and it’s believed that the resulting damage to his ear drums marked the start of the tinnitus he suffered from in the Eighties, exacerbated by years of loud performances.

BONUS BUSTER: John Belushi

The late actor gave one of the most memorable guitar-smashing performances in the 1978 college romp Animal House. In this scene, set at a frat-house party, singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop—billed as “Charming Guy with Guitar”—delivers a grating performance of the folk song “I Gave My Love a Cherry.” (Bishop is actually a very good singer—which goes to show you how much he had to act for the scene.) Bluto, Belushi’s character, takes in the performance for a moment before abruptly losing his cool and smashing the instrument to pieces. “Sorry,” he tells Bishop, handing him back the guitar’s remains.

The remains of a 1964 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster, smashed to pieces by The Who's Pete Townshend during a 1967 concert, are going up for auction next Sunday, April 15, in Dallas.

According to Heritage Auctions, which is hosting the auction, Townshend smashed the guitar up during The Who's show at the Long Island Arena in Commack, NY on December 1, 1967.

The guitar comes with a handwritten, 2-page letter from the original owner—who reportedly caught the pieces of the guitar at the show that night—the ticket stub from the show and 2 aluminum engraved plaques.

According to Antiques Trade Gazette, the guitar—or what's left of it—carries a pre-auction estimate of at least $20,000. Other guitars that Townshend destroyed during Who performances have been sold for as much as $75,000, according to Heritage.

For more info on the auction, head on over to entertainment.ha.com.