Pete Townshend Thinks The Who Invented Heavy Metal – Sort Of
Pete Townshend in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine - Rolling Stone / Youtube
In another episode of Who Did What First, the debate of how heavy metal came to be continues to exist till today, and was fueled once again with The Whos’ Pete Townshend’s comments. Some might think that Black Sabbath was the originator of the genre, some say Led Zeppelin also shaped its sound, but Pete Townshend says his band “sort of invented heavy metal.”
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Townshend said that “It doesn’t sound like The Who from those early heavy metal years. We sort of invented heavy metal with (our first live album) Live at Leeds. We were copied by so many bands, principally by Led Zeppelin, you know heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar and some of those bands, like Jimi Hendrix for example, did it far better than we did. Cream, with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, they came along in ‘67, same year as Jimi Hendrix, and they kind of stole our mantle in a sense. So people who want to hear that old heavy metal sound there are plenty of bands that can provide it.”
He continued by saying: “It’s not really what we can actually do today. Even if we wanted to, it was never high on my list of wishes.”
