The Stories Of Why Pete Townshend Hate These 5 Bands

One of the things that The Who’s Pete Townshend became well-known for is his ability to despise people and talk about them. In the long span of his career, he had shared the most spiteful comments towards his contemporaries, and he is far from saying sorry for all of it. Perhaps, he thinks of himself as too powerful to be even compared to anyone, most especially if your bandmates are Keith Moon on drums, John Entwistle on bass, and Roger Daltrey on vocals— a quartet that could rule the classic rock regime. Below are the 5 bands that The Who’s guitarist wasn’t too keen on making friends with.

The Who

Townshend hates his band more than anyone, and for many years, he’s been too upfront about it. The fact that he bad-mouthed the late Keith Moon and John Entwistle’s passing, and his long-withstanding feud with The Who’s frontman, Roger Daltrey is enough to prove to you that this man doesn’t give a cent about anyone.

The Beatles

After “My Generation” dominated the charts in the UK, it catapulted The Who to mainstream success, which led them to gain more attention. Inside one interview about “musical quality,” and the fact that The Beatles have that kind in their music, Townshend replied: “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy.” It’s enough to make the whole room gasp from the sneer.

The Police

Pet Townshend doesn’t exactly hate The Police, but the mere fact that people love to classify Sting’s band as a part of “classic rock.” In an interview with New York’s WAXQ-FM, he said: “The Police are punk. They’re a punk band. They’re not classic rock.”

Led Zeppelin

For many years, Townshend has not been too shy to talk about his hatred towards Led Zeppelin’s music, calling it a copycat from The Who due to the loud drums, bass, and guitar. Inside a 1995 interview with him about his opinion of LZ, he replied how much he hates the fact that he is even compared to them.

Jimi Hendrix

With Hendrix becoming is one of the greatest guitar players of his time, it’s foreseeable that if you put these two guys in the same room, both of them would put up a fight against one another, especially during the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival line-up. Townshend would later claim that Hendrix was just copying The Who’s style and refining it.