{"id":50402,"date":"2025-04-25T21:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50402\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T21:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:30:15","slug":"i-dont-love-performing-it-doesnt-fill-my-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50402\/","title":{"rendered":"I don’t love performing \u2013 it doesn’t fill my soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Who<\/a>\u2019s Pete Townshend<\/a> has revealed that he does not love performing live on stage, saying it \u201cdoes not fill my soul\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rock legend was speaking to Spanish outlet RockFM, explaining that there are \u201ctwo things\u201d that are common in many of his fellow musicians that \u201cI don\u2019t really do or don\u2019t enjoy doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the interview, the video of which you can watch below, he said: \u201cOne is they love performing. I don\u2019t love performing. I don\u2019t like being on a stage. I don\u2019t mind being on a stage, I don\u2019t hate it, but it doesn\u2019t fill my soul in the way that you see some performers, [where] just their soul is filled through being on the stage. That\u2019s not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that the second thing he does not enjoy is collaborating with other musicians, which he said he \u201cfinds very difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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 often\u00a0do\u00a0find it very hard. I find it difficult to collaborate. I find it very difficult looking in the eyes of another musician. I find myself looking to my own energy to express myself. So I\u2019m very different to most musicians in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townshend was talking ahead of the new ballet reimagining of The Who\u2019s 1973 album Quadrophenia<\/a>, which has its opening performance in Plymouth\u2019s Theatre Royal on May 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat inspires me is trying to do something that has a slightly more ambitious thread,\u201d he told\u00a0NME about the ambitious project last year. \u201cIt\u2019s not me being pompous. It\u2019s just something that seemed to fit more into the dis-conjunction that I felt when I left art school and ended up in the band. It felt like there was unfinished business for me, which was the art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Roger Daltrey, Zak Starkey and Pete Townshend of The Who at Wembley Stadium on July 06, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

In the same interview, he opened up about his feelings about playing with The Who and whether it is likely they will be more to come. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure there will [be more]. I can\u2019t 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. 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 \u2018We\u2019re not coming back\u2019 or \u2018This could be the last set of shows\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would prefer was that the band adjusted itself to the audience that wants to see it, rather than just saying \u2018We need to fill arenas in order to go home with enough money to make the whole thing worthwhile\u2019. The story of the end of The Who is gonna be when either Roger or I drop dead or can\u2019t function anymore on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

That followed on from previous comments in which he said the band have \u201cone final thing\u201d to do<\/a> before they \u201ccrawl off to die\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels to me like there\u2019s a final tour where we play every territory in the world and then crawl off to die,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t get much of a buzz from performing with The Who. If I\u2019m really honest, I\u2019ve been touring for the money. My idea of an ordinary lifestyle is pretty elevated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townshend has also revealed over the last year that he has \u201csuicidal\u201d thoughts when he wakes up every morning<\/a>, explaining that his experience with \u201cchemical depression\u201d is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Who\u2019s longtime drummer Zak Starkey appeared to believe he had been fired from the band earlier this month<\/a>, only for Townshend to later confirm that that was not the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Who\u2019s Pete Townshend has revealed that he does not love performing live on stage, saying it \u201cdoes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,453,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-50402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-rock","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114400737697692525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}