Who I Am: a Memoir

by Pete Townshend

All good art cannot help but confront denial on its way to the truth.

Their brief was simple: we need you to explain that we can’t explain; we need you to say what we are unable to say.

Roger was the helpless dancer; John, the romantic; Keith, the bloody lunatic; and I, needless to say, was the beggar/hypocrite. But the four aspects of Jimmy the Mod’s multiple personality were, in a sense, all to be found in me, and I had always known it.

‘You’ve gone all whiter than white and squeaky clean,’ he said. ‘Your fans don’t know who you are any more.’ Had they ever known? Even now I’m still trying to find out who I am.

This leads me to my greatest supporters and allies – my fans and those fans of The Who. Thank you for giving me a day job, and not sacking me when I didn’t show up for work. You’ve been the best boss a man could ever have.