Who I Am (book)

Pete Townshend signed a contract with Little, Brown and Company in May 1996 to write his autobiography, but abandoned it two years later, when, according to Townshend, "I found it too hard".^[2][3] He published small extracts of what he had written on a blog. He later signed a deal with HarperCollins, and the memoir, originally entitled Peter Townshend: Who He?, was published in October 2012 as Who I Am.^[4][5] Townshend said he preferred the original Who He title: "Who I Am seems so final, so grandiose, so....Pete Townshend. It's just too perfect."^[6] The original manuscript Townshend presented to HarperCollins was 1,000 pages long, but the publisher cut it back to 500 pages.^[7]

Pete Townshend's memoir begins with his upbringing in London after World War II (he was born in May 1945, the month the war in Europe ended). Included is the period he lived with his unstable grandmother, during which time he reports fragmentary memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her suitors.^[8][9] Townshend discusses the Mod scene of the 1960s, the effect the war had on his generation, and the development of rock music. He also discusses the effect his childhood had on his music, particularly the rock opera Tommy.^[10]

The book traces the formation and evolution of the Who, and includes details of their appearance at Woodstock in 1969 and their storied trashing of hotels.^[11][12] Townshend calls Roger Daltrey "the unquestionable leader" of the band.^[12] He says he started smashing his guitars at the end of performances after he accidentally pushed one through a club ceiling in 1964 and damaged it.^[13] His "windmill" style of striking guitar chords was adopted from Keith Richards, whom Townshend says he once saw swinging his arm to warm-up before going on stage.^[14]

The book also includes the many encounters Townshend had with other rock musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, whom he called a shaman because of the way he played his guitar.^[10] Townshend says that in a way Hendrix's "performances did borrow from mine – the feedback, the distortion, the guitar theatrics," but he added that Hendrix's "artistic genius lay in how he created a sound all his own".^[10][15] Townshend recalls that at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival the Who and Hendrix argued backstage as to who would play first, and Townshend won after a coin flip.^[11]

Townshend describes himself in the book as "probably bisexual" because of a brief affair he had with journalist Danny Fields and his interest in Mick Jagger, saying "Mick is the only man I've ever seriously wanted to fuck".^[9][12][16] Keith Moon and John Entwistle felt that Townshend was too prudish around groupies and once paid one $100 to infect him with gonorrhea.^[17] Townshend says he tried to distance himself from rock stardom as much as possible. He studied the works of Indian spiritual master and mystic Meher Baba, and while he was able to avoid drugs and extramarital sex most of the time, Townshend says he periodically lapsed and indulged in cocaine and alcohol.^[9][12]

The book details Townshend's work as an editor at London publisher Faber and Faber, some of the literary personalities he worked with, and some the books he commissioned.^[18] It also covers his charity work in rehabilitation programs and establishing a shelter for battered wives.^[19] In 2003 Townshend was arrested for allegedly downloading child pornography. In the book he claims that he accessed the images as research for a campaign against the presence of such images, and was helping to set up "a research program for a new support system for survivors of childhood abuse".^[10][20] He was later given a formal police caution.^[21][22] Townshend wrote that he had accepted the caution only because "I was in no frame of mind to live through another eternity – this time in court",^[23] although he later wished he had gone to trial to prove his innocence.^[24]