The Who singer Roger Daltrey discussed drugs making his bandmates playing poorly in a new Billboard interview.
On getting temporarily sacked by his bandmates for flushing their drugs down the toilet:
“It was probably because I was straight and they were all off their heads, but it was really painful to hear this group of incredible musicians playing so badly. I couldn’t take any more. So I came off stage and flushed their stuff down the loo. [Keith] wasn’t best pleased.”
Making no money in the early years:
“In 1971, after touring for a whole year — we’d spent about 9 months away from home in America touring — we came back to the great news that our debt, instead of being £1.3 million had been knocked down to £650,000. We thought this is a losing game, but then we got lucky and [1969 album] Tommy hit and all the stuff that happened with that record. Finally record royalties started to come through and that saved us. But we didn’t make any money until 1971.”
The genius of his bandmate Pete Townshend:
“People throw the word genius around pretty easily, but when it comes to music and songwriting you have to say that, Townshend, in rock music and popular music, is probably one of the most important composers of the 20th century. In that sense his music does contain genius.”
