The Who may be saying farewell, but Pete Townshend intends to do the exact opposite.
The guitarist, keyboardist, and co-lead vocalist founded the now legendary rock band with Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle in 1964, and together they went on to create music history. Though Moon tragically died in 1978 and Entwistle in 2002, Townshend and Daltrey have kept the band together and touring for over six decades.
“It’s a brand rather than a band. Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history,” Townshend shared in a recent interview.
But now, The Who are in the midst of their Farewell Tour, which wraps up in Las Vegas in September. Audiences will have to say goodbye to the band, but not to Townshend, because the rocker has big plans on the horizon.
“I want to continue to be creative,” he said in 2025. “I’ve got songs in all kinds of development, 140 tracks ready to go.”
Townshend’s artistry extends well beyond the studio and the stage. In 2019, he published his debut novel, The Age of Anxiety, a story about a rockstar named Walter who sells his band’s catalog of music and then leaves the music industry behind, only to be accused of a heinous crime that took place on a night he can’t remember. The victim? His close female friend.
“I wanted to write a book where the female characters were as strong as the men,” he told Rolling Stone in 2019. “I also wanted them to be really authentic. One of the things that happened is that the women in my mind, the women in my life and the models I used for the female characters, they are much, much stronger than the men.”
Of the 140 songs Townshend has on the back burner, 26 of them were written for The Age of Anxiety, an album based on his novel that he intends to release in the future.
“It’s not not autobiographical, but the scope of my own mental journey through addiction and recovery has led me to a place where I feel that I can write a character,” he said.
Writing and recording music has historically been a precursor to live shows and touring for Townshend, and it seems as though that hasn’t changed, even as the octogenarian steps into the solo arena once again.
“I plan to experiment with some one-man shows,” Townshend said. Judging by the staggering number of fans who are attending The Who’s Farewell Tour, there’s a massive audience awaiting the chance to buy tickets.
